Description

KENTON SX 98 SE

6/207 Southbrook -

GV II

Villa. 1882 (datestone), date of 1883 in stained glass. Built for Mr Hooper, said to have been an Exeter architect but not appearing in contemporary Exeter directories. Yellow brick with red brick dressings and terracotta decoration ; red fish scale tiled roof ; chimneys with yellow brick shafts with vertical red brick bands. Eclectic free Gothic, remarkably well-preserved both externally and internally. Plan: Approximately L plan, the principal rooms in an east-facing block overlooking the Exe estuary, the services in a rear left wing. The main entrance, on the north side of the main block leads into a large stair hall with a dining room and sitting room to the left (east) and a parlour to the south. A passage leads from the stair hall into the service wing with service rooms on either side. Exterior: 2-storeys and attic. Irregular with timber-framed gables with deep eaves with finials and pendants, a terracotta and moulded brick platband and a complete set of original high transomed casement windows with stained glass in the top lights. The entrance (north) elevation has a 4 storey tower in the centre of the main block, projecting to the front, the top stage clad with timber-framing with a hipped roof crowned with ornamental ironwork. The porch projects from the tower with a sloping tiled canopy carried on curved brackets on corbels with a moulded stone arched doorway with a hoodmould and carved label stops, large original panelled front door with strap hinges. On the right return on the main block a large 3-light window, entirely filled with stained glass, lights the stair. The 3-bay east elevation has a 2-storey bay to the left, gabled to the front and a 2-storey canted bay to the right, gabled to the front and a 2-leaf garden door in the centre. The south elevation is long and irregular, the main block to the right with a 2-storey canted bay, gabled to the front at the right and a single-storey bay window to the left, lighting the parlour, the roof gabled to the front above it. The service wing is gabled to the south at the left. The north elevation of the service wing is also gabled to the north and ends in a single-storey laundry at the north end with a stack. Interior: Perfectly well-preserved, including all joinery ; good chimney-pieces (the dining-room chimney-piece a very lively Jacobean Revival) ; floor tiling including good 1882 tiling to the porch ; stained glass, especially a pretty series of birds in the top lights of some windows. Grand free Jacobean open well stair with turned balusters and a ramped handrail, the balustrade eccentrically curled at the bottom of the stair. Plaster cornices, including a wall frieze (possibly pressed paper) in the parlour. Some unusual light fittings also survive ; a timber chandalier in the dining room may be original and Art Nouveau suspended light fittings in some of the rooms may be late C19. The service wing is also very intact and includes a late C19 range stamped Hubber of Exeter. One of the few post 1880s alterations is the refurbishment of a cloakroom in the stair hall in the 1920s which has been entirely lined with peach and pale green marble. A rare example of a perfectly-preserved ambitious 1882 villa, the profile of the roof and the tower clearly visible from the road.

Listing NGR: SX9746080907

External Links

• Wikidata Q26462385

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Recommended Books

• 
  Yorkshire: York and the East Riding (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Period Property Manual (New Ed)
• 
  Drawing up a Local Listed Building Consent Order: Historic England Advice Note 6
• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Period property manual, victorian house manual 2 books collection set by ian rock