The Croft (Adjacent To County Hall)

The Croft is a large detached house built in 1899 by architect Samuel Denman of Brighton for John Henry Every. Originally a family home, it has since been used as offices.

The exterior is asymmetrical, constructed of red brick in English bond with stone window dressings and timber-framed gables with plastered infill. The tiled roof features tall channelled brick chimneystacks and terracotta ridge tiles. Windows are mainly mullioned and transomed, with wooden sash windows to the attic floor and entrance front. The north-west entrance front has a projecting gable with tile-hanging and an elaborate gabled porch with open balustered sides and curbing stones. A one-storey service wing extends to the north-east. The south-west front displays two large gables with carved wooden bargeboards and pendants, the northern one supported on a large carved bracket, and two two-storey canted bay windows. The south-east garden front features a large projecting gable with carved bargeboards and pendant supported on large wooden brackets with a two-storey canted bay window, a large gabled tile-hung dormer, and an elaborate two-storey wooden verandah with round-headed arches to the ground floor and gabled projections to the first floor. The ground floor door in the garden front has an unusual wooden latticed screen on pintle hinges. A contemporary conservatory with a brick base, retaining cast iron columns and columned staging and pond, is attached to the south-east side. A brick and stone terrace wall with four central stone balusters over a four-centred arch to a central seat alcove is attached to the south-west.

The porch interior has a mosaic floor, decorative iron grille, and stained glass panels with floral designs and brass fingerboards. The main staircase rises the full height of the entrance hall with moulded balusters, Moorish arches, elaborate newel posts, arches supported on baluster-shaped pilasters, and a moulded coffered ceiling. Ground and first floor windows to the south-west have stained glass with sunray designs to the round-headed fanlights; French windows leading to the verandah retain elaborate brass fingerboards at both levels. Principal rooms contain stained glass windows with floral motifs to the transomes. A ground floor room, probably originally the dining room, has a plastered ceiling with arches and pilasters, and bears the motto "OMNE BONUM DEI DONUM". Doorcases feature swansneck pediments, and a panelled hatch opens through to the service end. Another corner room has a cast iron fireplace with swag and urn decoration and tiled surround to the firegrate. A first floor room contains elaborate stained glass windows with a roundel bearing the Phoenix symbol and an elaborate wooden fireplace with mirrored overmantel with columns and pilasters below. A further room has a cast iron fireplace with an oval mirror to the overmantel, end pilasters, and turquoise tiling at the sides of the firegrate. A bathroom retains original green and white wall tiles, floor tiles, and an original radiator. The attic floor retains two fireplaces with pilasters and cast iron firegrates. The service staircase features wooden stick balusters and a turned newel post with acorn finial, together with a cambered tiled fireplace and original built-in wooden cupboards.

The Croft was built at a cost of £800. A detached motor house was added in 1905 (subject of a separate listing). John Henry Every's father, also named John Henry Every, started as an iron founder in Lewes in 1832, with the Phoenix ironworks established in North Place in 1861. The company produced railings and lamp posts for Sussex streets, oven doors and soot boxes for homes, and parts for piers in Brighton, Eastbourne, Bognor, and Hastings. The elder John Henry Every died in 1887. His son John Henry Every served as mayor of Lewes from 1903 to 1905, founded the Phoenix Sports Grounds and the Phoenix Institute (which provided baths and recreational facilities for employees), and was responsible for the restoration of Thomas Paine House and Westgate Chapel (both listed). He donated Thomas Paine House to the town.