Hindhead Court, including south terrace, steps and sunken garden

Former country house, latterly a school, built from 1914 to 1915 to the design of architect John Henry Howard in Tudor Revival style for John Benjamin Body. Converted for the Grove School in 1953 and from 1995 to 2023 formed part of the Royal Junior School.

Materials and Construction

The principal building is of oak timber-frame construction with red and dark grey brick nogging and some sections of hung terracotta tiles. The roofs are covered with clay tiles. The service wing is of red brick construction with a slate roof. The roof of the winter garden, originally glazed, is now covered with wooden shingles.

Plan and Layout

The principal building is approximately orientated on a north-west to south-east axis, with the service wing projecting north-east from the east side of the house, and the winter garden projecting from the west end. For descriptive purposes, the south-west elevation is described as the south elevation, the north-east as the north, and so forth.

The house has an axial corridor running west-east on each floor, with rooms either side. On the ground floor this corridor opens out into a central hall, which is the largest room and overlooks the south terrace and lawn. The other principal ground-floor rooms include a drawing room, billiard room, study and dining room. The service wing has north-south corridors with rooms to the east on both the ground and first floors. A cellar occupies the south-east corner of the building.

Exterior

The principal house is of two full storeys plus an attic storey. The service wing is of two storeys with some single-storey extensions, whilst the winter garden is of one and a half storeys. At ground-floor level, the house is of cavity wall construction with a plinth of red and dark grey brick laid in English bond providing sufficient rigidity and width to support the structural frame of green oak. The upper floors have brick nogging laid in a variety of bonds between the exposed timbers, and some sections of hung tiles. The gabled roofs are covered with clay tiles. The house has seven tall chimney stacks of brick, each made up of a cluster of octagonal-section shafts with oversailing corbel courses to the top.

South Elevation

The south elevation of the principal house, overlooking the gardens, is seven bays wide. Its compositional symmetry is interrupted only by slightly different arrangements of curved wind braces to the two widest outer bays, which have broad gables and timber bargeboards. The central bay has a canted oriel window to the first floor with a turret-like roof, carried on broad oak posts to form an open porch over the south terrace. At opposite ends of this porch, laid in the third course of bricks above the terrace paving, are a pair of foundation stones bearing the initials of John Benjamin Body's two children: John Benjamin Weetman Body and Beatrice Millicent Body.

The oak timber frame is expressed around this central porch and across the first-floor level as well as the attic level of the flanking gable ends, with brick nogging variously laid in herringbone, diagonal and vertical patterns. Fenestration comprises leaded metal casement windows in the style of Henry Hope & Sons, set in mullioned and transomed timber frames, with raking dormers to the inner bays at attic level. The ground-floor windows also have projecting sills of terracotta tiles.

North Elevation

The north elevation is less symmetrical, giving the impression of a building that has been altered and extended over time. The central bay projects at first-floor level, with a jettied gable above, carried on oak posts and moulded brackets forming a semi-open porch with a keyed Tudor archway. Originally above this arch was an inscribed proverb that read: 'EAST: WEST. O . HOME'S: BEST', but this has since been covered over or removed. The central bay has expressed oak framing and red brick nogging mainly in herringbone bond. The other bays have English bond brickwork to the ground floor and hung tiles to the upper levels. The two outer bays are broad gables with bargeboards as on the south elevation, but project forward and are jettied out slightly at attic level.

The fenestration is similar to that of the south elevation. The ground-floor window to the west of the porch is set in a springing arch of two rows of header bricks. There are raking dormers to the roof either side of the central gable. The east bay has a bay window with a tiled roof to the ground floor, which by 1921 had replaced an original doorway into the study.

Winter Garden

The winter garden projects from the west elevation, with glazed gable ends over a brick plinth facing west and south; the north elevation is of brick with single-storey brick extensions. Along the east-west ridge of the roof is a glazed roof lantern with a pitched roof. All the roof slopes of the winter garden were originally glazed but are now covered with shingles. The upper parts of the west elevation of the principal house rise above the winter garden; at attic level there is a pair of tiled gables flanked by tall chimney stacks.

East Elevation and Service Wing

The east elevation of the house has another pair of tiled gables partly obscured by a two-and-a-half storey extension possibly intended to look like a later addition. This extension is timber-framed with brick nogging and has a dual-pitched roof. Extending from this end of the house is the service wing, which is of two storeys. The external walls are of red brick laid in English bond and support a hipped, tiled roof with two rectangular chimney stacks of brick with oversailing corbel courses. The windows are mostly three or four-light leaded casements; the ground-floor window openings have springing arches of two rows of header bricks, while the first-floor windows have moulded cornices that break the roofline.

An original single-storey kitchen range to the east elevation has a hipped, tiled roof with a central ventilation lantern with a metal canopy. This was part of a passive ventilation system that induced the flow of air up through the building by wind blowing through the lantern and lowering the pressure at the bottom of the ventilation shaft.

Interior

Ground Floor

The ground-floor rooms of the principal house have well-preserved Jacobethan interiors including original oak panelling up to picture rail level, with moulded cornices and decorative carving to the frieze in some places. In some of these rooms, finely-jointed ashlar blocks are visible above the oak panelling. The exceptions are the drawing room and the small room between the dining room and central hall.

The drawing room has Classical detailing: fluted pilasters to the walls, moulded timber panelling to dado rail level and a decorative, moulded plaster ceiling and frieze. This frieze has a date of 1915 incorporated over the fireplace, which retains the original wooden mantelpiece and moulded stone surround, although the grate has been covered over and the fireplace itself appears to have later tiles. The small room between the central hall and the dining room is carpeted with plain walls, but has an original decorative plaster ceiling, an oak fire surround, a built-in oak sideboard and panelling beneath the window.

The other principal ground-floor rooms have Tudor-style fireplaces and exposed oak beams to the ceilings. The entrance hall has a stone fireplace with a moulded hood supported by clusters of classical columns. In the billiard room, there is a wide panelled inglenook with a herringbone brick floor and a Tudor arch of stone over the brick fireplace with a finely-carved oak surround and mantelpiece. A similar but smaller fireplace is located in the inglenook of the central hall, with floral decoration to the flanking pilasters and carved faces to the brackets supporting the heavily-decorated over-mantel. This inglenook was originally largely open to the rest of the central hall but has since been partitioned off with more oak panelling and a door; the span of the original opening is legible due to the projecting wooden lintel with moulded cornice above.

The study has another Tudor fireplace of stone with an oak surround that integrates with the original oak panelling, built-in cupboards and shelving. This room also has a decorative plaster ceiling instead of oak beams. The dining room has a similar fireplace and embossed Jeffrey and Company wallpaper to the frieze. This particular wallpaper pattern was introduced in the late 19th century and does not appear in the 1916 Bedford Lemere photographs of the dining room, although it was likely installed soon after that date. The dining room has a modern partition across one side to incorporate a washroom.

The ground floor of the house originally had parquet flooring throughout. This is still visible in the central hall inglenook and the dining room. In other rooms, a new timber floor has been laid on top (or carpet in the case of the study), but the original parquet may survive in situ underneath. The original tiled floor of the winter garden survives underneath the modern terrazzo floor. The winter garden is fully glazed to its south and west sides; the north and east walls are of exposed brick. This space was originally open to the glazed roof but now has a modern suspended ceiling.

Upper Floors

The oak panelling continues up the principal staircase—which is of timber with column-on-vase balusters and moulded handrails and newel finials—and onto the first-floor landing, which has round-headed arches of oak springing from capitals at the top of the panelling, with carved decoration to the soffits. The first and second-floor rooms have simpler decoration, most retaining original timber fire-surrounds, moulded cornices and skirting, and some original built-in cupboards. Some of the rooms on these floors appear to have been subdivided during the conversion to school dormitories, and there are additional bathroom facilities at the west end of both floors.

Throughout the house, most of the cast-iron radiators, panelled doors, and bronze door and window furniture also survive; the lyre-shaped backplates to the window catches are similar to those designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

Service Wing

The service wing interiors also survive generally well with some original fireplaces and moulded picture rails. The kitchens have been subject to various alterations including a modern extension, but retain some built-in cupboards and shelving and a walk-in cold store with a heavy-duty metal door. The large dumb waiter at the north end of the service wing corridor also survives. The servants' staircase features simple timber panelling and stick balusters.

Subsidiary Features

The original stone terrace spanning the width of the south elevation survives, with steps and ramps descending to the lawn, and paths wrapping around the winter garden to the west and leading east to the sunken garden. This garden survives largely intact, with crazy paving, retaining rubble walls, a linear pool or rill lined with stone and an ornamental bust to the centre, and a curved stone bench integrated into the east wall.