Summary
A house with attached stable wings (one now a bar), of around 1810, built in Classical style of red brick, with alterations.
Only the original house and its east and west stable wings, and the late-C19 dining room extension, are included in the listing. Modern extensions to the house, modern garden features, C19 boundary walls, and modern service decks and kitchen interior in the original house are excluded from the listing.
Reasons for Designation
Hillside, a house of around 1810, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* it is a good example of a polite urban house of the early C19, with its symmetrical appearance enhanced by the retention of its stable wings, and retaining numerous exterior features, including its entrance, ironwork and joinery;
* its historic plan form remains largely legible and it retains much of its historic structural fabric and many interior features, including the main stair, stone-flag floors, plasterwork, joinery and fire surrounds.
History
Hillside was built around 1810 for Edward Birley who had married in 1808 but died in 1811 (aged 27) before it was completed. It is thought that it was begun by Edward’s father, John Birley (1747-1831), and then completed by Edward’s older brother William after Edward died. Edward Birley’s tomb (National Heritage List for England (NHLE) entry 1163974) is in the churchyard of Kirkham’s Church of St Michael, as is William’s (NHLE entry 1362358).
The 1848 1:10,560 Ordnance Survey (OS) map (surveyed in 1844 and 1845) shows that the southern portion of the current garden to Hillside was formerly part of a larger piece of land probably belonging to the house at Carr Hill. The 1893 1:2,500 OS map shows that a strip running north-south in the centre of this land was by then undivided from Hillside’s rear and was also open to Carr Hill’s land (Thomas Langton Birley, b1811, d1874, bought Carr Hill from the King family.) To the east of Hillside, the land originally belonged to the houses fronting Preston Street. The majority of Hillside’s former boundary walls therefore probably date from the third quarter of the C19 or later. (The boundary walls are not of special interest and are excluded from the listing.) The 1893 maps also show that the flat-roofed rear dining room extension had been built by this date. The eastern half of the rear range to the western stable appears to be marked on the 1848 map and might be original.
Hillside was listed in June 1950, by which time it had become a restaurant. Photographs on the Historic Environment Record show that opening-up in the area of the spine corridor’s access from the hall, and of the dining room wall, took place after the mid-1980s. In 2007 a three-storey access tower was added to the rear, a late-C19 eastern extension was enlarged and a paved rear patio and low brick walls were added (these items are not included). In the C21 the west stable wing became a bar, and it has been extended to the rear under a flat roof. The rest of the main building became vacant in 2009 and was acquired by the council in 2021. From 2022 to 2024 evidence-based repairs were carried out.
Details
A house with attached stable wings (one wing now a bar in 2024), of around 1810, with alterations.
MATERIALS: red brick laid in Flemish bond on a buff sandstone plinth with stone dressings and a slate roof.
PLAN: double-pile with flanking single-depth stable wings, and some rear extensions. The land falls to the west.
A rendered extension against the original east gable wall, C21 access tower and its link to the house, C19 boundary walls, and C21 paved patio with dwarf walls are not of special architectural or historic interest and are excluded from the listing.
EXTERIOR: the front elevation faces north and is of five bays and two storeys over a cellar, with ashlar cellar plinth, double flight of entrance steps, plat band, eaves cornice and gable stacks. The façade is symmetrical with a central basket-arched doorway with engaged Ionic columns carrying a simple cornice with a semi-elliptical fanlight over. The original door has six raised and fielded panels. All windows are original unhorned sashes with 12 panes and have (painted) stone lintels and sills. The stone approach steps rising across the front of the house to a central landing (6 to the east, 10 to the west) are open-string with projecting nosings and a balustrade of replacement iron stick balusters and handrail on the flights and outer edges of the landing, with a sunflower-like design in the centre of the landing. The cast-iron posts are original, bar a replacement newel at the foot of the left flight. The balustrade is surmounted by a late-C19 lantern support (with replacement lantern), with ladder-bars and a swan-neck stay tied to the cornice of the doorway, with replacement leaves and scrolls. The plinth has a cellar opening at either side.
To either side of the house are lower two-storey wings, symmetrical to the west, but not to the (wider) east, and each with segmental arches to the ground floor, where each wing has two wide openings with a slender doorway between, and a pair of (replacement) lunette windows to the first floor. The easternmost opening (in 2024, missing its former iron gates) has been widened with a flat lintel, the passage is blocked and the right-hand opening of the east wing has a pair of vertically hung timber doors. To the west wing, the left-hand opening is blocked to form a window, the passage doorway forms an entrance to the bar and the right-hand opening also has timber doors. The west wing has stone pads to the opening jambs (the lower left stone of the passageway jamb having an OS datum mark). The passage-fronts to the east wing are rendered, each with two doorways.
The east wall is rendered and largely obscured by a two-and-a-half-storey rendered extension that is not of special interest and is excluded from the listing. Above and behind this is a wide gable stack with corbel and eight late-C19 pots. Attached to the left is a three-storey glazed and rendered C21 access tower, with a similarly detailed link connecting to the house (the tower and link are not of special interest and are excluded from the listing).
The rear elevation is partially obscured on the right by the modern access tower. To the left is a late-C19 flat-roofed extension with cornice and parapet, and four tall sash windows without glazing bars; above are two sash windows. The roof has a modern skylight and a small chimneystack below the ridge. West of the flat-roofed extension is the gable end of an early-C19 single-storey rear range to the western stable wing. The rear of the western half of the western stable wing is obscured by its modern extension; the first floor is rendered.
The building's west elevation is obscured at ground floor level by the former stable ranges. Above this, it is rendered and scored, with a replacement large arch-headed stair window and attic sash windows. A wide gable chimneystack is corbelled and has eight pots.
C19 boundary walls and a C21 paved patio with dwarf walls, which are found in the grounds, are not of special interest and are excluded from the listing.
INTERIOR: the plan form is altered, but remains largely legible, especially on the ground floor, with a stone-flagged central entrance hall leading to the stair which rises to the west along the spine wall.
The front entrance has an internal surround with pilasters and reeding; the vestibule screen is late-C19 and altered with a widened doorway. Openings to the rooms off the entrance hall, with reeded jambs, have been widened. Most spaces retain historic decorative joinery (including shutters) and plasterwork, partially obscured by modern decks for services; the south-east room of the original house is an exception, with modern kitchen equipment and finishes. The north-west room retains ceiling strapwork and a fireplace with fluted and reeded surround, decorated with pomegranates. The north-east room extends eastwards into the east stable wing via basket-arched openings with plaster mouldings, and retains a ceiling rose. A depressed-arch opening accesses the stone-flagged service corridor from the stair hall; the mid-C19 larger arched opening here has been altered. The rear dining room has a modern wide opening, and retains a late-C19 fireplace and decorative plasterwork. The service corridor extends westwards into the rear range of the western stable wing (latterly toilets, but retaining hewn roof timbers). The cellar is also stone-flagged.
The stair hall retains decorative plaster cornicing and ceiling rose, and an elaborate basket arch to the landing. The open-string staircase has brackets decorated with Vitruvian scrolls, stick balusters and a mahogany handrail with scrolled newel, as well as a modern handrail. The stair window surround has reeded jambs and a semi-circular head decorated with feathers set radially; the window has rose-coloured margin-pane glazing.
The first floor is more altered, but retains some historic door surrounds, shutters, plaster cornicing and fireplaces. The roofspace and upper floor of the east stable wing have modern interiors, but the roof structure is historic and retains possible carpenters’ marks, as well as elements of the original internal box gutters.
The western stable wing is thought to have a largely modern bar interior on the ground floor.