Garth Carbery with associated garden studio and garage

Garth Carbery with associated garden studio and garage

A house of 1912 designed by J H Brewerton for Miss Moser, with a conservatory of 1913 also by Brewerton and interior alterations of 1924 by Bertram Earp of Eastbourne for H S W Eyre. An associated garage with flat above was built in the late 1920s or early 1930s, and a garden studio was built in 1935.

MATERIALS AND CONSTRUCTION

The buildings are constructed of red and burnt brick with clay tile roofs and brick stacks. The house and garden studio interiors have pine and oak joinery with brass fitments. All buildings have timber double-hung sash windows and casements. The roofs are timber with tile coverings, except the studio roof which is of steel construction covered in tile.

THE HOUSE

The house is a double-pile structure of two storeys plus an attic, with a central east-west corridor and main stair and service range to the rear. It is designed in a restrained Domestic Revival style with symmetrical openings featuring timber sashes under rubbed brick arches. The red brick elevations are laid in Flemish bond with brick corner pilasters and square bay windows.

The house stands under a deep hipped roof with oversailing eaves, moulded eaves cornices and substantial brick stacks. The principal entrance is centrally placed in the east flank façade with a projecting domed hood and sashes to each side and to the first floor. Facing the south lawn is the principal front with three central bays including a central door under a fanlight with openings to each side, all under tile creased arches as part of a former loggia. To each side are square projecting bays to the ground floor. The first floor has seven openings with sashes. To the left corner is a conservatory with a conical roof. The west flank has a projecting square bay with an integrated awning and sash openings to each storey and two dormers to the roof. The rear of the house has a stair window to the left and other openings across the elevation are sashes. In the service wing to the right there is a back door under a flat hood. Cast-iron rainwater goods are fitted across the building.

The interior features a panelled main entrance door leading into a glazed vestibule. To the right is a morning room with a tiled timber chimneypiece. The interior has a complete set of stained pine joinery including corridor and room panelling, staircases and doors. The corridor is glazed with leaded panes at the upper level. Each principal room has metal light fittings, brass light switches and door furniture and a chimneypiece with tiled back and push-button servant bell. The central ground-floor room was formerly a loggia and study and has had the dividing wall removed. At the service end of the ground and first-floor corridors is an early twentieth-century wall-mounted telephone. Outside the dining room is a wall-mounted message board.

The service wing contains a kitchen, pantry, larder and coal shed, some with early twentieth-century fitted cupboards and worktops. The first floor contains bedrooms with chimneypieces, a bathroom and linen cupboard and, to the west end, a dressing room. The service range has bedrooms for the butler and housekeeper with fitted cupboards, and mid-twentieth-century adaptations to provide wash-room facilities. The attic contains servant bedrooms and a boarded loft with fitted shelving.

THE GARAGE

Probably designed by Bertram Earp in 1924 and built in the early 1930s, this two-storey red brick building was designed to replace a smaller earlier garage that became principally used as an apple store. It comprises a garage and workshops to the ground floor and chauffeur accommodation above. The brick is laid in stretcher bond and the main front faces the house with a design sympathetic to that of the house, featuring multi-paned timber casement openings under rubbed brick heads with oversailing eaves and tall brick stacks to the twin hipped roofs. A large timber glazed washing yard is attached to the east elevation.

To the rear is an external brick stair with a glazed timber canopy serving the chauffeur's apartment. The apartment has no historic fittings. Folding glazed timber doors serve the yard and glazed timber sliding doors serve the main garage. The yard and garage floors have a poured concrete surface and an inspection pit. The rear workshop has a braced and ledged plank door and fitted workbenches and cupboards, with a wood block floor. The office to the rear right has timber fitted cupboards and outside the plank door is an early twentieth-century wall-mounted telephone.

THE GARDEN STUDIO

Built to the designs of Frederic Lawrence in 1935 in a similar style to the house, the garden studio is a red brick building laid in Flemish bond with rubbed brick heads to the openings, brick pilasters to the corners and oversailing eaves above a moulded cornice under a deep hipped roof. The principal south front has a panelled door to the right with tile-creased architrave under a flat hood and window above and a window to the left under a wall plaque marked '1935'. To the rear is a large multi-paned garden window overlooking a stone well.

The interior is oak-panelled. The vestibule opens into a ballroom with oak balcony to three sides. The garden window at the north end has a window seat and the lateral oak stair at the south end accesses the balcony. A large brick chimneypiece is set in the fireplace in the west wall and the floor is laid with wood block. The walls are lined with glass display cabinets and there is a 1930s heating system. The panelled ceiling is part-glazed with rooflights.