1 AND 2, SELBORNE PLACE

Details

LITTLEHAMPTON

743/0/10008 SELBORNE PLACE 30-AUG-07 1 AND 2

GV II Pair of semi-detached houses, currently divided into flats. Built circa 1865 by the architect William White(1825-1900) as seaside homes: No. 1 for his own family's occupation and No. 2 for that of his brother Henry. The builder was Robert Bushby (1813-1900). In Gothic Revival style. Some minor C20 alterations.

MATERIALS: Built of brown brick in flemish bond with irregular horizontal bands of red brick and tiled gables. Tiled roofs with terracotta ridge tiles and five brick chimneystacks.

PLAN: Semi-detached pair, mainly of three storeys and attics with three windows each to the south side and irregular fenestration to the north or entrance front. The staircases are situated at the centre of the entrance front with principal rooms facing south towards the sea and folding partitions beween the two south ground floor rooms.

EXTERIOR: The north entrance fronts have central two storey gabled projections containing entrance porches and staircase windows. Each house has a pair of Gothic arched casement windows on the first floor with trefoil heads and stained glass with floral motifs. The penticed porches have crow-stepped end gables and half-glazed double doors, No. 1 retaining the original stained glass and both having lower panels with diagonally placed planks. Behind these doors are multi-coloured tiled floors to the vestibules and original plank doors with elaborate scrolled iron work hinges. On each side are three storey and attic large tiled gables of alternate courses of red and brown tiles edged by occasional courses of curved tiles, the gable sides facing the centre extending down lower than the other sides. There are conventional casement windows to the two upper floors but the first floor windows have pointed heads with hood moulding. One second floor window to No. 2 has been modified and a small tiled gabled projection inserted. Both retain the original attached brick walled service yard with arched doorcase with original ironmongery. In addition No. 2 retains the original upper clay honeycomb walling.

The side elevations are relatively plain with two end chimneystacks but no windows.

The south elevation has three windows to each house, the two central windows on the second floor under small gables, the remaining windows under larger half-hipped gables. The end windows on the first floor have Gothic pointed heads and below are paired windows with Gothic heads. The central windows, which included two splayed bays through two storeys with French windows, have wooden verandahs with concave braced joinery and tiled roof.

The attached original garden wall adjoining the house on the east side is a low clay honeycomb wall, changing into a higher wall to the south east of flint with brick above, terracotta cornice and brick piers at regular intervals. On the south side the garden wall is a low flint wall with clay honeycomb walling above.

INTERIOR: No 2. has a tiled vestibule leading to a staircase hall with open well staircase, painted apart from the moulded handrail, with short splat balusters and square newel posts with moulded finials. The landing has a taller open screen of two tiers of splat balusters. The top of the stairwell has a moulded arch-braced roof. On the ground floor the south facing drawing room and dining room have a full-height panelled folding wooden screen dividing the rooms. The drawing room has original chamfered folding wooden shutters with ornamental ironmongery, a built-in wooden window seat and two built-in wooden cupboards under cambered arched alcoves either side of the fireplace. A number of original panelled doors survive, some with original door furniture. The north ground floor room has an original fireplace opening with bressumer and two wooden brackets.

No. 1 was not inspected internally but the stained glass to the staircase windows is visible externally and the survival of an original staircase, door furniture and original flooring is reported. According to William White's niece the internal joinery was originally unstained timber, lightly varnished and the architect invented a wooden block floor which he refused to patent because he considered it so useful.

HISTORY: Nos. 1 and 2 Selborne Place are the easternmost pair of three semi-detached properties designed by William White at the same time as seaside homes for his extended family. No. 1 was built for his own family and No. 2 for his brother Henry. His widowed sister Mary and three daughters lived at No 3; two maiden aunts at No 4; and his brother John Edward White, a barrister owned Nos. 5 and 6.

These houses were built on part of the Arundel estate of the Dukes of Norfolk and the papers of the 9th Earl of Stamford (William White's nephew), included references to a lease dated 25 March 1865 between Lord Howard, Lord Petre, Lord Stafford and John Abel Smith of the first part, the Duchess of Norfolk and James Robert Hope Scott of the second part, and William White of the third part, with regard to Selborne Place. There is also a reference to an agreement of 27th April 1866 between William White and others about a private approach to messuages in Selborne Place.

Originally the houses faced the Green and the sea, a view since obscured by later buildings. The south fronts of Nos. 1-6 Selborne Place were depicted in an engraving of 1869 in the West Sussex Record Office, and an undated engraving of a similar date in Littlehampton Museum.

Nos. 1 and 2 are currently divided into flats.

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION DECISION Nos. 1 and 2 Selborne Place, Littlehampton are designated for the following principal reasons: * These properties were built by the distinguished Victorian architect, William White circa 1865 as seaside homes for his own family and that of his brother Henry in an adaptation of the Gothic Revival style for domestic use. * This is the only property designed by the architect for his own use still extant and one of the domestic properties designed by him known to survive. * It is built of good quality building materials with good quality stained glass and joinery. * The plan form is readable with an interesting folding wooden partition between two principal ground floor rooms, and attached service yard and garden walls with characteristic honeycomb clay walling. * These properties have been little altered externally.

SOURCES: Papers of the 9th Earl of Stamford in the Dunham Massey archive in John Rylands Library, Manchester for references to the 1865 lease on the land. "Cameos" File 4, White 1 for the reminiscences of Miss H M White, William White's niece, about Selborne Place in the archives of Bishops College Cape Town where her father had been headmaster. Engraving of Selborne Place in 1869. Ref 8275 in West Sussex Record Office. Undated engraving of Selborne Place in Littlehampton Museum. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entry on William White by Gill Hunter.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

502705

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Hunter, G, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: William White, ()

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