Description

899/0/0 OSBORN ROAD
01-NOV-07 26
BISHOPSGROVE

GV II
Detached house, late 1860s, by George Rake, with extension to west of 1997 and other minor late C20 additions and alterations.

EXTERIOR: two storeys with galletted flint elevations dressed with yellow brick quoins and window surrounds and a slate roof. The house has a symmetrical double gabled front to the south with canted bay windows on the ground floor (that to the western gable extends to the second floor and is a later addition). The return to the east comprises a projecting gable bay and a broad chimney breast, which flank a yellow brick Gothic entrance porch which has a polychromatic brick arched opening with hood-moulding and decorative stops. Its gable, and those to the principal elevation and the eastern return, has a scalloped barge board with quatrefoil perforations and a finial. The ground floor bay window has a crenellated parapet and other windows have hood mouldings, gauged brick pointed arches or stone lintels; all the windows have their original timber frames. The house has tall chimneys in brick and flint. The western and rear elevations are much plainer, the flint is not galletted here and the composition and fenestration are largely determined by function. The building was extended to the west in 1997; this range, connected to the principal elevation by a single storey corridor, is in a sympathetic style and in similar materials to the original house.

INTERIOR: a very good degree of survival of mid-C19 fabric and features. These include: the timber door and encaustic tiles in the entrance porch; a principal stairway with carved square newel posts and barley-sugar balusters; a servants' winder staircase; a number of fireplaces ranging from large marble and stone surrounds in the reception rooms to small timber mantelshelf and simple grates in the servants' rooms; a number of original doors, with distinctive splayed panels; additional window seat joinery in a similar design; original cornices in the principal rooms; and a kitchen range. The only major change to the interior since the late 1860s is the insertion of two windows in the wall dividing the former servants' quarters from the main house. Yet through the separate staircase and the clear differences in the size of the rooms and the style of the fireplaces, the distinctions between these two areas of the house are still very readable and this contributes to the special interest of the building.

SUBSIDIARY: There is a mid-C19 coach house in the grounds, of one and a half storeys, in flint and brick with a bargeboard and finial on the eastern gable to match the main house. There is also a small outbuilding immediately behind the house. Both are contemporary with the house and included in the listing.

HISTORY: Bishopsgrove dates from the late 1860s and is likely to have been built at the same time as its neighbour, The Grange. Although the site was undeveloped in 1868 (the date for the first OS map for the area) plans of The Grange survive which are dated 1860 which suggests that the date of construction of both houses was in the years just after the OS map survey; both houses appear on the second Ordnance Survey map of 1898. The two buildings are very similar and Bishopsgrove is likely to have been designed by the notable local architect, George Rake, the architect of The Grange. Rake has several Grade II listed buildings to his name including St James' Hospital, Milton Prison and St Mary's Church, Kingston, which are all in Portsmouth.

The house has been extended since the C19 with the addition of a two storey range to the west of the house. There have also been additions to the rear in the form of a single storey office building.

Osborn Road was laid out from the mid-C19 by Charles Osborn (1794-1859), a Fareham resident. Each building plot was bounded by handsome flint boundary walls which lend the street consistency, despite the varying styles and materials used in the villas; the walls are all listed Grade II. The street contains a number of listed buildings including the Ellesmere Cottage and the Vicarage of Holy Trinity Church. All the villas are set back from the street and have generous garden space to their forecourts and rears. Taken as a whole, the street is an eloquent testimony to the mid-late C19 approach to architectural style, which saw no inconsistency in placing an Italianate villa next to a Gothic house, and combining the proportions of a late-Georgian building with decorative elements more to mid-C19 taste in a single composition.

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION DECISION: Bishopsgrove is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* the house is the work of an architect of regional significance, George Rake, who has several listed buildings in the Portsmouth area to his name;
* Rake's use of local materials, in particular galletted flint, and the high quality of the craftsmanship identifies Bishopsgrove as a distinctive house which differs from the many standardised designs of the period;
* the composition is successful with disparate elements creating an organic appearance which is unified through the consistently fine details including decorative bargeboards with finials, stone hood-mouldings, polychromatic brickwork in the porch and several tall flint chimneys;
* there is excellent survival of original features inside including many fireplaces, cornices, doors and other joinery, and two staircases;
* Bishopsgrove also has group value with the flint boundary wall which runs along the roadside of the grounds, the nearby church and a number of houses of the mid-late C19.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26671542

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Old House Handbook 2 Books Bundle Collection (Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair,Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability)
• 
  ENGLAND GUIDE TO POST WAR LISTED: A Guide to Post-war Listed Buildings
• 
  Period Property Manual (New Ed)
• 
  County Durham (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England) by Elizabeth Williamson Nikolaus Pevsner(1983-03-11)
• 
  Nottinghamshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)