The Hill

The Hill is a house built between 1898 and 1899 as a hunting lodge for J. Hope Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak, designed by C.F.A. Voysey. The building features pebbledash walls, a tiled roof, and pebbledash stacks. It has two storeys and an attic, with three bays. There are buttresses at the angles and between the two right bays. A two-storey porch in the second bay from the left includes a doorway with a stone lintel and a studded plank door with ornamental hinges. Above the porch is a nine-light wood-mullioned window, with lights surrounding three sides of the porch. Small one-light casement windows are located on either side. To the left is a four-light bay window with wood mullions, and a similar window is found in the second bay from the right. A five-light bay window is on the right, with four-light windows featuring wood mullions in the right bay and the second bay from the right on the first floor. The hipped roof has wide eaves and two straight-headed dormers flanking the stacks. A wall screening the kitchen courtyard projects between the two right bays on the main front, made of pebbledash with tiled coping, featuring two doorways with arched heads and plank doors. Inside, the original fireplaces have been removed, and the main staircase has been altered, while the rear staircase remains unaltered with continuous newel posts. Preliminary designs by Voysey are preserved at the Royal Institute of British Architects in London.