Lewesham House And Attached Railings

Lewesham House is a house built around 1820 to 1834. It is a Grade II listed building for its group value, situated on the south side of Suffolk Road in Cheltenham.

The house is constructed of ashlar over brick, with a concealed roof and stucco to the left end. It has ridge stacks. A single-depth plan is accompanied by a full-height service range at the rear. The main elevation has two storeys over a basement, with four first-floor windows, the second and fourth of which project slightly. Ashlar detailing includes ground-floor rustication to the projecting sections, drawn into voussoirs over the windows, a first-floor band, and a crowning entablature. The ground floor has segmental-arched windows with 6/6 sashes over 2/2 tripartite sashes. The first floor has 6/6 sashes, all with plain reveals and sills, with the first-floor sills incorporating incised Greek key ornament. The basement has 8/8 sashes. A six-fielded-panel door with a fanlight featuring radial glazing bars is located on the right side of the front elevation, set within a surround of fluted Doric half-columns. The rear of the house retains 6/6 sashes with margin-lights, and 3/6 sashes.

The interior retains original joinery and plasterwork, including panelled shutters to windows. The inner hall features an egg-and-dart frieze and an acanthus modillion cornice. There are mainly six-panel doors with panelled reveals, tooled architraves, and fleurons to the angles, as well as tooled architraves to the windows. Cornices and ceiling friezes are present in the main rooms, along with a central ceiling rose. A Regency-style fireplace with circle motifs to the corners and an iron grate is also original, as is a roller blind behind the pelmet in the front first-floor room. The central staircase has stick balusters and a wreathed handrail.

Attached area railings have a scrolled lozenge balustrade, which was undergoing restoration at the time of the listing review. The area was formerly known as Commercial Street, as shown on Merrett’s 1834 map of Cheltenham.