Little Oaklands Oaklands House Oaklands House And Little Oaklands Including Front Boundary Railings

Little Oaklands and Oaklands House, along with the front boundary railings, are a pair of houses dating from around the mid-19th century, situated on Langton Road in Speldhurst, near Langton Green. The houses are built of stuccoed walls with a slate roof and lead rolls, and feature stuccoed chimney shafts. The architectural style is Classical Revival.

The houses are south-facing and slightly set back from the road. Oaklands House is a rectangular, double-depth block, two rooms wide, with an entrance on the east side leading to a stair hall. Little Oaklands, which may have originally served as a service wing, is a wing likely comprising three rooms on plan. There is a 20th-century infill structure in the angle between the two properties.

The front elevation of Oaklands House is symmetrical, with four bays, rusticated quoins, a hipped roof, and projecting stacks, the shafts topped with deeply projecting moulded cornices on brackets. Deep eaves are supported by scrolled, fluted brackets, and a moulded string runs along the first floor with an egg-and-dart frieze. The tall ground floor windows have projecting hoods in the form of segmental pediments, supported by consoles with acanthus decoration. Below the hoods there’s a frieze of patterned encaustic tiles, with moulded sills carried on brackets, and the windows contain horned 2-pane sashes with vertical margin glazing. First floor windows have eared and shouldered architraves and similar glazing. The east elevation of Oaklands House is asymmetrical, featuring a flat-roofed Doric porch with an entablature and square corner piers, containing a doorway with a part-glazed 4-panel door on the south side. An arch-headed window is on the east return of the porch, and a shallow stair projection contains a round-headed sash window with margin panes. Little Oaklands has been fitted with aluminium windows. The interior of the houses was inaccessible during the time of the survey but may retain original features.

The front boundary railings, belonging to Oaklands House, are flanked by two gateways. The gateway piers are stuccoed, square in plan, with moulded cornices and flattened pyramidal caps. The railings curve outwards from the inner piers, sitting on a stuccoed brick base with a brick cornice. The railing verticals are round and have elaborate fleur de lis finials.