Summary
Pair of houses, built 1751, extended in two phases in the late C18 and unified in the mid-C20 as Southside House.
Reasons for Designation
Southside House, 3 Woodhayes Road, London Borough of Merton is listed at Grade II* for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* for the restrained Palladian composition, interiors and plan-form of the earliest parts of the houses from 1751, together with the distinct late-C18 phases of extension, which include several principal rooms of high quality and service ranges with an exceptional degree of completeness;
* for the rich and varied range of fireplaces, internal joinery and decorative features throughout the house, some original to the distinct C18 phases of building, with other varied elements of architectural salvage introduced principally in the C20. As a collection, the fittings and decorative fixtures constitute an impressive and varied repository of domestic architectural fittings dating from the C17 onwards.
Historic interest:
* for the survival of a significant proportion of the earliest range of the original pair of houses and the late-C18 additions, which demonstrate important elements of the design, construction and hierarchy of spaces of speculative housing in the second half of the C18;
* for the ambitious, idiosyncratic and theatrical architectural interventions of Malcolm Munthe in the mid-C20 - particularly expressed in the double-height entrance hall and the principal ground-floor rooms - which reflect the heightened interest in the creation of 'historic' interiors, driven by the ready availability of architectural salvage from demolished buildings before and after the Second World War.
Group value:
* with the connected coach house to the north-east corner of the forecourt which is distinctly listed at Grade II, along with numerous intervisible listed buildings situated along Woodhayes Road.
History
Southside House originated as two houses, first recorded as ‘Southside’ and ‘Holme Lodge’, built as a single-pile pair with a unified façade and flanking stabling and coach houses. They were built by John Lawson as early speculative development on the south side of Wimbledon Common, with the first record of the buildings noted in an insurance policy for ‘two houses adjoining, not quite finished’ issued in 1751; the plot having been shown undeveloped in John Rocque’s detailed map of 1741-45. In 1776, an estate survey prepared for the first Earl Spencer records the houses to be separately leased to tenants, though still under Lawson’s ownership. The houses remained tenanted, as shown in Land Tax records of 1782-83, by which stage ownership of the properties had passed down to John Lawson’s son, Francis. At around this time, probably in the last quarter of the C18, the houses were enlarged in two distinct campaigns of building work which added southern ranges to the rear. To the western house, a three-bay range of two storeys (with a basement) was built to connect with an existing gable-fronted return range (housing the stables) to the west end. The broader eastern rear range of four bays and three storeys is more coherent in its form and, on stylistic grounds, appears to date to around 1800. The Tithe Map of 1848 shows the two houses in this arrangement and still under the ownership of the Lawson family.
Over the course of the second half of the C19, several small phases of work were undertaken by various occupants of the two houses. The eastern house, Southside, was taken-on in the 1870s by a South African merchant, Lawrence Burrell Twentyman. During his time, at some stage between 1877 and 1894 (from the evidence of Ordnance Survey mapping from these dates), a substantial addition, probably a portico, was built against the east end of the façade. This has since been demolished but the scarring to the brickwork showing its outline remains evident. Changes made between 1877 and 1894 to the western house shown in the mapping demonstrate that the present front bay window was built, although early photographs of the house show it with a hipped roof rather than the parapet form introduced in the mid-C20. The set-back section of the rear range was infilled at Holme Lodge with a single-storey extension at this time, establishing around half of the present floorspace of the present dining room. At some stage late in the C19 or early C20 (prior to 1913 on the evidence of an archive photograph of this date), the parapet to the façade was rebuilt with castellations corresponding with the attic dormers.
The most pronounced changes to Southside House came under the ownership of Major Malcolm Munthe (1910-1995), who acquired the eastern house (Southside) in 1931 and later purchased Holme Lodge in around 1940. Munthe unified the pair as ‘Southside House’ in the 1950s, following wartime reacquisition of Holme Lodge for emergency housing. A series of piecemeal alterations, new insertions and extensions were carried out under Munthe’s direction up until his death in 1995. The history of the house’s association with Munthe and his family is complicated, chiefly because of the fabricated or embellished histories of the house associated with Munthe and perpetuated by numerous other sources (discussed further below). Munthe’s account in time came to be embedded in the official history of the house, including in the 1983 Buildings of England entry for the house and the statutory List entry of 1988, which both erroneously record the façade of the house as dating to 1687, apparently derived from Munthe’s narrative without supporting evidence. To a degree the history of the house also remains contested, with some aspects of the chronology not fully understood. This is particularly the case in relation to the timeline of Munthe’s interventions, with the lack of records kept, combined with unreliable claims made of dates and provenance of certain features, having obscured the history of Southside’s development in this period.
What is clear, from the available documentary evidence and the building’s fabric, is that the structural alterations and additions from the 1930s until 1995 divide into several distinct phases of work. The earliest changes, dated through mapping to between 1934 and 1951 (potentially pre-dating the acquisition of the western house by Munthe) relate to the extension of the rear dining room, which is shown in the revised mapping to extend to its present footprint. From the mid-1950s to around 1967, alterations appear to have principally related to the unification of the two houses. This work included the replacement of the separate front entrance with a single centralised door; with the original surround to the front door of the western house moved to the new front door and the earlier front doors correspondingly replaced by two rendered niches with statues of the figures of ‘Spring’ and ‘Plenty’ set on the plinths formed by the vaults to the previous entrance stairs. Associated with the repositioned central entrance was the creation of a double-height, galleried entrance hall, with an imported and adapted C17 chimneypiece opposing the repositioned door. The painted ceiling in the hall by Munthe and his brother is dated 1959. The unification required openings in the party wall at all four levels of the house. Other alterations from the mid-C20 appear to include the conversion of the eastern coach house to a garage and the building of connecting arcades with ocular windows to the rooms above; these joining the service wings of the house to the former coach houses. Into the 1980s, the clock tower was added, seemingly contemporary with the construction of the first-floor chapel, which was built prior to 1989 above the rear dining hall (of the former Holme Lodge). The principal rooms internally have seen significant integration of architectural salvage from various periods, much of it reworked by (or for) Munthe over the course of his tenure to create elaborate composite features. It is possible that some imported fittings pre-date Munthe’s time at Southside, such is the variety of the work and the lack of documentary evidence to chart the phasing of changes. Along with the imported architectural elements, Munthe filled the house with an eclectic collection of paintings, sculptures, tapestries, antiques, and various historical artefacts which were claimed to have associations with his ancestors.
Major Malcolm Munthe (1910-1995) was a British Army soldier, writer and art collector. He was the son of Hilda Pennington-Mellor, a British heiress, and Axel Munthe, a Swedish doctor, mystic and author, who had separated when their son was young. Following distinguished wartime service in the Special Operations Executive, including time behind enemy lines in occupied Norway for which he was awarded the Military Cross, Malcolm Munthe spent much of his time from the 1950s collecting art and overseeing works to several houses owned by the family, including Hellens Manor in Much Marcle, Herefordshire and Bankside House in Southwark (both acquired after the war, respectively in 1947 and 1945), along with other houses in Europe. The work undertaken by Munthe at Southside House was infused with a deeply personal and idiosyncratic mythology he created around his family’s association with the house, to some degree emulating his father’s Villa San Michele in Capri; an architectural evocation of the antique world, imbued with mythological associations and incorporating a vast collection of salvaged Roman artefacts. This was well known at the time through Axel Munthe’s bestselling book ‘The Story of San Michele’ (1929).
The work at Southside House has distinct parallels with Villa San Michelle in the way the building is central to the creation of Munthe’s personal mythology, with claims of an unbroken ancestral lineage to Southside House stretching back to the late 1600s, a narrative supported by imported architectural features and his own elaborate historicist features. The narrative, principally attributed to Munthe though propagated through various publications of the 1980s (including T T Daniell’s ‘Upstream London on Thames’, 1988, and an article on Southside House in World of Interiors, October 1986) essentially traced a family lineage to Robert Pennington, a purported courtier who had accompanied Charles II to exile in the Dutch United Provinces. In this account, Pennington was claimed to have acquired a historic farmhouse on the south side of Wimbledon Common, and between 1675 and 1687 employed Dutch architects to rebuild it to create the main front range of Southside House, which was then later altered and enlarged by John Lawson and his descendants, who were stated to have been connected to the Pennington family through marriage. Despite the fact that no documentary or physical evidence in the house has been discovered to support the assertions of pre-1750 development, and reliable genealogical records and historic maps contradict this account (even the existence of a royal courtier by the name Robert Pennington cannot be verified), the narrative was pervasive and apparently compelling; coming to be shared with a wider audience when Southside House was opened to the public from 1982, following the transfer of ownership to the Pennington-Mellor-Munthe Charity Trust.
Following the death of Malcolm Munthe in 1995, Southside House continued to be operated by the Trust, opening to the public for meetings, events and tours. Fire damage to the front range of the roof required extensive restoration work between 2010 and 2011, during which the entrance to a hidden room was uncovered beneath the dining room hearth, containing a cache of arms and ammunition which had been issued to Malcolm Munthe during his military service. The house was sold privately in 2022 and plans for restoration and new work are presently (2024) being formulated.
Details
Pair of houses, built 1751, extended in two phases late in the C18, then unified and remodelled in the mid-C20 with some later additions.
MATERIALS: the entrance front of the main house and service wings are of mid-C18 plum brick with predominantly red brick rubbed arches and Portland stone sills. Both of late-C18 rear additions are of stock brick, with red brick dressings and Portland stone sills and parapet coping to the eastern range. The western, late-C18 rear range has a pan-tiled roof, elsewhere there are clay plain tiles, mostly replaced following fire damage to the front range in 2010.
PLAN: double-pile plan, with rear ranges added in the late C18, with the exception of the dining room which was first built in the late C19, but was extended in the mid-C20 by Munthe. The chapel was added above the dining hall in the 1980s. The original houses were built symmetrically on plan, each with a small central entrance hall and staircase, with a reception room to either side at ground-floor level, which remains legible. The spine wall between the two formerly distinct houses has had door openings inserted on each of the floors since unification. There are kitchens and service rooms to the basement, with garret bedrooms, originally as sleeping quarters for staff, to the mansard attic level. The principal rooms are to the ground and first floor, with two-storey stabling and service ranges to the end bays of the house.
EXTERIOR: restrained Palladian composition to Woodhayes Road, formed of paired pedimented sections to each of the original houses, which are set proud of the rest of the façade. The main house is ten window bays wide, bookended by single-bay stable/service ranges with lean-to roof pitches. There are two principal storeys, with an attic and area-lit basement. A mansard roof runs along the full width of the front range, with dormer windows revealed by the corresponding castellated parapet, which appears to date to around 1900. The entrance is to the fifth bay from the left, with five stone steps of the 1750s (repositioned after the house was unified) and later iron balustrades. The panelled door and the inset reveals to the central entrance are original, but the pedimented Doric surround appears to be a faithful later-C19 or early-C20 replica of the original. Prior to unification of the house in the mid-C20, the door surrounds were positioned centrally under the paired pediments; the two entrances now replaced with rendered niches with inserted reproduction classical sculptures as part of the unification of the two houses by Malcolm Munthe. The multi-paned sashes across the range are mostly original, these with relatively thick glazing bars, set under gauged arches of rubbed red brick with Portland stone sills. Within the pediments there are lunette windows, which are original to the design. The dormer sashes to the mansard roof appear to be of later-C19 date. A canted bay window to the right of the entrance was added in the late C19, with the sashes mostly also of this date, although the two outer windows at ground-floor level are reset original sashes. An ogee-domed clock tower, added in the 1980s by Munthe, is positioned to the centre of the roof ridge. The brickwork pointing has now largely been renewed, but it appears likely that this was penny struck originally. Certain areas of brickwork have been refaced, notably in the end service bays and around the later niches, where replacement brick in Flemish bond is distinct from the original build. The basement areas are vaulted, with steps at the east and west ends. The east side retains its original English bonded brick wall to the vault with apparently original steps having been screeded over, but with the original Portland stone railing plinth remaining at garden level. The entrance to the cellar vault on this side has a later boarded door. The west side has original Portland stone steps and railing plinth at garden level, with concrete rendering to the basement area and an original door, with its surround and ironmongery.
The rear elevation expresses several distinct phases in the evolution of Southside House. At the west end is the gable-fronted, two-storey stable and service range of 1751, entirely of brick laid in Flemish bond. Larger modern windows have been inserted and the lower western section of the wall has been rebuilt crudely. Connected to the east side, with a break in the brick coursing, is the late-C18 extension range in Flemish bonded stock brickwork with penny-struck pointing, of two storeys with a shallow-hipped roof. The central door surround here was reset by Munthe from the façade of Southside House following unification; the surround is complete and, along with the upper Portland stone steps and cast-iron balustrade, dates from 1751, though the panelled door and fanlight over are slightly later, probably dating to around 1800. To either side of the doors are late-C18 French doors, with later alterations to enlarge the opening by adding top lights to the doors. The three basement area windows are late-C18 sashes with stone sills, original to this rear extension. The projecting dining room and chapel extension (to the easternmost bay of the former Holme Lodge) was added in phases, with the rendered-brick sections to the rear elevation at ground-floor level from the mid-C20 and the first-floor chapel, with miniature stained-glass Gothic arch windows and its copper-clad pyramidal roof, added in the 1980s by Munthe.
To the east side of the rear elevation, to the formerly distinct Southside House, is the four-bay, three-storey range (with area-lit basement) built in around 1800. This is the most coherent and unaltered portion of the rear elevation, built of stock brick laid in Flemish bond with a parapet with stone coping and red brick gauged arches to mostly original sash windows (though extended to the west end at ground-floor level). The door to the garden, set-off to the east, is original, with its Portland stone steps and wrought-iron balustrades. The low-set door to the basement area is a later insertion. To the east end and set-back - built against the earliest front range of the house - is the two-storey service range, which is built in plum brick laid in Flemish bond and dates to 1751. The single-storey addition to the front of this appears to be a later C19 addition, with the front section rebuilt (or added to) in the late C20.
The eastern return elevation was built and refaced in phases, with the front range in Flemish bonded stock brick, with a chimneystack, apparently rebuilt in around 1800. To the rear bay, a section of surviving original brickwork can be noted to the lean-to roof wing, but the main wall face to the north has been rebuilt, probably when the extension of around 1800 was added. The western return range has original Flemish bonded brickwork to the front range, with some repairs evident and a later chimneystack. The two-part stable door and frame is mostly of 1751, though with repairs and replacement of the lower section. The western side elevation of the stables is of rendered brick.
The flanking arcades to the ends of the house, joining the service wings of the house to the former coach houses were added between 1971 and 1975 by Munthe following unification of the house, built of stock brick with red brick dressings. Rendered pilasters capped with urns divide the two arches to the arcade at ground floor and ocular openings above.
INTERIOR: the principal entrance is via the double-height, galleried hall, created by Munthe through the conversion of the western reception room of the formerly distinct east house (‘Southside’), and the incorporation of the original first-floor room above. This is the most dramatic of Munthe’s interventions, with salvaged architectural features used in combination with new additions to evoke a C17 Baroque character, seemingly conceived to give credence to the claimed – though false – narrative of Richard Pennington having partially rebuilt an earlier house here in 1687. Set opposite the entrance is an over-scaled, applied fire surround, which is a composite work, combining some salvaged architectural details in a Baroque style with other decorative elements of plaster and concrete, including a central roundel marked ‘M’. The inserted doorway to the west wall has an elaborate arched surround created by Munthe, with paired stone columns with Ionic capitals supporting a broken pediment which integrates a crude plaster bust of Charles I set on a cork entablature. The east door surround incorporates decorative console brackets within paired pilasters, presumably imported from elsewhere, with the original door and architrave here removed. Two Doric columns resting slightly off-centre on plinths support the gallery, though photographs from the 1980s show these to have previously been Ionic columns; for reasons unknown, these appear to have been later repositioned in the store building to the west end of the forecourt and replaced. The floor is laid with travertine and black marble chequered pavers, known through rare surviving documentation of Munthe’s work to have been installed in the 1960s. To the gallery level, there is a balustraded passage from the rear southern room through to the staircase. A replica Jacobean overmantle, with elaborate strapwork and paired caryatids, is positioned above the fireplace on the south wall and a salvaged pair of stone engaged columns are set on plinths to the east wall, interrupting the dado rail and cornice to this side. The ceiling to the hall was painted by Munthe and his brother in an ambitious though amateur fashion (dated 1959), with a trompe l'oeil effect creating a coved Baroque ceiling and a central panel, which features a copy of a Rubens’ painting of around 1620 of Christ and John the Baptist as children, which was claimed to have been previously owned by the family. The north and west walls at gallery level are rendered and scored, to achieve an ashlar block effect. Details in this room that appear to date from the mid-C18 include the dado panelling, formed with flush pine boards with a moulded skirting, deep base board and dado rail, along with the (repositioned) panelled front door, with its original architrave, iron rim lock and inlaid iron hinges.
To the east of the central hall is the original entrance and staircase to the formerly distinct eastern house. The original entrance door is blocked and the chequer flooring of the 1960s is continued through from the galleried hall. The open string staircase is of 1751, though is slightly late for this date in style and form, with comparable examples in London dated to the 1720s. It has plain Doric newel posts and bottle balusters, arranged two per tread, with shaped end brackets and a moulded handrail, turned to the closer step. The wall side is dado panelled, with the moulding to the skirting and dado rail matching the handrail profile. The under-stair panelling and associated four-panel door appear to be later insertions of around 1800, possibly associated with the building of the rear range at around this time. The staircase rises through to the second floor and descends to the basement.
The eastern reception room of the 1751 house, remodelled by Munthe in the mid-C20, is set-off the staircase hall. Again, the 1960s chequer flooring installed by Munthe continues through the room. This room also retains runs of flush dado panelling, topped with a moulded rail, similar in form to the adjacent staircase. To the south wall, there is a simple slip panel fire surround formed out of slabs of marble with moulded edges. This, like the stairs, is suggestive of a slightly earlier C18 date, but is carefully integrated and on balance would appear to be original to the room. Next to this, the door and surround leading to the southern ‘music room’ has mouldings framing the double-filleted ovolos, which fit with similar examples of the earliest 1751 work, but the door leads to the late-C18 rear range, so it either forms part of this later phase or was moved from elsewhere in the house. The windows to the north have mid-C18 shutters which have panels with sunk beads and strap hinges. The cornices that survive in this room appear to be the work of Munthe, possibly incorporating earlier elements: the long sections are elaborate, combining runs of egg-and-dart and dentil courses, but these collide with another type on the window wall, which is a simpler Doric cornice, possibly original, though the quadrant ovolo moulding is oversized, suggesting some later reworking. The timber arch leading to the staircase hall and its flanking Doric pilasters, are salvage pieces that have been inserted, bearing no relationship to the cornice that passes above. Opposite is a box-like structure covered in canvas, falsely claimed to be a historic ‘powder closet’ in accounts of the house from the 1980s, though clearly of modern plyboard construction with some salvaged features, including a C18 cupboard door and architrave, with a section of late-C17 bolection panelling integrating a hinged panel and oval opening, possibly part of a historic closet.
The southern ‘music room’, is formed of the two amalgamated garden rooms added as part of the later-C18 range to Southside, seemingly united and remodelled by Munthe, with little in situ remaining that convincingly predates the mid-C20. There is greater coherence to this interior scheme than seen elsewhere in the house; with salvaged features integrated with some erudite new details fashioned in a consistent C18 style. The rooms have a common entablature, with a deep frieze and an architrave designed to integrate the fluted Ionic pilasters that dress the walls of the west portion of the room and the central fluted Ionic piers that divide the two room sections. These pilasters and piers are mid-C20 additions, while the cornice within the entablature is of Doric box form and, as in the adjoining front reception room, has over-scaled ovolo moulding, which appears to have been introduced by Munthe. The dividing Ionic piers are in fact paired pilasters placed back-to-back, with the join of the pilasters covered by sheets of plyboard. The fireplaces at the two ends are different in design; the west is a large marble bolection-moulded fireplace of the late C17, with flanking niches for sculptures, whereas the eastern fire surround is a mid-C20 piece incorporating a frieze framed by scrolls, with a central mask and swags, designed in an elaborate C18 manner. The windows to the garden have original architraves and box shutters.
The reception room to the west of the entrance hall (formerly the eastern room of Holme Lodge), known as the ‘breakfast room’, is largely the product of remodelling by Munthe, though with some original elements. The canted bay window was added between 1877 and 1894 and the sashes retain box shutters of this date. The door through to the entrance hall has been widened and various elements of architectural salvage appear to have been combined to create a theatrical composite surround, integrating Regency reeded pilasters with roundels, truncated cornice sections with egg-and-dart decoration, a keystone with a shell motif and a blank arch with applied blocks, possibly intended to simulate dentils. The entablature around the room, breaking at the canted bay, incorporates a scallop shell cornice of plaster and a deep frieze with pressed-leather sections, embellished with swags and assorted classical motifs. The fire surround, to the south wall, has a lugged architrave enriched with carved scallop shells and rosettes framing marble insets, correct in form for the 1751 date of this part of the house, but topped with a later-added frieze under a Tuscan cornice with the script motto applied ‘PARCE QU’IL ME PLAIT’. The six-panel door through to the western stair hall appears to be original, with panels framed by double-filleted ovolos and with an architrave with ogee moulding.
The western staircase to the former Holme Lodge is slightly later than that to the east, replaced in connection with the building of the rear wing, which has varying floor levels. The staircase appears to date to the late C18, with a turned balustrade with slim balusters and a mahogany handrail, rising through to the second floor. The stair hall has been widened to take-in part of the western reception room, forming a corridor back to the rear range, which unlike the stair hall has a box cornice enriched with egg-and-dart moulding. There is simple moulded cornicing to the west wall. The fielded panelling to the corridor is of early-C20 date. The corner display cabinet with arched head and keystone is an insertion formed of salvaged elements. The broad floorboards here are of mid-C18 date, with early moulded skirting retained.
To the west of the stair hall is a further reception room, most recently functioning as a gallery space when the house was opened to the public, with fixed display cases presently (2024) obscuring the walls. The room retains a doorway with an architrave with ogee moulding and double-filleted ovolo mouldings framing the panels to the door, matching the door to the east side of the stair hall. The fire surround is of early to mid-C18 design, potentially original to the house. The surround has a lugged architrave framing the opening to the hearth, topped with a frieze integrating scrolls and a fret pattern of intersecting segments of circles under a Tuscan cornice. Within the fire surround is a cast-iron hob grate, with classical embellishments including a pair of ovals with Grecian figures and pierced fretwork, slightly late in style and too narrow for the opening, but with an ornamental back plate that fits well.
The internal form of the western rear room, entered through the stair hall corridor, appears to date from the late C18, when the rear extension was added. The panelled doors with fluted Regency architraves, together with the consistent moulded cornice, deep skirtings, box shutters and architraves to the windows are all consistent with this period. The fire surround, at the west end, is stylistically of an earlier-C18 form with a lugged architrave and frieze with a carved swag motif, but this sits correctly with the marble hearth and the trimming of the original floorboards, so appears to be a careful later insertion. The decorative wall painting and Munthe family coat of arms appear to be contemporary with the entrance hall (around 1959).
The dining hall, which is accessed via steps down from the bay-fronted ‘breakfast room’, predominantly dates to the mid-C20, having been extended to its present footprint by 1951. The pair of fluted pilasters mark the narrowing of the room, these are similar in form to those in the ‘music room’, with gilt reeds to the fluting. There is a consistent box cornice, of mid-C20 date and the fireplace at the north end is an elaborate confection by Munthe, in plaster and concrete, integrating an array of classical motifs and elements of salvage within a theatrical Baroque composite design. The fireplace is not served by a flue and would never have functioned. Beneath the hearth stone is a hidden store for Munthe’s cache of weapons, which was discovered in 2011. The six-panel door and architrave through to west reception room dates from 1751 and has been repositioned. The part-glazed door to the breakfast room appears to be an original external door through to the garden, prior to the rear extension.
The service wings at each end of the house are original to the house, but are simply appointed with much alteration. The bay to the west end has a small store, converted to a WC, and a set of C20 stairs with a narrow door of around the 1930s from the main section, which is a modern-fitted kitchenette. The door from the westernmost reception room is a six-panel door with butt hinges set in an architrave, dating to around 1800; the box shutters to the front window appears to be contemporary with this. The stable occupies the rear half of this service range and can only be externally accessed. It is a largely complete stabling range of the mid-C18, surviving with boarded and panelled horse stalls, a two-part stable door, tethering rings, brick flooring and a hopper and iron feed grates of 1751.
The east service range is formed of three rooms. The front portion is a storeroom, possibly converted from its original use as a coach house (a sash window of around 1900 seeming to have replaced broad carriage doors to the front range). There are steps down from the eastern reception room, with narrow floorboards, a simple fire surround (to the east wall), cavetto cornice and four-panel doors all seeming to date to the late C19. The room is set-off to the west at the front is a kitchenette, with further four-panel doors and a winder staircase with simple newel post, handrail and balusters all of late-C19 date. The rear room is the width of the front two, and is entirely modern in its fittings, save for one four-panel door of the late C19 from the front room.
At first-floor level, the eastern staircase leads to the main eastern bedroom and the gallery passage of the main entrance hall. The western bedroom is entered through an original six-panel door complete with architrave. This room has a box cornice with enrichments, deep skirting and a dado rail, which together with the lugged timber fire surround with limestone insets (to the south wall), all appear to date from 1751. A WC and shower room have been added in this room to the north (front) portion, apparently after 1990. The two end rooms of the front range, within the service wing, were refurbished in the late-C19 with the winder staircase, fire surround and four-panel doors all consistent with this date. The rear rooms, added in around 1800, consist of a western room with original six-panel doors with architrave and two windows with architraves, aprons and box shutters. The ceiling, box cornice and dado are all later replacements. To the west wall of the room there is a fireplace with a timber lugged surround with marble insets, which appears to be a good replica replacement in mid-C18 fashion. An opening has been created in the wall between the two rear rooms, with a later panelled door. The east bedroom, in common with the adjacent west room, has a later cornice, ceiling and dado, though the box shutters and architraves to the windows, along with the moulded marble fire surround and flanking cupboards appear to be original to the room. The entrance from the front room (north wall) was inserted at the time of the enlargement of Southside in around 1800 and the six-panel doors and architrave are correct for this date.
The west staircase at first-floor level leads to two principal bedrooms within the front range, both through original six-panel doors retaining architraves. The east room survives as an almost complete interior of 1751, including wide floorboards, windows with architraves, box shutters and furnishings, together with an enriched moulded cornice and marble slip fireplace with a lugged architrave and its hearth stone. A small lobby to the south-east corner was inserted by Munthe as a discreet way of linking this room to both the gallery of the entrance hall and the rear passage back to the chapel, obviating the need to pass through the room. The west room has a box cornice with egg-and-dart embellishment and an original fire surround, also with a hearth stone and marble slips within a lugged architrave. The two-panel door through to the service range is of a simpler form than other examples of 1751, though is likely original as it is consistent with other doors to service ranges in the cellar and at attic level. The two service rooms to the front range, probably originally staff rooms, have been largely refitted as a bathroom and landing, retaining simple two-panel doors and some fitted cabinets of around 1900. The rear room, also part of the original build of the house, has a timber binding beam and some other fittings of late-C19 date, including a simple timber fire surround and six-panel door. The rear reception room was added in the late C18 and is accessed directly from the half stair landing to the north-west corner through a late-C18 panelled door in contemporary architrave. The room has been subdivided to integrate a kitchen in the eastern bay, with modern fittings. The simple timber surround to the west wall is probably original, with a later mantle shelf. The windows to the south retain late-C18 reveal linings, in place of shutters. To the east of this room is the 1980s first-floor extension added by Munthe, integrating a small bedroom with WC and a separately accessed chapel to the east end (accessed via the corridor from the gallery passage) which is simply furnished, with a built-in cupboard with mezzanine floor. The small stained-glass windows have leaded lights, one being a late-C19 salvaged piece, the others are 1980s replicas. There is an altar table and several icons at the south end, but these are not fixtures of the house.
The second floor consists of a main front range, to the mansard attic level of the original houses, and three rear rooms to the eastern extension range of 1800. To the east side, the staircase has a timber chest built into the half landing, made of original wide boards, though probably dating to the later C19 on account of the fixtures and style. To the west of the stair hall is a garret bedroom with wide original floorboards, entered through an original two-panel door with architrave. A corridor back to the rear rooms has been added to the room - retaining a section of broad, horizontal, matchboard panelling - probably added in around 1800 in conjunction with the building of the rear range. An additional southern corridor was created by Munthe in this room, as part of the integration of Holme Lodge, which has taken-in a late-C19 fireplace that previously served the bedroom. To the east, the other original garret bedroom has been subdivided, to provide a bathroom which integrates a late-C19 grate fireplace and some wide floorboards, together with a kitchenette which doubles as a passageway back to the eastern rear room. The room has its original two-panel door and architrave. To the rear extension of 1800, two larger rooms, joined by a corridor against the east end wall of the main range, flank a smaller central room. Both of the larger rooms have two-panel doors with architraves and fire surrounds with marble insets and iron hob grates. The western room also has original box shutters to the window. The central room has original its two-panel door with architrave and floorboards.
To the west end of the second floor, the western room has been subdivided to provide a WC. A two-panel original door and architrave survive from the stairs, whereas the door to the WC is a later four-panel type of the late C19. A fireplace to the south wall has a mantel shelf but no surround. The eastern room has a further original two-panel door, broad mid-C18 floorboards and a bricked-in fireplace with mantle shelf to the south wall.
The basement is arranged much as it was following the additions of the late C18 to the two houses. It divides into a front and rear range, accessed internally from the east and west staircases, with separate external stairs up from the front vaulted areas. Stone pavers, original fitted Welsh dressers and fire surrounds (with later inserted cooking ranges) and some matchboard panelling survive to both kitchen ranges of 1751 to the east and west ends of the front range. At either ends of the range are original brick vaults, undersailing the service wings. Several original four-panel doors survive through the front range together with the original 1751 flight of stairs at the west end, set directly beneath the later Regency staircase serving the rest of the house. The inner western room has been altered to accommodate the late-C19 bay window, but with original stone pavers, presumably with some repositioned from elsewhere in the house. The inner eastern room appears to have been a secondary service room or staff lodgings, with an original fireplace with stone surround and bracketed mantle shelf and several fitted cupboards with panelled doors. Set to the south of the eastern kitchen is a vaulted wine store with brick paviour storage bays, which is likely to be from the original phase of mid-C18 building, given it is only in communication with the front range.
The rear range of the basement has two further kitchens, probably built to supersede the smaller front kitchens in association with the extensions to the two houses in the late C18. The eastern kitchen is accessed from the stairs, with a stone flagged floor and a wide stone surround fireplace to the west wall and Welsh dresser of around 1800 to the east. A door through to the pantry appears to be a repositioned panelled door of 1751 from the front range. The pavers continue into the pantry, which has a cupboard and a high-level shelf above the door, which both appear to be original to this portion of the building. An end room is a distinct larder or store, with architrave to the threshold, but the door has been removed. To the west end, the rear kitchen is accessed via a shorth flight of stairs and panelled door of late-C18 date. This kitchen also retains late-C18 flagstone pavers and a substantial stone fire surround to the cooking range at the west end. Part of the east end is sectioned off to form a store, with a later-C19 panelled door at the north end giving access.
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: the western store and garage building is in a dilapidated state but retains some original fabric. Its roof, comprising timber rafters and purlins sitting on a timber wall spanning rendered brick piers, has been renewed in the C20, using machine-cut timbers. The roof has exposed timber battens and plain tiles, with no underlay. The front wall to the building is of lapped weatherboarding, some of which is original, retaining two potentially mid-C18 posts. The rear wall is the original boundary wall, partially rebuilt with modern stock brick. An internal beaded matchboard partition separates southern store area from northern garage. The flooring is of cobbled stone.
To the east end of the house there is a freestanding WC and store built against the original boundary wall, with a lean-to roof. The door surround and an internal boarded divide are likely original.
The front wall is Flemish bonded plum brickwork, with capped gate piers, partially rebuilt by 1913 and later reworked in the mid-C20 to heighten parts of the wall and introduce the present openings and ball finials. The boundary walls to the west and east (Wright’s Alley) are of varying date with sections of mid-C18 date to the north end at both sides, heightened in places, with sections rebuilt in stock brick in the later C19 and C20 to the southern stretches. A section to the south-east end of the plot has been rebuilt in concrete blockwork.
