Ravelin Manor House and Little Ravelin

Ravelin Manor House and Little Ravelin

A villa built around 1893, designed and crafted by architect and craftsman Alexander Lauder, in an eclectic Domestic Revival style. The building was subdivided into two dwellings in the 1970s and has undergone alterations in the 20th century.

The house is constructed of red brick and terracotta. The principal elevations facing east and south feature alternating bands of square terracotta blocks and three rows of brick laid in stretcher bond. The subsidiary elevations to the north and west are of brick in stretcher bond. The roofs are covered in patterned clay tiles with pierced crested ridge tiles and terracotta finials. The lateral chimney stacks are in the Tudor Revival style with cylindrical terracotta chimney pots and terracotta pattern work. The two ridge stacks are of brick with recessed panels incorporating terracotta roundels to the upper section. Windows are horned timber sashes with margin glazing beneath segmental heads of terracotta voussoirs on the principal elevations and cambered brick heads on the subsidiary elevations. Rainwater goods are cast iron.

The plan is two-storeys with all rooms opening off a square hall centrally placed at the north side. Principal rooms face south and west. The former two-storey service range to the north now forms a separate dwelling.

The principal east elevation has an asymmetrical composition beneath a hipped roof. The off-centre, two-bay range comprises an entrance bay articulated by a buttress with offsets and high relief male and female terracotta figures to ground floor niches, and a set-back bay to the right. The segmental arch to the porch has three Tudor-rose style terracotta mouldings to the soffit. Within the porch, to either side, are niches with ogee heads and sills supported on foliate corbels. The set-back bay has a lateral stack with three cylindrical chimney pots. The set-back, two-bay range to the right has a lateral stack to the outer bay with two cylindrical pots. A wide plat band of offset terracotta tiles runs across the elevation, continuing to the south and west sides. Above the entrance porch is a terracotta panel with relief carving of naked male figures holding swags. Square terracotta panels with floral motifs appear to the lateral stacks and are repeated to the two-storey canted bay windows on the south and west elevations. The ground floor of the canted bays contains French doors with sash windows to either side and overlights above. The eaves cornice features a Tudor-rose style motif continuing around the whole building. The north elevation of Ravelin Manor House has a 12-light stone mullion-and-transom stair window with semi-circular heads to the upper panes.

The west elevation of the former service range has a symmetrical three-bay arrangement with a central 12-light stair window flanked by ground and first-floor six-over-six sash windows. A door to the left appears to be a later insertion replacing a window. To the right is a single-storey ancillary range.

The interior features a narrow entrance lobby with a geometric tiled floor leading to a double-height square entrance hall with a ribbed, barrel-vaulted timber ceiling. The east wall of the hall contains a Gothic-style white terracotta fireplace with a heavily moulded ogee arch with niches above and to the jambs. Above is a concave moulded mantelshelf incorporating three pairs of acanthus leaf corbels, with a cast iron grate and patterned tile surround. The open-well pine staircase has an open string, hexagonal curtail step, turned balusters, and ball finials and turned pendants to the newel posts. The west wall features a 12-light stone mullioned-and-transomed window with coloured leaded glass including circular panels depicting birds and flowers. The hall displays a scheme of 21 bas-relief sgraffito panels in pitch pine surrounds executed in-situ by Lauder. These are based around William Shakespeare's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', with some panels incorporating quotations from the play. The panels vary in size, with the largest being five feet wide by fifteen feet high.

The three principal ground-floor rooms have panelled timber ceilings with heavily moulded ceiling beams. The fireplaces in the rooms to the south are early to mid-20th century replacements; the room to the west has no fireplace. The four first-floor rooms have ribbed, barrel-vaulted ceilings and timber panelling above and below the bay windows. Each first-floor room retains a Royal Devon Art Pottery highly glazed and coloured relief tile fireplace. The fireplace in the east room is decorated with grape vines, bunches of grapes, and salamanders, with a later inserted cast iron grate and geometric tiled hearth. The fireplace in the south-east room has round-arched niches to the jambs containing female figures, and a frieze above with, from left to right, an owl, a salamander, a cat, a frog, and a bat. The cornice and whole feature additional leaf decoration, with a cast iron grate and floral-patterned tile surround. The fireplace in the south-west room features grape vines with bunches of grapes and a cast iron grate with floral-patterned tile surround. The fireplace in the west room is decorated with frogs on lily pads with a cast iron grate and a tiled hearth featuring a border of green tiles with birds.

Throughout the house are four-panel doors with associated door furniture. The house retains the remains of the bell system with a bell push next to each fireplace.

The former service range, now Little Ravelin, has been altered internally to become a separate dwelling.