Westover, 65 Station Road

Westover, 65 Station Road

A distinctive Edwardian vernacular house of about 1910, built to the designs of architect John Harold Kennard. The building displays good survival of contemporary decorative detail and original plan form.

The house is constructed of brick with roughcast render and exposed brick dressings, with a tiled roof. It comprises two storeys and an attic. The steep roof descends in Arts and Crafts fashion to just above ground floor level, with windows to the first and attic floors appearing as dormers on the flanks of the building. The east and west fronts are gabled.

The west front, which faces the road, is symmetrical. It contains three ground floor bays with a half-glazed door to the centre, topped by an arched hood. Either side of the door are three-light mullioned and transomed windows with moulded wooden surrounds. A projecting band of tiles runs across the building at eaves level, above which sits a central six-light window to the first floor. The attic contains a central two-light casement, and above it is an arch and keystone motif executed in exposed brickwork.

The eastern gable end is similarly treated, with a projecting band above the ground floor. The upper two floors are symmetrical, with three-light casements to either side of the first floor. The ground floor has a central door, a three-light casement to its right, and a single-light window to its left.

The south front features an angled bay window to the centre at ground floor level, flanked by blank walling to the left and a later 20th-century metal-framed casement to the right. The first floor contains a gabled projection to the centre with clapboarded walls, incorporating a three-light window which has been replaced by a uPVC substitute. Two tall chimney stacks, symmetrically disposed, straddle the ridge.

Internally, contemporary decorative detail survives throughout the public spaces. The front door at the centre of the north side opens into the staircase hall, which contains a dogleg stair with vase balusters, moulded handrail, and square newels with ball finials. The sitting room, positioned on the southern side, features a fireplace flanked by panelled wooden pilasters with shelves above the hearth; the hearth has brick cheeks appearing to be of later 20th-century date. The dining room also contains a prominent fireplace, now boarded, and both rooms have picture rails and six-panel doors. The original kitchen has been adapted as a breakfast room, while the scullery and store rooms have been combined to form one larger kitchen.

The first floor contains a large bedroom incorporating the wide window on the west front, which retains simple but well-crafted original latches. Two further bedrooms occupy the eastern side, both with picture rails and cast iron fire surrounds. A bathroom projects from the centre of the southern front. The attic contains two rooms, also equipped with matching cast iron fire surrounds.