Clifton Hill Coach House

Details

577/0/10100 CLIFTON HILL 23 Clifton Hill Coach House

II Coach house. Built in 1852. The north east elevation is faced with flints with red brick lacing courses, window dressings and pilaster strips and the north west side rendered. The south east and south west walls are not currently visible. Slate gambel roof. One storey with two windows to north west elevation and (originally) four windows to the north east elevation.

EXTERIOR: The north east elevation has three round-headed windows with metal glazing bars and a similar blocked window. There is a full-height original coach opening with double plank doors, each embellished by original cast iron dog's heads within cast iron ovolo-moulded circles. To the left, under the blocked window is a lower double door, probably inserted after 1937 when the building was used for motor repairs. The north west end has a curved pediment and two end full-height square piers. There are two original round-headed windows with metal glazing bars and under the right hand window there was originally a pedestrian entrance which was later blocked but is visible internally. This facade has a number of sculptural embellishments, now mainly painted but either Portland or Coade stone, to enhance the view from the owner's house. These include a bust of a man in C17 armour on the left pier, a winged lion along coping, a large central roundel of a lion in the pediment and four relief heads, three female and one male, which may represent the Four Seasons. The top of the pediment retains the plinth of a statue only and the top of the right hand pier was concealed behind vegetation. INTERIOR: Softwood roof with queenposts with angled ties and purlins. A wooden suspended floor across half the width of the building appears to have acted as a hayloft. There is a cast iron fireplace on the south side. The western part of the building used as a coach house had a brick floor and the eastern part used as stabling for the carriage horses retained a cobbled floor and the groove where the stall partition stood. Between the doors is a mid C20 hand petrol pump.

HISTORY: Built in 1852 for the owner of No 5 Powis Villas, Mr J R Browne. According to the deeds he purchased additional land from the original vendor on which to build his coach house. The pediment was embellished with architectural details because it was visible from his house and garden. At a later date the coach house was let and converted into a motor repair garage and then used as storage for the nearby Royal Alexandra Hospital For Sick Children.

A substantially intact and rare survival of a coach house to a mid C19 villa with a mixture of vernacular building materials to one side and polite architectural and sculptural features to the end.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

493829

Legacy System:

LBS

End of official list entry

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