Upper Cobb House and pedestrian gate

A detached villa of the early 19th century, extended with a wing in 1922 by architect Arnold Mitchell. Mitchell also carried out minor alterations and internal refurbishment, including extensive decorative plasterwork. Further alterations were made later, and an early 21st-century conservatory was added. The pedestrian gateway is early 20th century, also by Mitchell.

Materials

The house has stucco or painted plaster walls, constructed probably of stone. The roof coverings are slate and lead, except for a later 19th-century addition on the west side which has a flat roof clad in copper sheeting. There were originally chimney stacks to the west and east sides; the former has been removed, and there is a further stack serving the early 20th-century wing on the east side.

Plan

The main part of the house is rectangular on plan. To the west side is a square extension of the mid or late 19th century and there is an early 20th-century wing to the east. At the south-west corner of the house is an early 21st-century conservatory.

Exterior

The house has two storeys with a small cellar. Since it is terraced into the hillside, the front (north) is approached at first-floor level and the ground floor is set within a rectangular open well. The hipped roof has deep, overhanging eaves carried on decorative timber brackets that have ball pendants. At first-floor level is a central entrance which has an early 19th-century round-headed doorway with incised and Greek key pattern to the architrave; a panelled door and a semi-circular fanlight. It is approached from a walkway over the well that has arrowhead railings to either side and around the edge of the well. Either side of the doorway is a round-headed sash window with large panes. The ground floor is accessed from stone steps that descend into the well. At this level there is a second entrance doorway that is flanked by flat-headed sash windows. On the north side of the well, and cut into the hillslope, are three small service rooms, one of which was a former coal store.

The south-facing garden front is a three-window range and presents as two storeys. An upswept canopy extends across the elevation supported by trellised supports. It has a boarded underside, and the attached fascia has cut-out geometric motifs. On the ground floor is a large central window with glazing bars and transom lights containing intersecting curved glazing. To either side is a French casement with a Greek pattern motif to each door and a rectangular fanlight with intersecting curved glazing over. On the first floor, the sash window at the centre has a three-centred arched head and to either side is a six-over-six sash window; all have louvred shutters. At the south-west corner is an early 21st-century conservatory. The west elevation has a mid or late 19th-century flat-roofed addition of one storey with parapets to the side walls and three round-headed windows; the central window is a later insertion. On the first floor of the main body of the house are two sash windows; the narrower window to the left was previously a doorway onto the flat roof. The early 20th-century single-storey wing to the east elevation has two hipped roofs and breaks forwards at the south-east corner. The fascia has cut-out geometric motifs that match the canopy fascia and there are two decorative consoles. The three lead rainwater heads are dated 1903, 1911 and 1903 respectively, possibly made by the Bromsgrove Guild and brought from elsewhere. The billiard room windows include French casements, two double corner windows, and a bow window; all of a similar style to the openings in the early 19th-century house, including intersecting curved glazing to the top sections. The northern part of the wing has two three-light dormers and a modern door and window in the east elevation. To the first floor of the east elevation of the house is a flat-arched six-over-six sash window and a round-arched window within a flat-arched opening.

Interior

There are early 19th-century panelled doors with drop handles and early 20th-century finger plates. The windows have shutters. The main entrance is at first-floor level and opens onto a galleried hall that wraps around a central stairwell. There are four bedrooms; two on either side of the hall (one altered to an en suite), with a fifth room (currently a bathroom) to the rear opposite the front door. The hall has a plaster-enriched ceiling decorated in a Baroque style, probably made from fibrous plaster which is far lighter than solid plaster, which was added by Mitchell in the late 1910s or 1920s. It consists of concentric oval ring flanked by rectangular panels, all with mouldings of various designs, including egg and dart, modillions with dentils and floral motifs, an enriched floral garland and a ceiling centre of a sunburst design. Three of the bedrooms and the bathroom have dentil cornices, and in the south-east room the fireplace has a plain marble surround with consoles and a tiled firebox. The south-west bedroom has a chimneypiece decorated with olive branches to the jambs, a frieze, a floral bouquet to the centre tablet, and beaded panels with floral paterae to the end blocks. The inset and mantel are marble. The Rococo-style over-mirror, which may be early 19th century, has a beaded frame within an eared architrave of egg and dart mouldings, flower clusters to the shoulders and to the upper centre where a pair of birds, possibly doves, nestle; all of plaster. The cornice has floral and foliate motifs and a similar scallop pattern to the keyplate cover of the adjacent bathroom door. The oval ceiling cartouche has a wide, Rococo-style garland with sunbursts projecting out towards the edges of the room; the central part is undecorated. The staircase has stick balusters, moulded handrails and curtail ends at ground-floor level. There is applied decorative metalwork to the curve of the stairs at first-floor level and to the curtail ends.

On the ground floor, doorways topped with delicate half-moon fanlights either side of the staircase lead into a semi-circular hall on the north side of the house. This has curved walls and four doorways: one to the cellar; two that have curved architrave and doors; while the fourth has a probable early 20th-century doorcase with an oversized entablature, a broken pediment and fluted and flower decorated columns forming the jambs. The doors all have six panels. The fourth doorway opens onto a vestibule which contains the early 19th-century ground-floor entrance door which has a swan-neck pediment and Greek key pattern to the jambs. The dining room is situated on the east side of the hall. It has an early 19th-century, Adam-style fireplace with rosettes to the end blocks, a neo-classical scene of two figures to the centre tablet and jambs that have reeding and flower bud carvings. There is also a shell canopy niche and a moulded ceiling rose. On the opposite side of the hall is a narrow room (formerly the kitchen) and beyond this is the single-storey addition which is currently a kitchen. This has a coffered ceiling and French doors with applied ornate bronze glazing bars of probable early to mid 20th-century date. The ground floor in the rear (south) part of the house overlooks the gardens and the sea. It was originally several rooms that may have been divided by moveable partitions, and which Mitchell opened up to create one large reception room. It contains a probable early 20th-century grey marble chimneypiece with reeded columns and Ionic capitals to the jambs and a dentilled entablature, and a brass inset. The ceiling has three rectangular compartments of deeply-modelled relief plasterwork below the original ceiling. Each has a frame of egg and dart moulding, a heavily-enriched modillion with floral motifs in the interstices, a garland, and at the centre is an ornate sunburst pattern. The outside faces of each compartment have bead and reel mouldings. Columns formerly supported the ceiling but have been removed. The east wing added by Mitchell contains the former billiard room. This has an ornate domed plaster ceiling some 7 metres in diameter which is supported on baseless columns with hybrid Ionic capitals. Its circular frames are decorated with mouldings of floral motifs; guttae and recessed beaded panels; acanthus leaves; garlands and bay leaves. At the centre is a sunburst motif and a glass chandelier decorated with daffodils and leaves, probably Murano. At the corners of the room are foliate plaster motifs. The fireplace is early 21st century.

The roof structure is understood (DHD Structures) to have king post trusses, a single row of purlins and common rafters.

Subsidiary Features

The front (north) boundary wall to Sidmouth Road contains a semi-circular arched opening which appears to have been inserted later. This contains a semi-circular wrought-iron pedestrian gate and side screens. The gate was manufactured by the Bromsgrove Guild around 1900 and was installed at the entranceway to Mitchell's own house, The Orchard in Harrow. It is shown in watercolour by J Walter West which features in a 1903 article about The Orchard (The Studio). Mitchell subsequently brought the gate to Upper Cobb House where it was installed in the front wall. Replacement gates of a similar design have since been introduced at The Orchard.