Benchway

Benchway is a house constructed in 1910 by the architects Clemence and Moon. It is built of brown brick with red brick dressings and plain tiled roofs, with hipped and half-hipped ends. The complex design reflects the sloping site, consisting of two parallel, staggered ranges connected by a central link and a small pavilion facing the front, forming a courtyard. The house extends over two storeys, with a single-storey pavilion. There are three triple, diagonal stacks to the left, with corbelled tops, further stacks to the right and rear, and a smaller single stack to the front right. A shaped gable end is present on the left, featuring small square windows on the ground floor left and right. A larger three-light window is set into the return wall of the gable, on the first floor, with a chamfered surround and diamond brick mullions. A single light window is located to the left of this. A stack is situated in a shallow break that extends asymmetrically to the right, containing a round arched door within a four-step brick surround, a tile-on-edge hood mould, impost mouldings and a patterned brick, chamfered surround. The door is six-panelled with studs and a carved shell-head upper panel. The connecting link to the front is hipped, and features an iron weather-vane finial. A large six-light brick mullioned and transomed staircase window is positioned below. A wing projects to the right, featuring two diamond-pane windows on each floor facing the courtyard, and hip-roofed dormers in a multi-pitched roof facing the street. The pyramidal-roofed, single-storey pavilion on the front left has a spherical finial, deep eaves, and chamfered corners facing inwards towards the courtyard, with stepped corbel courses. Inside, the staircase-hall rises the full height of the centre, and the staircase features turned barley-sugar balusters.