Uplands Residential Home

Uplands Residential Home, originally a private house, was built in the middle to late 18th century, with additions made in the 19th century. The building is constructed of rendered brickwork with an asbestos-cement slate roof. It is a symmetrical square block with a recessed central entrance bay.

The main facade is two storeys and a basement, and has a 2:1:2 window arrangement. The upper floor has twelve-pane sash windows. The ground floor features two projecting 19th-century square bays with paired sashes; the upper sashes have bars, and the lower ones plate glass. The recessed central entrance has a six-panel door with fluted pilasters and a moulded architrave, an overlight fanlight, and a projecting balcony supported by fluted Doric columns in antis, extending to a flat entablature, now with a 20th-century balcony railing. The portico is accessed by three steps with nosings, flanked by stone balustrades to square panelled piers. The front features a moulded cornice, blocking course, and coped parapet. A plain rendered wall is visible to the left return, with central twelve-pane sashes at each floor, and a 20th-century gabled porch over steps leading to the basement. Two eaves stacks are present. A long 20th-century wing to the left, Uplands Cottage, is not included in the listing.

The right return has a central stair window, a twelve-pane sash with a radial head, and two two-light casements at each level to the right. Again, two eaves stacks are present.

To the left is a late 19th-century conservatory with a flat roof, the central section of which projects as a five-faceted bow. The rear elevation has three twelve-pane sashes on the first floor, above a pair of French doors, and a central door with a fanlight, both covered by a glazed passageway leading to the attached wing.

The interior features finely detailed cornices and six-panel fielded doors in fluted architraves. One room has a white-painted fire surround with a moulded mantel featuring swags and enrichments; the back wall contains a wide elliptical-headed recess with fluted pilasters and rosettes. A similar recess in a room to the right has been partly concealed by an inserted partition. An elliptical arch provides access to the conservatory from this room. A wide elliptical arch with fluted pilasters and a moulded architrave leads to the transverse stair hall, which contains a delicate open-well staircase with stick balusters and a wreathed mahogany handrail. A passage on the axis of the entrance leads to a good six-panel door at the rear of the building.

The house occupies a prominent position on Mythe Hill, offering views to and from the town.