Naas House

Naas House

A large house of probably early 17th-century date, standing on the east side of Naas Lane. The walls of the main house are finished with roughcast render and limewash on the south and west sides, with traces of limewash on the north and east sides suggesting that the leeward elevations originally had flush-pointed coursed rubble. The building is roofed with double-Roman glazed tiles in a cross-gabled form with deep rubble stacks. A hexagonal turret on the south side, rendered on a timber frame, carries an ogee lead-covered cupola dated 1861 and moulded cornice.

The house is L-shaped in plan, with a timber-framed rear wing attached to and projecting north from an early 18th-century east range extension. The early 17th-century house has an overall double-depth plan with gable-fronted outer front wings flanking the stair hall, surmounted at the top by a viewing platform.

The north front is in two and a half storeys with two moulded string courses and a triple-gabled form over seven mullioned and transomed wood windows with bead-and-reel decoration to surrounds and wood lintels. Circular stone oculi with guilloche decoration sit over the gable windows, which have stone hood moulds with shallow stops. The central entrance comprises a three-panel raised moulded door with a smaller contemporary inset door bearing early 18th-century applied mouldings, set under a steep wood pediment within wood panelling to a much-worn sandstone moulded surround with rosettes and scroll brackets to a worn cornice. The draw bar inside this door is carved with the date 1573, possibly of recent addition.

The south front has two and a half storeys with string courses and projecting outer gable-fronted wings forming a 2+2+2-window range. All windows are stone-mullioned and transomed, two-light with bead-and-reel decoration to moulded members and stopped drips to gable lights. The central stair block rises to three and a half storeys with staggered windows to landings. Its off-centre right six-panel door sits in a moulded wood surround with cavetto hood. The block is surmounted by a viewing platform with access from the hexagonal turret, though raised walling or balustrade to the parapet has been removed.

The west elevation has similar fenestration, including a circular oculus with guilloche mould in the gable, and to the basement a three-light chamfered moulded casement in stone.

The east front is a two-gabled four-window range with wood fenestration as the north front. The right gable has two oculi, and there is a twentieth-century glazed door to bay 3. An early 18th-century east extension with cross windows to a three-window range to the north is attached to an outbuilding with walls of rubble and close-studded timber frame and double Roman tile roof. This outbuilding is a lofted single-storey range with dove-nesting boxes within brickwork on the east external face. The close-studded section to the south comprises two bays with a winder stair adjacent to a large open fireplace. A square-framed partition sits on the line of the truss at first-floor level. The outbuilding also contains a large high-ceilinged room, probably a brewhouse, with a simple vaulted plaster ceiling and fireplace.

Internally, a tight open-well early 17th-century staircase has very heavy square newels with flat caps and pendants, and heavy turned balusters on square bases, with deep string and handrail. A 17th-century screen in the ground-floor room to the west of the main entrance has simple moulded decoration to studs and mid rail. Stone flag floors throughout. All original windows have simple inscribed moulding to frame, mullions and transoms, with some windows featuring lowered cill seats with 18th-century panelling.

An early 18th-century secondary stair in the east wing runs from first to attic floors with a substantial moulded handrail and flat balusters in "turned" form; the balustrade at attic level has flat, twisted balusters. Early 18th-century panelling with box and plaster cornices appears in the north-east and south-east first-floor rooms and the south-east ground-floor room, including bolection-moulded panelling. A 17th-century architrave survives in one ground-floor room, while door joinery and panelled doors elsewhere are 18th and 19th century in date. Fireplaces are 18th and 19th century. The attic contains a plaster patch initialled 1718, typologically dating much of the internal panelling and other 18th-century work. The roof is a collar-truss form with halved apexes and two tiers of purlins.

The house is said to have been built for William Jones, founder of the Haberdasher's Company, around 1580, though it most probably dates from the early 17th century. It is a fine house of the period, with the viewing platform being a notable feature. The overall design, detailing—particularly the carved detailing to all windows—and plan form reflect advanced contemporary trends.