Grove House, 44 Iffley Turn, Iffley, Oxford, OX4 4DU

Grove House is a Regency villa built around 1832-3 for Charles James Sadler. It has undergone alterations and extensions during the mid-to-late 19th century and 20th century, including the notable addition in 1962 of a Rotunda designed by Gerald Banks to house Mrs Vivien Greene's dolls' house collection, connected by a bridge link to the first floor of the former stable block and cottage.

The original villa is constructed of brick with timber-stud partitions, rendered and painted. The extensions are also brick laid in Flemish bond, rendered and painted. The hipped roofs of the house and its extensions are slated, and the chimney stacks are brick. The Rotunda is constructed of steel and brick, painted and rendered with a felt roof. The flat roof of the link corridor at first floor level is also covered with felt.

The two-storey house originally had three bays with basement and attic, comprising a central stair hall and two principal rooms on the ground floor with a service wing to the rear. It has been enlarged with a mid-19th century link extension and 19th century cottage to the south, which has been further altered and extended in the 20th and 21st centuries. The mid-20th century Rotunda stands to the south-west of the villa, adjoined to the west of the stable block. It is a two-storey drum, circular in plan with eight arched bays, connected to the former stable block and cottage at first floor level by a mid-20th century link corridor.

Original Villa

The façade of the original villa, with its stepped entrance at the centre, faces north. The entrance comprises a six panel door with segmental pediment and glass fanlight. A former cast-iron verandah has been replaced with mild steel featuring decorative trellis supports and canopy covering the paved terrace. A blue plaque commemorating the former residence of Mrs Jemima Newman, Cardinal Newman's mother, is attached to the façade east of the entrance, though the dates appear incorrect. The two outer bays on the ground floor each have a full-height French window with glazing bars and hung wooden shutters on either side. Three symmetrically positioned six-over-six pane sash windows without horns, one to each bay, are on the storey above. The original house has four chimney stacks, each terminating with two pots, symmetrically placed with one at each corner. The windows on the east, south and west elevations, where not obscured by later extensions, are also six-over-six pane sashes to each storey with shutters hung at ground level on the windows of the south and east elevations. Basement windows are present across the lower east and west elevations of the original building.

The eastern elevation of the later link extension consists of three bays with varying fenestration from the late 19th to 20th century. On the ground floor there are a series of blocked doors or access-ways with buttresses visible, as well as a side-wall chimney breast on its central bay with a stack and two pots. A pair of modern French patio doors now serve as the principal access to the patio and garden from this elevation, located to the south of the chimney. There are 20th century six-pane casement windows on the ground floor of both the northern and southern bays of the link's eastern elevation, and late 19th century two-over-two pane sash windows on the first floor above. The fenestration varies again on the eastern elevation of the adjoining cottage and stable block to the south with a six-over-six pane sash and a three-over-six sash window inserted above, reflecting the reduced height hipped roof compared to the longer link building. The remainder of the cottage windows have been replaced by modern double-glazing, including the insertion of a 21st century dormer on the southern elevation. A tall chimney stack with blocked chimney is present on its northern elevation.

A patio lies between the extension at the rear south-west wing of the villa and the stable block and cottage to its south. Fenestration on the ground floor of the west elevation of the extension also comprises 20th century casement windows and French doors. There is a late 19th century two-over-two pane sash window on the first floor. The former stable doors to the south-west are vertically boarded with latch fittings. Other external features include a red postal box inserted onto the western elevation of the stable block-cottage and a plastic plaque commemorating the collections of Mrs Vivien Greene, including the surrounding ironwork supposedly from part of the Great Western Railway and a staircase within the adjacent Rotunda salvaged by Mrs Greene from the demolition of St James' Theatre, Oxford.

Interior of Original Villa

The north entrance leads into the central hall with access to the main reception rooms. To the east there is a morning-room used as an office and a former study to its rear used as a children's play-room. To the west there is a large drawing-room with moulded archway showing the former separation of the room into two parts to form a dining room with probable service wing or butler's pantry to the rear. The space is currently used as an open-plan living area. Evidence of the former room partitions on the ground floor are visible in the ceiling and wall mouldings and interior features such as fireplaces.

Four fireplaces are located on the interior walls of the eastern and western elevations of the original villa. Within the morning room there is a central fireplace with painted wood surround comprising classical detailing and a decorative central frieze panel with classical scene. An earlier photograph from 2004 suggests this has been re-modelled during recent restoration works as the central frieze panel on the previous mantle-piece contained cherubs and swags. Within the southern half of the drawing room, facing east, there is a larger brick-lined fireplace with marble surround and overhanging mantel in the 19th century manner with reeded detailing and three carved floral motifs on the central frieze panel. There is a stone fireplace with marble surround which appears to be of 19th century design situated at the northern end of the drawing room. The detailing was obscured during the site inspection visit, however a 2004 photograph indicates a plain shelf carried on a pair of decorative brackets on the top of each jamb. Within the main reception rooms and hall there is reasonable joinery surviving and ceiling and wall mouldings including simple moulded cornices and skirting. There are internal four-panelled doors to each room and 20th century fitted glass and wood display cabinets to the west of the entrance-hall. The morning-room has fitted 20th century wall to wall wooden shelving on the west wall.

To the rear of the original house is the early 19th century open well stair with stick balusters in pairs with diagonal braces in the form of inverted arrows, simple turned newels and a mahogany handrail of curved section ramped at the turns. There is stepped access to the three-room basement, which has been boarded out and refurbished, from the ground floor underneath the stairwell to the west. On the upper landings the stairs appear to have been re-set where a wall has been opened-up to create a half-landing leading to the additional rooms on the first floor of the later link extension and to the second bathroom with modern fittings on the first floor of the former service wing. It seems likely this could have previously been a bedroom linked to the butler's pantry, close to the basement and wine cellar, served by an external yard access. The opening and re-modelling of the room was probably made during construction of the mid-19th century link extension. A widened loft hatch gives access from the bathroom to the attic. The roof structure was not inspected during the site visit, however a previous survey report describes it as a conventional roof construction supported on two king post roof trusses.

On the upper landing at the top of the staircase there is an early 19th century balustrade. The landing leads north to the first floor of the villa which comprises three bedrooms and a main bathroom, accessed separately from the hall. The two principal bedrooms are located at the front of the villa, each with central fireplaces surviving on the east and west elevation walls. A smaller bedroom is located to the south of the main bedroom, which has had its fireplace removed and blocked. Within the main bedroom to the east there is a moulded cornice on the ceiling, good window joinery and moulded skirting around the room. There is also a blocked fireplace with a surviving early 19th century style painted wooden surround on the eastern elevation, decorated with reeding and floral swags. The front of the narrow mantel is also decorated with a reeded design. The second bedroom has a 19th century fireplace intact with cast iron grate and inverted painted bricks with moulded surround and roundels supporting a narrow mantel. There are painted skirtings around the room and a good survival of reeded window surrounds. The third south-east bedroom mantle-piece has been removed and the fireplace blocked and plastered over. There is a single run of moulded cornice, simple reeded window surrounds and skirting. There are two panelled cupboards, a fireplace with a late 19th century plain painted wood surround and overhanging mantle. There are 19th century mouldings on the window surrounds and a moulded ceiling cornice. The main bathroom was remodelled in the 21st century.

Link Extension

Towards the south of the original villa, the ground floor hall leads to the mid-19th century link extension where the rooms have been remodelled and retain few historic features. Within the bedroom and dressing-room on the first floor, there is good survival of skirting, window surrounds and joinery including moulded cornices of the bedroom. Joinery, mouldings and four-panelled doors remain within the link corridor leading to the bedroom and dressing-room.

Stable Block and Cottage

There is no existing internal access from the ground floor of the mid-19th century extension to the stable block or cottage which it adjoins. The interior of the stables are used for storage and as a boiler room. There is little evidence of their former use surviving as fixtures and fittings other than a small area of cobbled stone floor. The upper floor is accessed from the south-east entrance of the cottage which leads to a staircase to the first floor accommodation. Within the interior of the cottage and upper floor of the stable block there are few historic fixtures and fittings remaining. The fireplace surround which was located on the northern elevation wall of the former kitchen and now living-area of the cottage has been removed and the fireplace blocked. There is eaves storage, perhaps originally for hay, to the south of the upper floor of the stable block.

Rotunda

Joined to the stable-cottage by a covered walk-way corridor at first floor level is the Rotunda, whose entrance, which is underneath, faces east. Constructed primarily for the storage of Mrs Greene's collection of dolls' houses, its form and treatment is in a stripped, early 19th century Soanian manner.

The Rotunda is constructed of brick with felted roofs, timber windows and steel internal columns and balustrades. It is a double height drum with an internal upper level gallery reached by spiral stairs.

The façade is in eight elliptical blind arched bays, rising through two storeys. Each bay has a small blind-arched opening or a sash of eight over eight panes on the ground floor and six over six panes on the first floor. It has a plain plat band and cornice and between each bay is a simplified roundel in relief. It has a shallow conical roof clad in felt, with a central open lantern supported on six slender shafts on a canted base, and was surmounted by a copper ball which has been removed.

The interior comprises a ring of centrally placed steel columns and brickwork partitions creating an entrance area and two rooms including a store on the ground floor, and supporting an upper gallery. The upper gallery is enclosed by a steel balustrade, while slender steel columns rise to a large tent-like, striped painted ceiling above, within which is a circular plain fabric panel hoisted to exclude the light. The gallery is reached by a cast iron spiral staircase, which was salvaged by Mrs Greene from the demolition of St James' Theatre, Oxford. There is also a floor hatch which would have been linked to a hoist to lift up the dolls' houses. The upper gallery consists of a single room with a corridor at its eastern end leading to the first floor of the stable and cottage. The east-west aligned corridor contains fitted glass and timber display cabinets on the southern elevation of the corridor and a small kitchen area on the northern elevation.