St Francis Vicarage

A vicarage, designed by Giles Gilbert Scott around 1929-1930 to accompany the neighbouring Anglican church of St Francis, High Wycombe.

MATERIALS: buff brick laid in stretcher bond with ashlar dressings and a pantile roof.

PLAN: the plan is linear and extends from south-west to north-east. Reception rooms are placed on the south-east side of the ground floor, with the study having a bow window at the south-west end, as does the sitting room next to it. The kitchen is placed at the north-eastern end with a small external yard. The staircase and corridors run along the north-western side with the bathrooms, lavatories and storage.

EXTERIOR: the building has a flush ashlar band at first-floor sill level. Door and window openings have bricks with a quadrant moulding to their inner edges and soldier courses to the sills and lintels. Metal-framed casement windows have been replaced with uPVC substitutes.

The north-eastern entrance front has a projecting portion to the central five bays with a recessed arched porch and front door to the middle. Walling to either side is recessed and the eaves have a pronounced overhang. Ridge chimney stacks to right and left help to promote the sense of symmetry.

The south-western end is bowed and has three windows to each floor, symmetrically disposed, each with two casement lights.

The south-eastern front facing the garden has a similar arrangement to the entrance front with a projecting central portion of five bays. The five, two-light casements at first-floor level are evenly disposed. At ground-floor level the sitting room has a single-storey bow at left with a pitched, semi-circular roof of pantiles and the two dining room windows to its right have low sills. At right again and recessed is the kitchen with a three-light window and further to the right is a single bay with lean-to roof which marks the service end of the house and leads to the small enclosed yard which is set at a lower level than the surrounding garden. Solar panels have been fixed above the roof at the centre of this front.

INTERIOR: the house retains fittings such as original panelled doors and door furniture, designed by Scott. Fire surrounds which correspond to those shown in Scott’s architectural drawings survive in the dining room and sitting room, the former having its original tiled surround. The staircase retains the splat balusters shown in the internal elevation drawing. First-floor fire surrounds in the bedrooms have been removed and fixtures and plumbing to the kitchen, bathroom and lavatory have been renewed, but the plan has been little altered.