The Red House

Details

BELL STREET 1. 5253 (North Side) No 11 (The Red House) TL 4821 1488:3/19 6.6.52 II* GV 2. Circa 1700, refronted 1720-30, rear extensions 1860-70. Elaborate red brick house set back a little from the street. Old red tiled gabled roof and internal gable chimneys. Front range 2 storeys and attics one room deep with central entrance and stair. Timberframed wall divides from shorter central rear range in English bond brickwork with semi-basement kitchen originally with a low room over under a catslide continuation of the main roof and with lateral chimney. Roof raised to create Victorian drawing room. Western rooms extended to rear and single storey coach-house on E end built in later C19. Symmetrical facade, 3 heavy pedimented dormers survive from earliest phase with wooden mouldings of great projection. Middle pediment has 3-centred curve, outer ones triangular. Later wooden casements. Text book example of 5 windows, Georgian front in red brick with gauged brick window dressings, dentilled cornice, parapet, rusticated corner pilasters, moulded band at floor level, and broad rusticated panel surrounding central flat arched window. 6 panel door with central bead and raised and fielded panels. 3 pane fanlight. Elegant wooden doorcase with fluted Ionic pilasters and full entablature with swelled frieze, modillioned cornice and segmental pediment. C18 boxed sashes a little recessed, with 6/6 panes. Interior has c.1700 well stair rising through 2 storeys. Panelled string, turned balusters and moulded handrail raking in cusp curves. Panelled W room of same period on 1st floor with 2 panel door raised and fielded. Similar panelling above and below moulded chair rail. Moulded cornice. Fire surround with architrave, consoles and full entablature as shelf. 2 panel cupboard doors with 'H' hinges. Window recesses and reveals have later ovolo moulded flat panelling. Wide 3-centred arch c.1860-70 with floral impost leads into small extension with contemporary cornice, deep frieze and 2/2 sash window. 2 panel bolection moulded door with raised and fielded panels to ground floor W room which has panelled dado and moulded cornice. Wooden fire surround c.1790 with fluted pilasters and flattened drum caps. Full entablature with relief ornament. Frieze has swags, urn on projections over each pilaster, and central tablet with lyre, crossed musical instruments and swags. Leaf bed mould. Shelf edge decorated. Yellow figured marble slips and early C19 basket grate. 2 panel doors generally with plank doors in attic rooms. Former basement kitchen has large blocked fireplace, shelf on shaped brackets. Round headed cupboard to left with panelled door and 'H' hinges. 8/4 box sash windows with segmental arches and slightly recessed box. Victorian drawing room has 2/2 recessed sashes with gauged flat arches. Floral cornice with egg and dart moulding and cove. Simple marble fire surround. Date '1875' said to be carved on tie beam in red brick and slate roofed single storey coach-house on E. Red brick walls flank front court closed by wood fence of 6 posts with square urn finials, linked by simple picket and rail panels over dwarf wall, probably to original pattern.

House and interior extensively illustrated by Nathaniel Lloyd in his A History of English Brickwork (1928) p307, and The History of the English House (1931) p242 (front), p339 (dormers) and p460 (staircase).

Listing NGR: TL4820714883

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

160729

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Lloyd, N, A History of English Brickwork, (1928), 307
Lloyd, N, History of the English House, (1931), 242 339
Lloyd, N, History of the English House, (1931), 339

End of official list entry

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