Kit'S Close

Kit’s Close is a house built between 1936 and 1937 by Christopher Nicholson for Dr. Warren Crowe. Later alterations were made and a swimming pool extension was added to the southwest end. The house is constructed of brick laid in a distinctive header bond, with the headers arranged vertically, and is mostly rendered. The northwest front is whitewashed, while the southeast side is now painted pink. The house has flat roofs and whitewashed chimneys with revolving funnels. It is arranged in a “L” shape and was built in the International Modern style.

The house is two storeys high, with a single-storey service wing. The northwest-facing entrance front has four bays of two- and three-light metal casement windows, one of which is louvred, to the left. A central staircase projection has a glazed side, a blind wall curving back to the right, and an entrance on the right side. To the right of the entrance front is a curved ground floor wall behind a flat porch canopy, a barred wooden bay window with square panes, and an eight-light metal casement on the first floor. To the far right is a blind rendered wall and a brick garden wall incorporating a small glass house, from which the glazing bars have been removed. To the left of the entrance front is a projecting service wing with six port-hole windows and a garage. The southwest end features a first-floor projection on steel poles, one of which has been replaced by a rendered pier, alongside a later 20th-century verandah and swimming pool extension. The garden front has a blank brick projection to the left and continuous casements to the main central block.

The ground floor originally featured large sliding wooden casements, but these have been replaced with fixed glazing within wooden frames of the original size. Central French doors are now a later 20th-century plastic casement. The first floor has a balcony with a later 20th-century iron railing, metal casements and French doors, with the right bay slightly recessed and a flat projecting canopy over a sleeping balcony. A set-back brick block to the right has ten small port-holes, lighting a servants’ passage on the first floor, and later 20th-century metal casements. A terrace has altered paving, and a curved garden wall extends to the far right.

The exterior was originally completely rendered and whitewashed. Inside, a large ground floor room has a central folding partition, with a room plan inspired by the shape of a grand piano, and an altered fireplace. A cork-tiled winder staircase is present, as are fitted wooden shelves and cupboards with aluminium handles throughout.