Branksome Dene Convalescent Home

Branksome Dene Convalescent Home is a building constructed in 1860 by E B Lamb for C A King. It was significantly enlarged around 1880 for Lord Wimborne, likely by W H Romaine-Walker, and further expanded around 1913-14 for Sir Ernest Cassel, with interiors designed by Sir Guy Dawber. The original villa features a plain Barry-Italianate style, made of buff brick and stucco, and is three windows wide. The west side has three canted bays facing the garden, adorned with an elaborate wrought-iron verandah supported by pairs of fluted Ionic colonnettes at the center and ends, with scrolly openwork arches in between. The garden terrace is balustraded and includes urns, surrounded by a large formal garden.

The entrance front on the east side has a rusticated stucco ground floor and tripartite windows on the first floor, each topped with segmental pediments over the center lights. The eaves are supported by console brackets, and there is a balustraded parapet. The large south wing, added around 1880, mirrors the original character and includes two additional canted bays facing the garden. The north wing contains lower service rooms and was extended around 1914 with a long plain range set back behind an earlier Jacobean billiard room.

Inside, there are two living rooms from Lamb featuring rich plaster cornices and rosettes that blend arabesque, French, and foliage patterns. The staircase hall is illuminated by a skylight and has a glazed round-arched clerestory, along with a tall tripartite doorway leading to the service wing and an elaborate scrolly stair rail. The most significant interior spaces are found in the south wing, which includes three interconnected rooms and a garden lobby, all linked by sliding doors. The two end rooms showcase surprisingly classical interiors from around 1880, each featuring genuine Adam-period chimneypieces topped with richly garlanded round-headed windows that display coats-of-arms at their apex. The bay windows are flanked by fluted piers, with friezes alternating between triglyphs and medallions, and a ceiling frame designed in guilloche.

The present Board Room, a classical cube created around 1914 by Dawber, has mahogany panelled walls, a segmental pediment over the overmantel, and a genuine Georgian fireplace adorned with a frieze of Diana. The ceiling features deep coving and an acanthus pattern in the circular frame. Dawber also designed the groin-vaulted passage leading to the south wing.