Radyr Chain

Radyr Chain is a red brick house built in 1894, designed in a restrained Tudorbethan style with two storeys and an attic. The building features freestone band courses and dressings, with red plain tiled roofs, cresting, and red brick chimney stacks.

The main three-bay elevation is consciously asymmetrical. The left-hand two-window section forms a hipped end to the garden front. The central part steps back at each storey and rises to a high parapet with a gable over a datestone inscribed 'AD 1894', topped with crenellated square-shaped finials springing from corbelled shafts. Below this, the first floor steps forward beneath a slope ornamented with a foliage frieze. The right-hand part is advanced and gabled, with a two-storey splayed bay capped by a stepped crenellated parapet, gable finial, and kneelers.

Windows are mullion-and-transom with two lights to the right and three lights to the centre, including a distinctive staircase window with pointed-arched lights and twin transoms. Some windows feature leaded glazing. The ground-floor porch is stepped forward and has a four-centred arched entrance with a six-panel door and robust freestone surround including foliated capitals and deep cornice.

A deeply dentilled cornice runs across the left-hand part, which has a central chimney breast. This cornice continues along the three-bay garden front, which is ivy-covered and has an advanced splayed bay to the left. The garden front includes two and three-light windows to the right with leaded glazing, a squared ground-floor bay to the library, and French windows to the centre under a lean-to verandah. Tile-hung gabled dormers flank an octagonal chimney stack. The west side continues simpler detailing but maintains the cornice and repeats the bay window parapet ornament.

A single-storey billiard room was added in 1912, as indicated by a datestone initialled 'JWW'. This rectangular range is also constructed of red brick with a tiled roof and parapet to the front. It features a broad seven-light splayed bay with leaded glazing and a brick chimney stack to the left end. A short corridor with a Tudor doorway connects it at right angles to the main house. The north side of the property faces a small yard.

The interior retains significant original features. The main entrance leads into a porch with a stained glass inner door. The hall beyond has fielded panelling to the dado, with a horizontal row of panels over vertically placed ones. Broken-pedimented timber doorcases lead to the main rooms.

An openwell staircase rises to the first floor, featuring a rising-arched balustrade, turned balusters, and huge newels with carved finials and a swept handrail undercut on the outer side for grip. The staircase is lit by the large three-light window containing heraldic glass.

The library, possibly formerly the morning room, has deep plasterwork banding to the ceiling forming a shouldered panel with segmentally-rounded ends. The walls are wainscotted below stucco-bordered panels with heraldic ornamentation at the corners, including fleur-de-lys, portcullis, and Tudor roses.

The adjacent large drawing room has a ceiling with a broad oval-shaped stuccoed border with torch motifs in the corners pointing inward. The dining room is wainscotted and features a free-Tudorbethan chimneypiece with fluted pilasters. A staircase to the attic has alternate diamond-pierced uprights and is lit by a circular window with Art-Nouveau coloured glass. A steep back stair with turned balusters also serves the upper floors.

The billiard room has a barrel vault with paired ribs at both ends incorporating interlaced ventilation panels. A similar design appears in the frieze continuing over the bay window. The room is wainscotted with inset carved rectangular panels of foliage and vines. At the far end, the wainscotting is canted forward flanking an Arts and Crafts manner tapered chimneypiece with a semicircular hearth. The overmantel displays carved panels of the Scottish thistle and English rose. The billiard room retains its original furnishings manufactured by Burroughs and Watts of London.