West Wood St Dunstan England, UK

Listed Building Description

Text courtesy of Historic England. © Crown Copyright, reprinted under the Open Government License.

MAYFIELD WEST STREET TQ 5826 (south side) 40/961 West Wood St Dunstan - II

Large house. c.1902 by W H Romaine-Walker for himself. Coursed squared sandstone to ground floor; 1st floor pebbledashed above moulded timber bressummer; renewed tile roof; brick chimneys. U-shaped plan, open on south-east (garden) side, with side-outshut (service wing) on west side. 2 storeys, 5 bays with 1-bay side out- shut. In Arts and Crafts style having: Tudor-arched doorways with decorative spandrals and nail-studded board doors with cover strips; wooden mullioned windows, on ground floor with transoms, having leaded casements with decorative catches and some with reset stained or painted glass medallions (some with C17 dates); rafter ends visible at eaves; ribbed and corniced clustered chimney- stacks. Garden elevation: 1st floor jettied; gables have decorative open-work bargeboards and finials with pendants. Main range of 3 bays, has 4-light bay windows in angles with wings and 6-light central window; continuous window to 1st floor. Wings: left wing is taller and longer than right wing; each has a 4-light window to each floor of gable end; right wing has a door to its inner return, and the left wing a 4-light bay window, a door, and on 1st floor two 3-light windows set in gables, the gable on right with bird holes. On left of left wing is formerly open-fronted loggia, now glazed conservatory, with restored wooden frame- work supporting roof. A stack to ridge of main range and each wing. Rear (entrance) elevation: projecting jettied gabled left bay has a 3-light window to each floor. next 2 bays have fire-back projection with offset top, 1-light window with old glass to far right, and two 4-light flat-roofed dormers. Gabled bay 4 has 3-light 1st floor window but is largely masked by 2-storey gabled porch. Porch: upper part of ground floor originally open, now glazed, with turned balusters; 2-light window to gable; doorway to left return having decorative arch with pineapple pendant and grotesques; internal door flanked by side-lights. Bay 5 has 1-light window; and the brick outshut a round-arched doorway. Right return: flat-roofed 4-light bay window to left; 3-light window to right; on 1st floor, central 2-light window below gable. Left return (side outshut): of brick with various small-pane wooden casement windows and flat-roofed dormers; one curious dormer in tile-hung half-gable abutting tall chimney on left, and one in pebble- dashed gable near top of roof. Interior: good quality interior survives well, including: panelled doors and window reveals; fireplaces with tile or marble surrounds, architraves and metal grates; tiled bathrooms with original baths. Sitting room, in Jacobean style, has panelling with low-relief-decorated pilasters with lions' heads above and modillion cornice; running-pomegranite plaster frieze; decorative plaster ceiling with panels containing flora and fauna reliefs and pendants; stone fireplace with low-relief-decorative flanking pilasters and columns at front which support entablature. Jacobean-style wooden stair rises from sitting room and has balusters forming arched panels; relief-decorated finialed newels, and late-C18-style balustrade to lst-floor landing. In Dining Room, walls hung with original tapestry; bolection-moulded architraves; elaborate fireplace; and coved ceiling. In principal bedroom cupboards flanking fireplace have delicate metalwork fronts. This is a high quality Arts and Crafts house by a major society architect of the period. From 1956-86 it was the home of General Glubb (Glubb Pasha).

Listing NGR: TQ5830026762