Bickley Court

Details

785/0/0 CHISLEHURST ROAD 24-APR-07 36 BICKLEY COURT

II Detached house. Built in 1904 by Ernest Newton (1856-1922) in a restrained Neo-Georgian style.

MATERIALS: Red brick in English bond with hipped plain-tiled roof with moulded timber cornice and five tall brick chimneystacks. Windows are a mixture of twelve-pane timber exposed box sashes with stone cills and wooden side hung casements.

PLAN: Two storeys and attics, L-shaped. The main house faces north to south, roughly rectangular with end canted bays to the south and a projecting service wing to the north. Four main rooms to each floor of main house and six bedrooms and a dressing room, including two bedrooms above the service wing.

EXTERIOR: The north or entrance front of the main house has two hipped dormers with casement windows. Below eaves level this front is asymmetrical with a large three-tier, three-light staircase window to the left, two irregularly spaced casement windows to both first and ground floors, and an offset entrance with panelled front door and side lights set within a porch with arched timber cornice and lead roof supported on brick pilasters. The projecting service wing is symmetrical with sash windows which have cambered heads to the ground floor, two windows facing facing north on each floor with two windows to the first floor and three to the ground floor facing west. Attached to the east side of the service wing is a one storey service wing, partly extended in the late C20 to form a garage. The south or garden front is symmetrical with four tripartite hipped dormers with casements. The lower floors have ten sash windows, cambered to the ground floor, six of these in end two storey canted bays. Iron hooks survive from the original wooden louvred external shutters, shown on an early photograph. The garden door is offset for effect with a flat wooden hood with cornice and console brackets, pilasters and half-glazed door with divided rectangular fanlight. The east side has mainly sash windows except for a tall casement window lighting the service staircase.

INTERIOR: A lobby with half-glazed wooden panelled screen leads to a staircase hall with a painted wooden well staircase with gallery, slender turned balusters and square newel posts. A number of eight-panelled doors survive on the ground floor. The drawing room to the west has a replaced cornice and fireplace. The adjoining study, originally a morning room, retains a wooden fireplace with marble and tiled insert and carved and coved cornice. The dining room to the east has a wooden fireplace with eared architrave. The former service wing has a service staircase with well, and stick balusters. The ground floor service rooms, originally comprising pantry, servants hall and kitchen, have been modernised, and the north western one storey service wing, originally comprising scullery, larder and coals, was later adapted to become a garage. The upper floor has a corridor with round-headed arches and a series of four-panelled doors. The south east bedroom has a wooden fireplace with painted tiled interior. The adjoining bedroom to the west has an identical fireplace with unpainted green tiles. The south western bedroom has a wider wooden fireplace, probably with replaced firegrate. The north bedroom has a wooden fireplace with painted tiles and round-headed alcove. Many first floor rooms have the orignal narrow moulded cornice and skirting boards.

HISTORY: Bickley Court, No 36 Chislehurst Road was built in 1904, one of three buildings designed by Ernest Newton built on the Bickley Park Estate. The other houses by Newton were No 38 and No 35 (Ennore). No 35 is also listed Grade II. The architect CHB Quennell was also building houses on this estate. The Bickley Park estate was a property development by a developer named Mr Hart.

A photograph of the garden front and ground and first floor plans are shown in William G Newton's 1925 memorial volume, "The Work of Ernest Newton RA".

Later in the C20 no 36 was divided into flats but was subsequently returned to one ownership.

STATEMENT OF IMPORTANCE: A substantially intact carefully designed house by the notable architect Ernest Newton in his evolving Neo-Georgian style. It was one of three houses designed by him in the same style and built on the Bickley Hall estate.

SOURCES: William G Newton "The Work of Ernest Newton RA". 1925. ps 74 and 75. Pevsner and Cherry "The Buildings of England. London 2: South" P163. Chapter on Ernest Newton by Richard Morrice in "The Architectural Outsiders". 1985. P180.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

502856

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Brown, R, The Architectural Outsiders, (1985), 180
Cherry, B, Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: London 2: South, (1983)
Newton, W, The Work of Ernest Newton RA, (1925), 74-75

End of official list entry

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