The Boat House

THE BOAT HOUSE, LAKE DRIVE, HAMWORTHY, POOLE

Detached house, c.1936, built for Mr Cullen, a Lloyds' underwriter. The house demonstrates innovative use of modern materials: reinforced concrete with steel beams, clad in whitewashed red brick laid in Flemish bond. The roof comprises a flat tarred concrete surface with hipped blue-glazed pantile roofs to the porch and roof shelter. An internal rendered brick chimney stack and metal-framed casement windows complete the external treatment.

The building is organised on a rectangular plan around a central internal light well, rising two storeys with a roof terrace and shelter. The main front, facing south towards the garden and Poole Harbour, displays a canted projecting single-storey loggia at the centre, roofed with hipped pantiles and fitted with metal-framed French windows, flanked by 3-light metal casement windows (now replaced by plate glass). The first floor above the loggia has 2-light metal casement windows to the centre and similar 3-light windows either side. All windows feature external projecting blinds.

The roof terrace is bounded by a parapet with pantiled verge, interrupted by square brick piers supporting timber pergolas over the outer bays. A 2-bay roof shelter stands at the centre, with hipped pantiled roof and two low 3-light metal casement windows. White-washed canvas screens front the pergolas, punctuated by 'porthole' openings in alternate bays. The central roof terrace has a conical oval skylight.

On the entrance side (north), the ground level is higher, partially obscuring the elevation. A part-glazed front door to the first floor, positioned right of centre, is approached through an open porch two bays deep with hipped pantiled roof carried on square brick piers over an elliptical-arched concrete bridge spanning the ground floor. One and 2-light windows with concrete lintels and cills of varying heights punctuate this elevation. Side elevations feature casement and porthole windows.

The interior incorporates fittings salvaged from the second-class drawing room of the transatlantic liner RMS Mauritania. Bedrooms are designated as Cabins 1–3, arranged around a galleried first floor with a large oval opening to the ground floor below. A maplewood balustrade and columns frame this central light-well, which has an internal decorative glass roof beneath the skylight.

The front door opens onto the gallery, with an open-well stair descending to the main living room on the ground floor. This large room features maplewood panelling in Louis XVI style, with elliptical-arched heads to the main panels and to window openings and doors. Square bevelled glass mirrors are set into the panelling. L-shaped banquettes with buttoned upholstery line the sides of the room and frame an inglenook fireplace. The ceiling is beamed with panelled ornament evoking the plasterwork of the liner's original drawing room.

The cabins (bedrooms) have mahogany panelling, and the bathroom retains original nautical-style fittings. A kitchen to the west side was formerly part of a self-contained service flat, where an original bell-board may still be seen.

The Boat House represents, together with Landfall, the most complete surviving Modern-style house of the inter-war period in the Bournemouth area. The incorporation of fittings from the Mauritania—the ship on which the first owner Mr Cullen is said to have frequently travelled—gives it particular significance. These elements have been re-used with wit and style in a manner that evokes their original shipboard context.