Sir David Salomons House Wall And Terrace To South

This is an irregular and complex Italianate house begun in the 1820s and extended until 1913. Initially a small cottage, it was expanded in 1829 by Decimus Burton for Sir David Salomons, a Jewish merchant banker, Lord Mayor of London, and MP. The main body of the house is constructed of Tunbridge Wells ashlar blocks, predominantly three storeys high. The east front is L-shaped, featuring a stone parapet and balustrade. It incorporates a recessed centre on the ground floor, and has a slate roof with numerous stone chimney stacks, some with semicircular caps resembling acroteria. The fenestration is irregular, with a mix of sash and casement windows. Two colonnades of Tuscan columns create a balcony on the first floor. A plain doorcase features a rectangular overlight and a linenfold panelled door. The south front, a garden elevation, also has three stories and a balustraded parapet dated 1854. It includes three casement windows with cast iron balconies on the second and first floors, supported by fourteen Roman Corinthian columns and pilasters. The west front continues in a similar style, with later additions to the left, two cast iron balconies on the second floor, and an Ionic portico. A former library projects to the left, with round-headed windows flanked by Roman Corinthian half columns. To the left of the library is a 1913 extension and a late 19th-century theatre constructed of white brick, topped with a row of five octagonal cupolas. A rusticated terrace wall, decorated with urns and a flight of stone steps, fronts the house to the south.

Inside, the entrance hall features marble steps and an impressive open well staircase with scrolled tread ends and a spiral baluster to each tread. A spiral newel post and handrail are decorated with carved ivy leaves. The Gold Room, formerly the sitting room, is in a Louis XVI style with decorative cornices, a marble fireplace, and a built-in cornice. An adjacent room, also in the same style, has a coved ceiling. These two rooms form the “Memento Rooms,” which display objects belonging to Sir David Salomons and his son and are open to the public. Sir David’s son was an early technologist who powered the house completely by electricity by 1884 and hosted the world's first motor show in the grounds in 1905, building the theatre for the demonstration of machinery. The theatre contains cast iron columns, original painted back-cloths, and a permanent stage set in Parliamentary Gothic style. Its significant feature is an electric organ by Welte of Hamburg, the earliest and largest of its kind, which could be played mechanically using rolls, a collection of which remains in the house.