Details
TQ 2777 NE CHELSEA EMIBANKMENT, SW3
(north-west side)
249/63/18 No. 13 ('Garden Corner')
GV
15/4/69 II*
House. Dated 1879. Built by Edward I'Anson Junior. The interior entirely redesigned and replanned by C F A Voysey in 1906-7 for EJ Horniman, then Liberal MP for Chelsea.
EXTERIOR: 4 storeys and attic with dormers. 6-window range, the 3 to the right treated as a 3-storey bay window. Above the bay, a Dutch Renaissance gable. Deep red brick with high tile roof. Entrance in 3rd range, through Voysey's planked door, the name of the house, "Garden Corner", picked out in gilt lettering thereon. From the ground to the lst floor, the plan is organised around 2 principal rooms; to the rear, or north, of the west room is a full-height principal staircase and top-lit well. On the ground and lst floor Voysey provided a grander open-well stair providing access to the principal entertaining rooms and the library on the lst floor. The alterations also included the installation of a lift to the east of the full-height stair bay. A rear wing, rectangular in plan with a canted corner to the north-east, rises from basement to lst floor, the top forming a roof garden accessible from the 2nd (or principal bedroom) floor.
INTERIOR: Voysey-designed fixtures - glazing, panelling, flooring, ceilings, fireplaces, clocks etc - are to be found everywhere, though his decorative intervention is most pronounced on the ground, 1st and 2nd floors, as well as in the stairs. On the nursery (3rd) floor, the architecture is considerably simplified, though the plan is still Voysey's; there are also fine fireplaces to his design to be found here. The top floor is also by Voysey. The basement, which Voysey lined with Dutch white tiles to improve the lighting, has been mostly compromised by subsequent alterations. This interior is widely regarded as one of Voysey's finest, both in terms of the quality of its fixtures and fittings and the ingenuity of its plan.
(Sources: Scott B, The Studio, 1908, No. 42, pp. 19-25; Simpson, CFA Voysey, An Architect of Individuality, 1979, pp. 116~27; Hitchmouth W, CFA Voysey, Phaidon, 1995 pp. 193-6.)
Listing NGR: TQ2766777726
