Summary
House, later vicarage, now offices; facade possibly of 1765-70 by John Chute of the Vyne; earlier fabric behind.
Reasons for Designation
St Mary's House is listed at Grade II* for the following principal reasons:
* Architectural interest: a substantial Georgian Gothick villa, possibly of c.1765-70, which would make it a rare representative of the very earliest phase of the Gothic Revival;
* Architect: the building is attributed, on stylistic grounds, to John Chute of the Vyne (Hampshire), architect of the nearby Donnington Grove and joint designer of Horace Walpole's seminal villa at Strawberry Hill, Twickenham;
* Group value: with other nearby listed buildings including Nos. 34, 36-8, 39 and 44 London Road.
History
Neither the precise date of the building at No. 40 London Road (now known as St Mary's House), nor the identity of its architect, is known with any certainty. The street front, however, has stylistic affinities with the nearby Donnington Grove, a substantial Gothick house designed in 1763 by the gentleman-architect and antiquary John Chute (1701-76). Chute, whose own residence was at the Vyne, ten miles to the south-east, was a member of Horace Walpole's 'Committee of Taste', and one of those responsible for designing the seminal Gothick villa at Strawberry Hill near Twickenham in Middlesex. Donnington Grove was built for James Pettit Andrews, whose family owned the land to the north of London Road; it has been suggested that the present building - or at least its facade, which appears to post-date the fabric behind - was built by Andrews for his brother-in-law, the poet and priest Thomas Penrose. (Another building in a similar Gothick idiom, formerly an entrance lodge to Shaw House - also owned by the Andrews family - stood at No. 84 London Road until its demolition in 1970.) During the later C19 No. 40 remained a private dwelling and was known as Ivy House; the present name dates from after the First World War when it became the vicarage to the nearby St Mary's Church, Speenhamland (demolished). It is currently (2014) used as offices.
Details
House, later vicarage, now offices; the facade possibly of 1765-70 by John Chute of the Vyne; earlier fabric behind.
MATERIALS: the main facade is of red and grey brick with stone dressings. The rear part is of dark red brick. Hipped roof of plain tiles.
EXTERIOR: to London Road, the house presents a three-storey, double-fronted facade in a Georgian 'Gothick' style. A flight of steps with railings leads up to the central doorway, which has an ogee-headed stone surround with a pineapple finial and tripartite flanking shafts topped by small pinnacles; the door itself has four raised and fielded panels and a Y-tracery fanlight over. A stone string-course runs the width of the facade, breaking upward to form hood-moulds to the ground-floor windows; these are paired Tudor-arched sashes with intersecting glazing bars, set in square stone surrounds. The outer first-floor windows are of the same type, albeit without the string-course; the central window has a single broad sash. The second-floor windows are similar but less tall. Above these is a stone cornice with quatrefoil ornament. A crenellated parapet crowns the facade.
The rear part of the house appears to be of earlier date and consists of two hip-roofed cross-wings with a narrow piece of infill between. The left-hand return wall has two ogee-headed sash windows, presumably contemporary with the facade.
INTERIOR: not inspected.
