Burrows Cross House

Burrows Cross House is a house, later divided, built in 1885 by Richard Norman Shaw for Frank Roll, with extensions added in 1889 by the same architect for B.W. Leader. It is constructed of red brick with tile hanging above, incorporating fishscale and patterned bands. The roofs are tiled, hipped and half-hipped, with moulded wooden bargeboards to the gables. The house has a roughly “H” shaped plan consisting of a projecting gabled wing to the left, a smaller wing to the right containing a studio, and a large gable to a recessed central range on the left. A courtyard is located to the front. Prominent stacks are visible to the right of centre, to the rear right and left, and to the left side.

The main gable is of two storeys and has an attic. The first floor jetty extends on three wooden braces to the left end and three braces to the right of centre. Windows are casements with leaded lights, sheltered by tiled pentice hoods. A four-light mullioned and transomed window is located on the end of the left side to the first floor, with three windows to the first floor on the return side and one on the ground floor. The gable features a six-light attic window and a six-light mullioned and transomed window, alongside a four-light window, on the first floor of the gable bay. A four-light window is situated on the corner, and a further four-light window is on the ground floor of the left-hand side. Two four-light first-floor windows are present in the centre, along with two mullioned and transomed windows below. The return front of the right-hand wing has two four-light first-floor windows and one below. A ribbed door is recessed within a brick porch on the right of the gable, while a further glazed door is situated on the left wing, alongside two further doors on the right-hand wing. Gable extensions were added to the right in 1984.

The left-hand return front features a double-gabled tile-hung range to the first floor, with brickwork below and a 20th-century single-storey pantiled extension to the left. A further triple-gabled range is set back to the left, exhibiting lozenge-shaped glazing to the casement windows.

The studio wing on the right has had a floor inserted, dividing the original large studio window horizontally. The first floor contains a barrel vault and a handkerchief vault.

Reference works include Nikolaus Pevsner’s Buildings of England, Surrey (1971) and Richard Norman Shaw by Saint (Yale 1983) pp 110, 155, 243, 429.