Silvergates and attached terrace, well-head and walls

Silvergates is a detached house built in 1934 to designs by Ernest B Glanfield FRIBA of the architectural firm Riley and Glanfield, and constructed by Milton and Sons. It stands at 52 The Drive, Aldwick, Craigweil-on-Sea, and represents a distinctive mixture of Moderne style with traditional pitched roofs and building materials. The house is constructed of brick cavity walls, always painted, with a pitched roof of old Delabole slates from Cornwall and rendered chimneystacks.

The building is two storeys with attics and features irregular fenestration. The north or entrance front is asymmetrical, with a slightly projecting eastern bay containing Crittall windows on each floor, and a central tall half-hipped gabled dormer with leaded light windows beneath, including a round-headed staircase window. The entrance itself has a cambered-headed brick opening with a plank door, an original wrought iron lamp above and two wrought iron torcheres either side. The western end has a steep hip and a series of small Crittall windows, marking the service end of the house. Sections of painted wall with triangular slate coping and pedestrian entrances with gatepiers topped with gabled slate caps are attached to the north-west and north-east sides.

The south or garden front facing the sea is the principal elevation and is symmetrical, consisting of five bays with Crittall windows throughout. The centre section is recessed with two flat-roofed dormers and three small windows on the first floor opening onto a balcony with closed balustrade. Below is a loggia containing two large windows and central French windows. The end bays feature enormous full-height curved bays beneath conical roofs, each decorated with a band patterned with Vitruvian scrolls.

Attached to the house is a terrace of flagstones incorporating an octagonal stone well-head with wrought iron arch and a low stone wall with square piers at regular intervals.

The interior staircase-hall features a round-headed alcove and an inner door with glazing and wrought iron scrollwork. The staircase itself has wrought iron scrollwork balustrading and round-headed arches with vaulting on the upper floor. Contemporary photographs from 1935 show the staircase originally had an intermediate rail rather than scrollwork, likely an early alteration. Doors with wrought iron scrollwork are found throughout the ground floor, with flush doors above. The sitting room to the west retains early 18th-century style painted panelling and a bolection-moulded fireplace with a replaced brick and marble fire surround and original wooden pelmet. The central large lounge opening onto the loggia has similar panelling and an electric fire. The first floor retains much of its original layout, although one division between three central bedrooms has been removed. The original cast iron bath with vitrolite panel above and original radiator remain.

The house was designed not only for family use but for extensive weekend entertaining. Originally a bar for cocktails occupied the dining room. The first floor originally contained two suites of double rooms with bathrooms and three single rooms sharing bathrooms. The attic floor housed servants' bedrooms, and the kitchen quarters originally included a maids' sitting room. The garage contained three further guest rooms and another bathroom, though this building is now in separate ownership.

Silvergates was published in the architectural press of its day and is documented in an article in The Builder of 22 February 1935 and contemporary photographs in Modern Small Country Houses, edited by Roger Smithells and published by Country Life in 1936. It is a distinguished interwar seaside house of considerable architectural interest.