Pippins

Pippins is a house originally designed as a studio in 1883 by John Belcher for Theresa Sassoon, an oil painter. It underwent extensions and alterations in the late twentieth century.

The building comprises a main block with English bond brick to the ground floor and framed construction on the first floor, with a rear brick wing and peg-tile roofs topped by brick stacks in the Vernacular Revival style. The house is sited behind Weirleigh, which the Sassoon family had bought in 1882, and follows an overall L-shaped plan. The main block is oriented on a west-east axis with a north-facing entrance. A single-roomed rear wing to the west is heated by a stack at the junction between the two blocks and has been extended southwards to create two rooms. A stair projection rises on the north side. Although the plan has been altered in the twentieth century, the original arrangement remains largely discernible.

Originally, the main block contained an entrance hall and stair with a small service room to the east. The crosswing consisted of a large full-height single-storey room with an Arts and Crafts inglenook fireplace. The first floor of the main block was one large panelled room heated from the same stack, which features a section of horizontal flue. This upper room was subsequently subdivided, and the single-storey wing room now has an inserted floor.

The exterior presents two storeys with a symmetrical one-window east end. The first floor framing is jettied with a moulded fascia board, the gable above being coved and jettied with moulded bargeboards at the eaves. The ground floor features a 5-light bay window with moulded timber mullions, matched by a similar first-floor bay window with high transom, both glazed with square leaded panes. The first-floor framing includes a frieze of quatrefoils below the window, close studding and ogee braces, while herringbone-patterned studs fill the gable panels.

The north return displays two gables to the right: one marks the stair projection with an adjacent porch to the left, and the far-right gable forms the end of the crosswing. The porch is flat-roofed with original deep brackets, a Tudor arched ovolo-moulded doorframe, and a moulded panelled front door on the east return, though a twentieth-century 2-light casement with square leaded panes has been added to the north side. The gable end of the crosswing is divided into two bays by three full-height brick buttresses with moulded stone set-offs; the original windows have unfortunately been replaced by twentieth-century metal-framed casements.

The first floor of the main block features timber framing with close studding and ogee braces, and a 6-light mullioned transomed window with moulded mullions, transoms and square leaded panes. The stair projection has one ground-floor 1-light stone window with a chamfered frame and blind trefoil above. Its first floor is jettied with a moulded fascia, a matching 3-light transomed window, moulded bargeboards and elaborate framing including herringbone patterns and a frieze of diamond-shaped motifs with inward curving sides.

The south return of the main block follows the same style but has had most of its original windows replaced by twentieth-century metal-framed windows. It retains an original panelled door in an ovolo-moulded frame and three bays of original sturdy timber verandah with Tudor arches on plain posts, though the verandah roof is now covered with corrugated plastic. The west elevation of the crosswing is largely concealed by an outbuilding. The twentieth-century addition has aluminium-framed windows.

The interior preserves several notable original features. The dog-leg stair has turned balusters with a panelled landing balustrade crowned by a narrow frieze of splat balusters. The crosswing contains an elaborate Arts and Crafts inglenook fireplace with the recess defined by a moulded Tudor arch springing from brattished corbels. The chimney-piece is stone with a moulded Tudor arch and a tiled surround, probably of William de Morgan tiles. The room originally opened to the roof timbers, with two fine arch-braced trusses with queen posts surviving in the roofspace. The first floor of the main range preserves most of its Arts and Crafts wall panelling, though some has been relocated following twentieth-century subdivision. The room originally featured a canted ceiling with moulded cornice, the ceiling covered with embossed paper, which survives in the roofspace.

Theresa Sassoon was the sister of Sir Hamo Thornycroft, the sculptor, who executed sculpture for the Institute of Chartered Accountants designed by John Belcher. This personal connection presumably led to Belcher designing the studio.

The house has group value with Weirleigh, the family home of Siegfried Sassoon, Theresa Sassoon's son.