The Red House

The Red House

An eclectic Arts and Crafts style house with Swiss accents, reflecting that Carter's wife was Swiss. The building is constructed with a grey stone plinth, red brick walls with dry dash render (painted), and some weatherboarding. The roof is red tiled, punctuated by turrets and oriels, with tall red brick chimneys rising prominently. Most windows have been replaced, respecting the original openings and following original patterns as far as possible.

The Victoria Road front is dominated by a broad gable end with a lower projecting gabled block to the left; a porch sits in the angle between these blocks, and a projecting single storey service block clasps the north corner. The main gable features at attic level a broad window and tall stair window; on the first floor are two-light and four-light windows; on the ground floor to the right is a round arched window, and above the porch a four-light window with lead cames and bathstone mullions. The flat roofed porch has a flared pyramidal roof with a tall finial over a square-headed entrance doorway. The smaller gable has a belcote-like apex with finial. A three-light window sits near the gable apex, with a red brick chimney to its left. On the first floor, below a bathstone band, are one two-light and two single-light windows. The ground floor has two camber-headed windows. A single-storey service block with hipped roof clasps the corner.

The garden front displays a broad weatherboarded and rendered gable with an attic oriel window with side lights. The first floor has, to the left, a large window rising into the gable, two small-pane windows and a door with marginal windows giving onto a balcony. The balcony is supported on rendered columns (the glazing between columns and house is modern) of a verandah, with a parapet of semi-circular tiles. To the right of the balcony is a polygonal turret over a ground floor bay with a complex hipped roof and tall finial; to its left is a door to the balcony. The ground floor has a projecting bay to the left, in the angle between verandah and house with hipped roof; a turreted bay to the right with a roof that sweeps down on the right side, containing two-light and single-light windows to the garden.

Set back under the balcony is a broad elliptical arched glazing to the main room with French doors; art nouveau red and green stained glass sits above. A terrace on a grey stone plinth has a brick parapet with semi-circular tiles.

The house retains original Arts and Crafts interiors, largely unspoilt. The porch contains an oak entrance door leading to an entrance hall. The staircase features an oak handrail and splat balusters with Voyseyesque pierced heart motifs. Elliptical-headed double ledged and braced oak doors with curvilinear braces of Swiss character serve the principal rooms. Doors on the ground floor bear door locks and latches from Coates Carter's collection of antique Swiss and South German door furniture.

To the right of the hall is a sitting room with a contemporary fireplace. To the left is a kitchen, modernised, with service rooms to the front. To the rear of the hall, occupying the full width of the house, is a large hall-type living room. It features oak ceiling beams and oak panelling rising to approximately 1.8 metres high. An ingle-type contemporary fireplace sits under a lower quadrant-shaped ceiling, with paired oak seats built into a shallow semi-hexagonal bay. A screen to the left of the main door and boarded oak doors to the kitchen and sitting room complete the arrangement. A broad elliptical arched glazing with French doors and art nouveau red and green stained glass above overlooks the garden.

On the first floor, ledged and braced doors with contemporary door furniture serve the bedrooms, which feature high coved ceilings and original built-in cupboards.

The staircase continues in the same style to the attics, which include a broad room (said to have once been a nursery) with a splayed window facing the Bristol Channel.