Drummers Yard

Drummers Yard is a house dating from circa 1938, designed by John Campbell for C. Rissik. It is constructed of whitened brick with Cornish slate roofs and tall stacks. The building has a complex cruciform plan, primarily of two storeys, rising to three within the principal block. The design incorporates steep pitched roofs, unornamented windows, and a deliberate play of masses at right angles to one another, with varying heights, apparently a simplified interpretation of Scottish inspiration.

The main west front features a two-storey transverse corridor block with deep-set windows under the eaves of the first floor, comprising a row of seven lights and a row of nine. The ground floor accommodates evenly spaced paired casements, with simplified flat hoods over. An arched doorway is adorned with a hood. To the left of this range, the gable end of the main block rises, featuring a three-light window. To the right is a crosswing with plain walls facing the courtyard and a gable end to the west, including an end wall stack. Arched ground floor windows are visible on the end wall and garden side. To the left of the entrance court is a long two-storey range with a projecting circular tower. This tower has a conical roof and a side wall stack, with long upper floor windows and close-set small windows on the ground floor. The range beyond features deep-set upper windows under the eaves, closely spaced, and wider-set, larger ground floor windows. A carriage arch leads through to a service court.

On the garden side, the rear of the entrance front has a former open loggia, now with four windows above. The left-hand gable of the crosswing has two arched ground floor windows and two upper windows set to one side. The main three-storey block includes much plain wall, and at the first floor, paired arched windows are set close to the corner, opening onto a balcony. The east gable has a six-light upper window. A loggia running east connects with a theatre block at right angles, gable ended to the north and south, with a plain arched doorway on the south end and four long windows on the east side.

The interior features woodwork by Peter Waals, some painted decoration by A. W. M. Rissik, and a staircase with marble inlaid risers, presenting a generally unusual level of elaboration for the period. The house was originally named Birchens Spring.