Shawlands

House, Shawlands, New Chapel Road

This is an early 18th-century house with a south extension added between 1895 and 1910, together with some late 20th-century window replacements. The building is constructed of red brick, predominantly in English bond with some grey headers, though the east elevation includes some Flemish bond. The hipped roof is now covered in 20th-century tiles. Two tall brick chimneystacks with stone coping run along the west wall, and a similar large chimneystack stands along the original south wall. The house comprises three storeys and a cellar, with irregular fenestration overall.

The north elevation, which was originally the front entrance, displays a symmetrical five-bay design. A wooden moulded cornice and wide modillion cornice above the first floor, probably added contemporaneously with the Edwardian wing, marks this façade. Brick panels sit beneath the first floor windows. The second floor contains three cambered-headed windows with moulded wooden architraves and intermediate cambered blanks. The first floor has three eight-pane sashes to the left and two late 20th-century uPVC windows in original architraves. The ground floor features one eight-pane sash, one sash with a uPVC window, and two sashes with horns but no glazing bars. The central doorcase has a flat hood on brackets, wooden architrave, and an original eight-fielded panelled door with the top two panels glazed and L-hinges to the reverse. Cambered openings to the basement, fitted with wooden architraves and iron bars, complete this front.

The east elevation displays a blank window at the centre of the first and second floors, with the right side entirely without windows because the staircase occupies this corner. The second floor windows are circa 1900 sashes without glazing bars, while the lower floors have late 20th-century uPVC windows. Cellar windows are fitted with metal bars. To the right stands a brick and wooden porch, originally open but now fitted with a uPVC window and door, although the original door survives on both the ground floor and to the cellar. The west elevation is sparsely fenestrated, featuring only one cambered circa 1900 sash to the second floor, a blank to the first floor, and a cambered opening to the basement.

The south elevation features a Neo-Georgian style extension added to its centre between 1895 and 1910, also constructed in English bond brickwork with a tiled roof. This two-storey addition with attics is built in red brick, roofed in tiles, with a pedimented gable displaying a modillion cornice and oculus. The first floor has two cambered openings, now fitted with late 20th-century uPVC windows, and a central square metal sundial with decorated gnomen and the inscription "CARPE DIEM". The ground floor features a five-light curved bay, now with a late 20th-century uPVC window. The right-side return has an oval window and an eight-panelled door with a flight of steps and curved wall topped with a ball finial. To the right of the Edwardian addition, the earlier building shows a cambered window, while to the left the original part displays two cambered windows to the upper floors, now uPVC, and a circa 1900 four-light mullioned and transomed bay.

The interior contains a good-quality three-storey painted wooden well staircase of circa 1710, featuring a straight string with turned balusters and square newel posts, except for the bottom flight which is curved with two turned balusters to each tread, scrolled tread ends, a column newel, and represents a later modification. The ground floor south-east room contains an open fireplace with wooden bressumer and wooden spit racks, an exposed spine beam, and a tiled floor. The first floor north-west room retains early 18th-century panelling with dado rail and moulded cornice, together with wooden shutters. Most door architraves are 18th-century, though some have been reduced in width, while the doors themselves are 19th-century. The cellar remains little altered since the 18th century, retaining its wide doors, an open fireplace, several wooden shelves, and slate shelves to a northern room that may have served as a dairy. The 18th-century roof features pegged rafters with carpenters' marks and dragon braces. The Edwardian panelled Sitting Room occupies the ground floor of the extension. At the same period, the two western ground floor rooms were combined into one, fitted with two oak Georgian-style fireplaces with pilasters and panelling featuring ovolo moulding. The first floor north-west room possesses a good-quality Art Nouveau-style fireplace with copper hood to the firegrate and decorated tiles. The second floor contains a large fireplace with swags and pilasters, together with two smaller fireplaces with pomegranate decoration, metal hoods, and tiled surrounds. The bathroom in the circa 1900 extension retains green tiled walls and chequered tiled flooring, although the fittings have been renewed.

The property appears on Rocque's Map of 1770 as Shaw's Farm. The south addition does not appear on the Ordnance Survey map of 1895 but had been constructed by the time of the 1910 Ordnance Survey map.