Vixens West Chart

This is a house, now divided into two dwellings, built in 1908 with a small addition in 1918 by E Turner Powell. The building is constructed of red brick with tile hanging to the upper floor, and has old plain tile roofs. It combines elements of 16th-century Surrey vernacular architecture with the Arts and Crafts style. The plan is of a double depth, with rooms opening off a central passage. The exterior features almost continuous lines of leaded casement windows on both floors, particularly noticeable on the ground floor.

The north front, the main entrance, has a single-bay 1918 extension to the left, followed by a recessed bay, a large bay with a double projection and a multi-gabled roof, a plain bay, an entrance bay incorporating a large gabled oak porch with a Horsham slab roof, and another plain bay. Above these are large gabled dormers, overhanging eaves, and five tall brick stacks with weatherings. The tile hanging is arranged in bands of plain, half-round, and diamond tiles. The roof tiles and old oak used internally came from a dismantled barn at East Grinstead. The northwest corner features an oriel window above a two-bay loggia.

The rear (garden) elevation showcases a large, central weatherboarded gable with a ten-light window over an overhang supported on oak posts. The southeast corner contains the service entrance, with a tall window above for the secondary staircase and a former "motor" house, now with a glazed entrance.

The interior remains largely unaltered, with only divisions along the main corridors. Features include brick and quarry tile floors, oak floorboards, a hall inglenook framed in old oak, a main staircase, and a dining room fireplace with oak framing. There are plank doors with wrought iron strap hinges, some original light and sanitary fittings, a counterbalanced loft ladder, and various other original domestic features.

The property, a well-preserved example of an Arts and Crafts house, was featured in Country Life in 1910. It was originally electrically lit, centrally heated, and fully plumbed, and remnants of these systems are still in use. The building demonstrates the attention to detail in the design of a neo-vernacular house of the period.