Home of Compassion

Home of Compassion

This is a house, later nursing home, built around 1786 in the Strawberry Hill Gothick style for the Hon. Charlotte Boyle Walsingham and originally called Boyle Farm. The architect remains unknown. The interior features decorative work in Classical style carried out by her daughter, also named Charlotte Boyle Walsingham.

The building has undergone several significant alterations. Around 1840, Lord St Leonards commissioned alterations that added a further attic storey with Jacobean style gables and constructed lower side wings. Around 1893, further alterations for Herbert Manwaring Robertson removed the stucco and Jacobean gables, refacing the exterior in small red bricks with a classical pediment and Westmorland slate roof. A single-storey south-west loggia was added around 1905 when the Church of England Community for the Compassion of Jesus renamed the property the Home of Compassion. A north-east conservatory was added in 1993.

The building is constructed of red brick in Flemish bond with orange brick window surrounds and a wide bracketed wooden eaves cornice. It has hipped Westmorland slate roofs with dentilled brick stacks to the centre and ends.

The original 1786 house is of three storeys and basement, arranged in seven bays with a central full-height curved bay on the north-east side. Two-storey extensions were added to the sides around 1840, and a loggia to the south-west side.

The south-west entrance front is of three storeys, attic and basement, with seven bays arranged 2:3:2. The central three bays project slightly, and there are further projecting two-storey, one-bay side wings. A corniced loggia with round-headed glazed doors spans the centre and left bays, and houses the main entrance flanked by Tuscan columns. The bracketed eaves cornice continues on the central pediment, which has a keyed oculus. A stringcourse runs above the first floor. The second floor has 3-over-6 pane sash windows and the first floor has 6-over-6 pane sashes, all under gauged brick arches with keystones and projecting stone cills. Brick quoins appear at the centre, ends, and projecting side wings.

The north-east garden front has a central section of seven bays, three storeys and basement, including a central full-height curved bay of three windows breaking through the roof. This side features a bracketed eaves cornice, a band above the first floor, two additional moulded bands (one dentilled), and a band of paterae. A cast iron balcony with decorative panels runs across the first floor. The second floor windows are 3-over-6 pane sashes, while the three central first floor and ground floor windows of the curved bay are full-height with 6-over-9 pane sashes. Most other windows are 6-over-6 pane sashes, though the flanking bays and projecting side wings have ground floor windows in arched recesses. The ground floor of the central curved bay is now covered by the 1993 conservatory.

The north-west end facing the street has no windows and contains a single-storey service addition with slate roofs and a louvred lantern. The south-east end has four first floor windows and a porch attached to a section of late 18th-century garden wall with a central relieving arch.

The interior is accessed from the south-east via an entrance hall extending through two storeys. This hall contains two tall Ionic scagliola columns and pilasters, round-headed alcoves, and galleries on four sides with cast iron balusters. The walls feature plain panels and round-headed arches, with a cornice decorated with floral basket motifs and a stone floor. The wooden fireplace dates from around 1890. Two entrances with round-headed fanlights flank the entrance hall to the west, one retaining its six-panelled door, with a similar entrance on the east side. North of the entrance hall is the central room with curved bay, which retains a late 18th-century dentilled cornice, though its fireplace dates from the mid-19th century. To the east of the entrance hall, the curved main staircase features plain cast iron balusters, a mahogany handrail with columnar newel, ovolo-moulded dado rail, and an oval domed roof. A room to the east of the central room has late 18th-century wall pilasters, a cornice decorated with sphinxes and garlands, and a dado rail with Vitruvian scrolls. A room to the west of the central room has circa 1890 recesses and wooden fireplace. The curved late 18th-century service stair with cast iron balustrade and handrail survives on this side.

On the first floor, the central bowed room, formerly a library, contains circa 1786 verre églomisé decorative work by Charlotte Boyle Walsingham. Panelled cupboards are divided by glass pilasters with black and gilded decoration of dancing classical figures, birds and garlands, with anthemion capitals supporting a cornice of roundels, garlands and letters of the alphabet. A similar entrance, decorative ceiling cornice, and wide marble fireplace with blank panels to the pilasters complete the scheme. A room to the east has a late 18th-century white marble fireplace with cast iron fire grate. A room to the south-east of the library has a marble fireplace with elaborate scrolled decoration fire grate, a cornice of alternate decaglyphs and paterae, and a six-panelled door. Another room has a late 18th-century marble fireplace with cast iron fire grate but a late 19th-century bolection-moulded surround. A north-facing room has a late 18th-century marble fireplace with pilasters and moulded cast iron fire grate.

On the second floor, the central room with curved bay features shallow round-headed niches with rectangular panels above to the walls, a marble fireplace with cast iron fire grate, and a moulded cornice. Reset 18th-century balusters appear at the attic landing of the main stair, and a small section of 18th-century stair leads up to the roof.