South Court (St Genevieve'S Convent Of Les Filles De La Croix)

This house, now St Genevieve’s Convent of Les Filles de la Croix, was built between 1892 and 1894 by G.R. Crickmay and Son for Alfred Pope. It is constructed of coursed Purbeck limestone with Bath stone dressings and has a clay tile roof with stone coping to the gables. The building features lateral, axial, and gable-end stacks with tall brick shafts.

The plan incorporates principal rooms facing the south garden, an entrance on the west side leading to a stairhall at the rear centre, a service wing on the north-east, a billiard room (now a chapel) on the east side, and a conservatory on the south-east corner. The architectural style is Victorian Gothic.

The west front is asymmetrical with three bays, and includes a large gable to the left and a gabled three-storey porch centrally placed, featuring a moulded three-centred arch doorway with an ogee hoodmould and overlight. A large lateral stack, featuring a carved armorial device and an integral dormer carried on an arch, is set to the right of the porch. The windows are stone mullion-transom sashes. The three-light second-floor window of the porch has cusped heads, and a small ground-floor window to the right has ogee tracery. The south garden front presents three bays with two gables, featuring large canted stone bay windows and a verandah linked to the conservatory on the right, which has altered glazing. On the north side, there is a stack, a large stone canted oriel stair window on moulded corbels, and a projecting service wing with a corbelled integral gable and lateral stack. The east elevation includes a service wing extending to the right and a single-storey billiard room, its stack converted to a bellcote.

The interior remains largely intact, richly decorated, and complete with most original features. The porch and vestibule have elaborate screens leading to a panelled hall with a broad moulded plaster frieze and an open-well timber staircase with stained glass in the large oriel. The drawing room features a carved marble chimneypiece with twisted colonnettes and an ogee arch, alongside a china cupboard and moulded plaster ceiling. The dining room has a wooden chimneypiece with a coved overmantel, dado panelling, an alcove with moulded plaster coving, and a panelled ceiling. A morning room contains a Gothick chimneypiece while the library features a Freestyle chimneypiece. A first floor chamber is notable for its carved wooden, Jacobean style chimneypiece. Two large radiators with ornate open-work cast-iron cases are located in the entrance vestibule and on the first floor landing. A servants’ back stairs remains.