Clubhouse, Beaconsfield Golf Club

The clubhouse at Beaconsfield Golf Club was built in 1913-1914 to designs by architect Stanley Hinge Hamp. Alterations were made to the east elevation in the 1930s, and single-storey extensions were added to the east and west elevations in the 1980s.

The building is constructed of red brick with hipped and pitched clay tile roofs. Most of the windows are replacement metal-framed leaded casements set in square-headed brick surrounds, many with brick mullions.

Plan and Layout

The main building consists of a two-storey range running broadly north-south, with a two-storey cross-range at the southern end forming an L-shaped plan. The northern end of the main range is single storey and partly covered by a late-20th-century glazed pavilion roof. A 1980s single-storey extension occupies the northern part of the east elevation. At the east end of the southern cross-range stands a detached single-storey pavilion.

On the ground floor, the principal space is the Members Lounge at the southern end of the main range. North of this is an office, separated from the Men's Locker Room (with its metal-framed pavilion roof) by a lobby that gives access to the northern loggia on the west elevation. The Pro Shop runs along the west side of the locker room. To the north-east of the Members Lounge, in the 1980s extension, are a bridge/meeting room, bar area and WCs. At the south end of the Members Lounge, the cross-range contains another lobby opening onto the southern loggia and the newly relocated Ladies Locker Room at the north end of the cross-range. The east end of the cross-range houses the kitchen and service rooms. The main staircase is located in a full-height bay window adjoining the main entrance on the east elevation of the main block.

On the first floor, the staircase gives access to the large dining room, with a meeting room and stores to the north, and offices and a caretaker's flat in the cross-range. A stair provides access to an attic room. The detached eastern pavilion is L-shaped in plan with a flat-roofed block to the south.

Exterior

Built in a Tudorbethan vernacular style, the west elevation faces the golf course and has a symmetrical two-storey central section with a steeply pitched hipped roof. At either end are tall, triple-stack, Tudor-style decorative chimneys. The elevation features a pair of projecting full-height canted bay windows with four-light mullioned windows and deep brick parapets with stone capping. These parapets were originally of pierced brickwork but have been rebuilt. Between the bays, the parapet has a later clock face. On the ground floor, a loggia projects forward between the two bays, supported by two outer brick piers and a pair of inner brick columns. The loggia originally had a pierced brick balustrade matching the parapets, but this has been lost. Two pairs of French windows with multi-pane glazing in timber frames open onto the roof of the loggia from the first floor.

The sections either side of the bays have triple-light windows on each floor, though the southern ground-floor window has been replaced by a 1980s bay with corresponding triple windows. The returns have hipped dormer windows in the hipped roof. At each end of the elevation are single-storey pavilions with hipped roofs. Recessed loggias with pairs of brick columns give access to the men's locker room (north end) and women's locker room (south end) via arched doorways in the returns. Each end terminates with a deeply concave brick oeil-de-boeuf window.

At the north end, the elevation is extended by the projecting single-storey Pro Shop with its hipped roof. The southern part is modern with a glazed shopfront in the return and a yellow brick oeil-de-boeuf containing a stone plaque bearing the club badge in relief. The original northern section has mullioned windows and a hip-roofed projection.

The eastern (entrance) elevation of the principal range is irregular, with a centrally placed full-height canted bay containing the main stair. South of this bay are mullioned windows on both floors. The window bay has a deep parapet with stone coping extending above the roof eaves, topped by decorative pierced brickwork of the type lost on the west elevation bays. It contains a nine-light mullion and transom window. On its northern side is a recessed arched entrance beneath a sweeping roof, replacing the original entrance which was slightly further north. North of this is a projecting flat-roofed single-storey modern extension in orange brick, which wraps around the north end of the original elevation. This extension has a parapet and three-light mullioned windows. Behind it, the roof line has been altered. Originally there were two hipped dormer windows north of the bay, but only the southern one survives. The northern dormer was replaced by a projecting hipped roof (with a hipped dormer matching or incorporating the original) added when the elevation was extended forward in the inter-war period, along with an L-shaped hipped roof just to the north. Between the two replacement hipped roofs is a tall chimney.

The north elevation of the cross-range has a crowstep gable where it meets the principal range, with a pair of mullioned windows on the first floor and a mullion and transom window on the ground floor. East of this is a section of roof with low overhanging eaves and a hipped dormer window, with a pair of ground-floor windows. The eastern end has a set-back gable with a triple-light mullioned window and tall chimney with corbelled top, plus an attached semi-gable. A brick wall with Roman tile capping extends from the range to link with the eastern pavilion, incorporating an arched doorway with panelled door.

The southern elevation has a pair of projecting gables linked by a section of roof with two hipped dormer windows. The western gable takes the form of a large white-painted half-timbered gabled dormer window with a four-light transomed window. It is connected to the eastern gable by a low section of roofing with overhanging eaves forward of the main roof, creating a sweeping effect. Ground-floor windows are double or triple mullioned, with a four-light mullioned window on the first floor of the east gable.

The L-plan single-storey eastern pavilion has hipped roofs with overhanging eaves, a prominent stepped chimney to a gable on the east elevation, and mullioned windows.

Interior

The principal ground-floor room is the Members Lounge, designed as a neo-medieval parlour. It has a beam ceiling of unpainted oak timber with moulded beams and joists and a row of three posts down the spine of the room. At either end are large matching projecting fireplaces with stone surrounds, moulded hearths and carved straight-stemmed foliage decoration to the spandrels. The plasterwork overmantels have bands of floral decoration in relief and central niches with decorated keystones. In the north-east corner is a bar hatch with an oak surround with narrow panelling. The bar, which also serves the bridge/meeting room, has oak bar-backs.

In the east wall are a pair of brick arches. The northern arch gives access to the stair lobby, which is panelled and contains a door with triangular glazed light to what was originally a telephone kiosk; the signage survives. An arch with a multi-pane glazed door gives access to the 1930s entrance lobby, which retains the mullioned window (now internal) of the original elevation. The southern arch opens onto the main stair and is filled with an iron screen in its upper part. The winder stair has oak dado panelling and handrails and an ornate carved lion finial. The polygonal ceiling over the stairwell has decorative bands of plasterwork.

On the west side of the lounge, the bay windows either side of a pair of French windows onto the course are framed by polygonal pilasters with corbelled capitals of narrow bricks. The bays have fixed bench seats. The lounge has a parquet floor.

North of the lounge, the principal space is the Men's Locker Room with its late-20th-century glazed pavilion roof supported on four timber queen-post trusses. The walls have two tiers of wooden lockers and benches, which may pre-date the roof. The adjoining visitors' locker room is plainer with a beam ceiling.

At the southern end of the building, the Ladies Locker Rooms were relocated from the east end of the cross-range and refitted in 2007, with locker fittings dating from then. There is a fireplace with tiled surround matching that in the office at the other end of the lounge. South of the Ladies Locker Room, the cross-wing contains modernised kitchens, WCs and other ancillary rooms. A closed-string secondary stair with stick balusters and moulded handrail gives access to the upper floor.

The principal first-floor space is the dining room, which has an oak timber-framed barrel-vaulted roof with three arched crown-post trusses with curved braces. The brackets supporting the tie beams are decorated with carved grotesques, and the trusses and purlins are moulded. The room has small-squared oak wall panelling above which is a plaster frieze with cross, flower, animal and bird motifs in relief. Over this (on the east and west walls) is a moulded timber wall-piece/cornice.

At each end are projecting stone fireplaces similar to those on the ground floor but with two-stage overmantels: the lower stage has a moulded panel and the upper part continues the frieze with the same decorative motifs augmented by a pair of monograms or initials and a figure of a golfer. The two bay windows on the west side, either side of four French windows onto the balcony, have oak panelled bench seats, and there is a panelled bar hatch in the north-east corner. The room at the south end of the main range has exposed timber framing to the side walls. The first floor of the cross-wing is largely taken up with the caretaker's flat.