Upper Exbury, including terrace and garden walls

Upper Exbury is a country house designed for weekend entertaining and concerts. It is constructed with buff sand-faced brick walls, timber painted black, and a Delabole slate pitched roof with roof lights and dormers. The chimneys are brick. Windows and doors are timber-framed; the garden-facing doors are glazed timber except for the dining room, which has been fitted with powder-coated aluminium sliding doors. The terrace is paved with stone slabs. Rainwater goods and downpipes are concealed within the house.

The building has an L-shaped plan spanning five levels. The ground floor sits below garden level, while the first and second floors are higher in the north wing. A central staircase hall and lift serve all levels. The main living rooms and a two-storey bedroom wing run on an east-west axis facing south toward the garden. A service wing extends north at right-angles and has been enlarged at its north and east ends. The house is approached from the north-west through a sheltered underpass at the junction of the wings, with separate service access from the east. The main entrance at ground level leads to the staircase hall, with storage rooms to the east.

The double-height music room is the focal point, projecting south into the garden across several levels connected by steps around the central fireplace. These comprise a lower seating area, concert platform, breakfast area with terrace access to the east, and a second-floor balcony above the seating. A double-height dining room projects east into the garden. The sitting room lies to the west, divided from the music room by a sliding wall. The west wing also contains two bedrooms with en-suite bathrooms, a dressing room, and recessed south-facing balconies, accessed via a north-side corridor serving as a picture gallery. At second-floor level, two further bedrooms with en-suite bathrooms, a dressing room, and recessed balconies are reached from a narrower corridor. The north service wing has separate external access at first-floor level in its north-east corner and contains a garage and plant at ground level, kitchen and staff sitting room at first-floor level, and bedrooms and bathroom above.

The exterior presents simple, unpretentious elevations: three storeys visible from the north, two from the south. The entrance is concealed in the north-west underpass. The north side of the bedroom wing features a band of windows at first-floor level with four individual windows at second-floor level. The west façade of the staff wing has less ordered fenestration with dormers and two chimneys. From the east, the projecting dining room has a monopitch roof and clerestory windows. The double garage is flanked by an underpass leading through the house and a drive rising to first-floor level. Two lean-to extensions have been added. The south-facing garden elevation is particularly successful, with the bedroom wing's double band of windows relieved by balcony recesses and ground-floor terrace access. The pitched roof, punctuated by the chimney, extends down to first-floor level above the projecting music room.

Walls extend from the house to form garden walls to the north, east, and west. The eastern wall is a tall brick structure interpreted in the manner of a crinkle-crankle garden wall, shielding a high terrace walk on its south side. Its curved east end was originally intended to enclose a sculpture by Barbara Hepworth, which is no longer present.

Inside, walls are predominantly white-painted render, with oriental wallpaper in the sitting room. Ceilings in the hall, dining, and music rooms are wood-lined, with acoustic features designed into the latter two; ceilings elsewhere are painted render. Floors are timber in the dining and music rooms, stone slabs in the entrance hall, and largely carpeted elsewhere. Specifically designed fitted furniture and fittings survive throughout, including cast-aluminium balcony balustrade supports by Ann Henderson, sculpted crystal door-knobs by Helen Weir, and sculptural glass light fittings above the hall. Rooms were conceived as backdrops for specially commissioned artworks.

The double-height multi-levelled music room is the house's dominant interior space. The ceiling opens to the roof slope with a large pivoting timber shutter to the roof light, full-height glazing to the south, and a double-height window to the west. Fitted seating and shelving are integrated throughout. The dining room is an impressive high-ceilinged space with a fitted sideboard running along the north side; it has been refitted with modern windows and fittings replacing the original sliding doors. The kitchen has been altered and refitted. Bedroom and service wings are simply finished.