Holyfield House

612/0/10129 WALTON WELL ROAD 07-OCT-08 1 Holyfield House

II BUILDING: Former house, now estate agents' premises. Built in association with Lucy's Ironworks.

DATE: 1891

ARCHITECT: J.C. Curtis

MATERIALS: Fine yellow brick with carved ashlar dressings to front; buff brick gables ends and chimneys; slate roof; cast iron balcony railings.

PLAN: Roughly square. Central hall.

FAÇADE: Two storeys, attic and basement. Double front with variety of carved ashlar detail: rusticated pilaster strips with small scroll caps; acanthus scroll frieze with dentil cornice, carried round central pediment gable; large pineapple finials. Canted bay windows with guilloche parapets and plate-glass sashes in stop-chamfered ashlar surrounds; eaves-line dormers with ashlar side scrolls, segmental lead roofs and rendered cheeks. Centre has large round-arched tripartite window to first floor, and three smaller arched lights to gable. First-floor balcony with elaborate cast iron balustrading. Doorway below has concentric round arches, richly carved spandrels (with cornucopiae, acanthus and vine scrolls), marble colonnettes with carved caps, and painted glass to side and top lights. 6-panel door with decorative studs. Flanking sections of ground-floor balcony have scrolled cast iron standards.

INTERIORS: Not seen.

HISTORY: Said to have been built as a house for the master of Lucy's Ironworks. Used as Catholic Workers' College 1921-55, then as Lucy's Social Club.

SOURCES: A. Spokes Symonds, The Changing Faces of North Oxford Book 2 (1999)

SUMMARY OF IMPORTANCE: This prominent late C19 building, already in the North Oxford Victorian Suburb Conservation Area, used grand architectural forms, lavish carved ashlar detail and elaborate cast iron balconies as a means of advertising for the adjoining Ironworks. It merits being added to the list at grade II.