Semaphore House

Semaphore House is a semaphore station constructed circa 1820 by the Admiralty, with later 19th-century wings. The building is built of cement render with rusticated quoins, and features a tile-hung central tower topped with a lead dome, with slate and tile roofs to the remainder of the structure. The design comprises a square tower surmounted by a later octagonal turret to the centre, flanked by lower side wings. The two-storey side wings have rear stacks to the left and right, while the tower is three storeys in height. The rear entrance has rusticated angle quoins to the centre and ends, and a plat band over the ground floor. It features plate glass sash windows with two windows on each floor of each side wing, and on the upper floors of the tower. A balustraded parapet is present on the tower, with panelled newels. A central, flat-roofed porch is half-glazed, with anthemion and honeysuckle pattern ironwork on the lower part, and a door to the centre. The right-hand return front, facing Semaphore Road, has a gable end with a two-storey projecting bay, rusticated angle quoins, and a plat band. It contains a tripartite sash window to the ground floor, and 20th-century casements above. The rear (North) front displays a mix of 19th and 20th-century fenestration. It is one of a line of semaphore stations stretching from London to Portsmouth, some of which were built on the sites of earlier shutter telegraphs used during the Napoleonic Wars. Originally, each station included an octagonal tower with a signalling room and living accommodation for the lieutenant in charge, using two moveable arms attached to a pole as signalling equipment. Of the seven stations originally in Surrey, only three remain, the others being at Telegraph Hill (Cooper's Hill) and Chately Hill in the borough of Elmbridge.