1 And 2, Selborne Place

1 and 2 Selborne Place

A pair of semi-detached houses built circa 1865 by the distinguished Victorian architect William White (1825-1900) as seaside homes for his own family and that of his brother Henry. The builder was Robert Bushby (1813-1900). These are the only property designed by White for his own use still extant and among the very few of his domestic properties known to survive. The houses are designed in the Gothic Revival style, adapted for domestic use, and retain much of their original character despite being currently divided into flats and some minor twentieth-century alterations.

The buildings are constructed of brown brick in Flemish bond with irregular horizontal bands of red brick and tiled gables. The roofs are tiled with terracotta ridge tiles and five brick chimneystacks.

The pair consists mainly of three storeys and attics with three windows each to the south side facing the sea and irregular fenestration to the north or entrance front. The staircases are centrally situated at the entrance front. Principal rooms face south towards the sea, and on the ground floor there are folding partitions between the two south-facing rooms.

The north entrance fronts feature central two-storey gabled projections containing entrance porches and staircase windows. Each house has a pair of Gothic arched casement windows on the first floor with trefoil heads and stained glass with floral motifs. The penticed porches have crow-stepped end gables and half-glazed double doors, with No. 1 retaining its original stained glass and both having lower panels with diagonally placed planks. Behind these doors are multi-coloured tiled floors to the vestibules and original plank doors with elaborate scrolled iron work hinges. On each side are three-storey and attic large tiled gables of alternate courses of red and brown tiles edged by occasional courses of curved tiles, with the gable sides facing the centre extending down lower than the other sides. Conventional casement windows appear on the two upper floors, but the first-floor windows have pointed heads with hood moulding. One second-floor window to No. 2 has been modified with a small tiled gabled projection inserted. Both retain the original attached brick-walled service yard with arched doorcase and original ironmongery. No. 2 retains the original upper clay honeycomb walling.

The side elevations are relatively plain with two end chimneystacks but no windows.

The south elevation has three windows to each house, the two central windows on the second floor positioned under small gables, the remaining windows under larger half-hipped gables. The end windows on the first floor have Gothic pointed heads, and below are paired windows with Gothic heads. The central windows, which include two splayed bays extending through two storeys with French windows, have wooden verandahs with concave braced joinery and tiled roofs.

The attached original garden wall adjoining the house on the east side is a low clay honeycomb wall, changing into a higher wall to the south-east of flint with brick above, a terracotta cornice and brick piers at regular intervals. On the south side the garden wall is a low flint wall with clay honeycomb walling above.

At No. 2, the tiled vestibule leads to a staircase hall with an open well staircase, painted except for the moulded handrail, with short splat balusters and square newel posts with moulded finials. The landing has a taller open screen of two tiers of splat balusters, and the top of the stairwell has a moulded arch-braced roof. On the ground floor the south-facing drawing room and dining room are divided by a full-height panelled folding wooden screen. The drawing room has original chamfered folding wooden shutters with ornamental ironmongery, a built-in wooden window seat, and two built-in wooden cupboards under cambered arched alcoves either side of the fireplace. A number of original panelled doors survive, some with original door furniture. The north ground-floor room has an original fireplace opening with a bressumer and two wooden brackets.

No. 1 was not inspected internally, but the stained glass to the staircase windows is visible externally. The survival of an original staircase, door furniture and original flooring is reported. According to William White's niece, the internal joinery was originally unstained timber, lightly varnished. White invented a wooden block floor which he refused to patent because he considered it so useful.

These houses were built on part of the Arundel estate of the Dukes of Norfolk. The papers of the 9th Earl of Stamford (William White's nephew) include references to a lease dated 25 March 1865 between Lord Howard, Lord Petre, Lord Stafford and John Abel Smith of the first part, the Duchess of Norfolk and James Robert Hope Scott of the second part, and William White of the third part, regarding Selborne Place. There is also a reference to an agreement of 27 April 1866 between William White and others about a private approach to the properties.

Nos. 1 and 2 Selborne Place were the easternmost pair of three semi-detached properties designed by William White at the same time as seaside homes for his extended family. No. 1 was built for his own family and No. 2 for his brother Henry. His widowed sister Mary and three daughters lived at No. 3; two maiden aunts at No. 4; and his brother John Edward White, a barrister, owned Nos. 5 and 6.

Originally the houses faced the Green and the sea, a view since obscured by later buildings. The south fronts of Nos. 1-6 Selborne Place were depicted in an engraving of 1869 in the West Sussex Record Office, and an undated engraving of similar date exists in Littlehampton Museum.