Crosshand

Details

785/0/0 CHISLEHURST ROAD 24-APR-07 38 CROSSHAND

GV II

785/0/0 CHISLEHURST ROAD 24-APR-07 38 CROSSHAND

II House. Designed and built in 1904, architect Ernest Newton, builder F P Duthoit of Bromley, in Neo-Georgian style. The attached late C20 garage to the north east is not of special interest. Crosshand Lodge, a later C20 building attached to the south west in separate ownership is not of special interest.

MATERIALS: Red Wrotham bricks in English bond with hipped tiled roof and six tall brick chimneystacks. Moulded timber cornices and windows.

PLAN: H-shaped plan with two storey front porch and single storey spur to the south west of one bay containing service rooms. Four principal rooms on the ground floor. Two storeys and attics, nine bays. The published plans and elevations were reversed in construction so that the service end was placed to the south west.

EXTERIOR: The north west or entrance front is almost symmetrical with three central hipped dormers with casement windows, a projecting two storey entrance porch breaking through the eaves and projecting end wings with two storeys each. The porch has stylised recessed rusticated quoins, a cambered-headed sash to the first floor and a two-panelled front door with curved fanlight and side lights set within a porch with arched timber cornice, lead roof and brick pilasters. To the left a tall three-tier, three-light staircase window breaks the symmetry with smaller windows on the other side. The wings each have two sash windows with cambered heads to the ground floor windows. A contemporary engraving suggests that the central first floor and projecting wing windows originally had shutters. The one storey service wing to the south west has a triple casement window. The south east or garden front is almost symmetrical with three triple hipped dormers with renewed casement windows and nine sash windows to the first floor. The ground floor breaks the symmetry with no windows to the left hand side wing (originally the servant's hall), a half-glazed door with divided rectangular fanlight on the extreme left of the recessed centre, offset for effect, and to the right of the centre later French windows with side lights in a shallow canted bay with tiled roof. A contemporary engraving shows there were also louvred sun shutters originally to all the windows on the garden front.

INTERIOR: The lobby leads on the left to a staircase/hall. The staircase is of oak with solid balustrading, newel posts with finials and oak panelling. Two doors have brought in pedimented and scrolled overmantels with swags. The hall fireplace has been brought in and there is a late C20 round-headed alcove adjoining. The drawing room has a brought in fireplace. The ground floor retains some original eight-panelled doors. The cornices and skirting boards are replacements. The service end retains the service staircase. The upper floor has a corridor with some round-headed arches and four-panelled doors but no original fireplaces.

HISTORY: Crosshand, No 38 Chislehurst Road was designed in 1904 by the architect Ernest Newton, and was one of three buildings by the same architect built on the Bickley Park estate, the others being No 36 (Bickley Court) and No 35 (Ennore). The architect C H B Quennell was also building houses on this estate. Bickley Park estate was a property development by a developer named Mr Hart.

The ground floor plan form of No 38 was published in "The Builder" of May 14, 1904, described as "House at Bickley Kent". Accompanying text stated that, "The materials are red Wrotham bricks and tiles; the windows are painted white, and the sun shutters green. The builder is Mr F P Duthoit of Bromley, Kent. Mr Ernest Newton is the architect." This plan featured again in "the Builder" April 29, 1905. Both front and rear elevations were also the subject of contemporary engravings by Winton Newman. One peculiarity is that both published plans and engravings show the house as a mirror image of the way it was actually built with service end to the south east and principal rooms to the south west but this was reversed in construction and a few modifications to the size of some rooms was probably made during construction.

Later in the C20, the house was divided into four flats but it has since reverted to single ownership.

REASON FOR DESIGNATION: Crosshand is designated at grade II, for the following principal reason: * A sustantially intact carefully designed but restrained house reflecting Newton's shift from Arts and Crafts to Neo-Georgian, with sash and dormer windows but with an H-shaped plan from the Jacobethan period and some asymmetry. The plan was published at the time and it is one of three houses designed on the Bickley hall estate by the same architect.

SOURCES: "The Builder" May 14 1904. "The Builder" April 29, 1905. Pevsner and Cherry "The Buildings of England. London 2: South". P163. Chapter on Ernest Newton by Richard Morrice in "The Architectural Outsiders". 1985. P181.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

502857

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Brown, R, The Architectural Outsiders, (1985), 181
Cherry, B, Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: London 2: South, (1983), 163
The Builder in April 29, (1905)
The Builder in May 14, (1904)

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.