Reasons for Designation
Hawkshill Place, built 1883-4 by J Loxwood King, has been designated for the following principal reasons:
* Although subdivided, this is a well-detailed example of a large, late C19 house which is sufficiently intact and almost identical to published drawings of 1884.
* The architect is not well known, but trained with notable exponents of domestic architecture and the house reflects ideas emerging from major contemporary practices.
* The context, particularly of the gardens of which much of the layout and planting survives, is strong.
Details
374/0/10117 PORTSMOUTH ROAD
22-AUG-08 Hawkshill Place
II
Large house. 1883-4 by J Loxwood King for W Sandford Hodgson. Added billiard room and alterations to service end c1900. Divided in three, 1957.
MATERIALS: Yellow brick from Kent, Ancaster stone dressings, red plain tile, originally Broseley, roofs.
PLAN: The house lies roughly south-west to north-east with the principal rooms, overlooking terraced gardens, to the west and south and the service end to the north-east. It strongly resembles the 1884 plans and drawing from The Building News, but with a less dominant tower. It is asymmetrical in plan and elevations and of two storeys and attics with a three stage tower. The entrance is on the north-west elevation. The entrance front graduates from the tight composition surrounding the two-storey gabled entrance bay to the simpler, eastern service end. The entrance is set forward, with a tall gabled tower offset behind it to the east, and a lower two-storey bay accentuated by an external stack at the upper level to the west. The south-east, garden, front is more repetitive in manner, between set forward gabled bays with the 1900 extension continuing the theme. Two-storey canted bays set off the south-west angle.
EXTERIOR: The building is accentuated by moulded storey bands, flush stone cill and impost bands, flush brick relieving arches over the windows, and moulded brick eaves, cornices and kneelers. Windows are generally horned sashes, often grouped in pairs or in threes, and in flush stone surrounds some with shaped heads with flush kneelers and some under shallow hood moulds. Principal ground floor rooms overlooking the gardens have timber French windows in moulded architraves or stone mullion and transom windows with some fixed lights. Tall brick stacks with chamfered angles, moulded caps and pronounced flush stone shoulders are generally set across the ridges. Ridges have pierced cresting, some gables retain delicate iron gable finials.
The entrance, north-west elevation, is set back under a slightly pointed arch in brick and stone, with a slender hoodmould. The door has glazed upper panels with coloured glass and blind arched cusped lower panels. Robust iron door furniture may be replaced. The upper floor over the entrance is set over a corbel table, which is accentuated above the entrance, and with a row of shields under a pair of first floor sashes and an oculus in the gable The tower has a tall mullion and transom stair window with slightly pointed upper lights, a three light range of sashes on the upper floor and a narrow lancet in the gable. To the west at ground floor small sashes are set under a pitched roof. A single first floor sash set back under a pointed arch and smaller upper floor sash are framed by an external stack with pronounced shoulders. The two-storey, two-bay centrepiece has a shallow gabled bay, slightly set forward, with an enriched ground floor cornice, and to the east of it are plain sashes on both floors, and a horizontal sliding sash under a dormer with decorative bargeboards. The entrance to Middle House is inserted. A two-and-a-half storey gabled bay to the east breaks forward. Ground floor windows are in pairs, divided by a possibly later buttress, at first floor triple sashes, and the gable has a single sash under a shaped head, defined by the half-hipped roof. The return has a large first floor window recessed under an arch beneath a small oculus, over ground floor sashes and a probably inserted doorway. A shallower two-storey eastern wing of the service end is set back at the rear of a small yard marked by gate piers, one attached to the north-east angle of the house. An inserted entrance in the north wall leads into the East House.
The south-west front is marked by a three-bay verandah under a tile roof and with tile floors. Pairs of timber shafts between moulded panels and with pierced spandrels support a moulded timber cornice. Windows are horned sashes in intact openings, and timber casement French windows.
The western gable of the south-east front has a narrow first floor canted oriel under a tile roof and on an ornate bracket, and is flanked by single ground floor sashes, in the manner of windows flanking an inglenook, but in this case with no stack. The central gabled bay is more simply treated, the eastern gabled bay repeating the detail. Similar to the south-west front, French windows lead onto a verandah which survives in the Middle House, with a paved terrace. The former billiard room is single-storey with a flat roof behind a plain brick parapet. It has single sash windows and a central altered entrance.
INTERIOR: The house is divided in three across the ends of the longitudinal passages to form The Towers (hall, library, drawing room and former morning room), Middle House (dining room, servants' hall and butler's pantry) and East House (kitchen, billiard room and service areas).
The hall, lit by a tall stair window with late C20 coloured glass, contains an imposing, closed-string, open-well stair with a fretwork panelled balustrade, square chamfered newels with ball finials and a moulded rail. The first floor landing is treated as a gallery with tall shafts and mouldings similar to the external verandahs. To the east the original stair continues to the upper floor but is copied to the west. The drawing room has a deep moulded cornice and delicately panelled ceiling. Walls have eared panels below a moulded frieze. The doorway has an enriched architrave under a pediment, the door is of eight panels with steel door furniture, both similar to examples elsewhere in the house. The former library has a mottled plum coloured marble fireplace with a replaced grate. The pediment over the door is restored, and the cornice survives. French windows in each section of the house have enriched architraves and moulded panels beneath, with casements flanking the doors. The soffits of the verandah roofs are boarded with a moulded cornice. The former dining room has a rich lombardic cornice, deep skirtings and a possibly replaced fireplace with panelled shafts and a dentil cornice. The former kitchen retains a large fireplace opening and plain surround. First floor rooms have plain grey marble fireplaces with basket head grates, one with added coloured tile inserts is refitted but was found on the premises. The principal bedroom has a delicately moulded cornice, picture rail and pedimented doorcases, that to the entrance is original, that to the former dressing room is restored. The former back stair which has been extended has chamfered square newels with ball finials, octagonal chamfered balusters and a moulded rail. Throughout the house doors are of eight or four panels some with ornate steel door furniture. Lincrusta paper survives on the stair and in a first floor former dressing room. Polychrome floor tiles survive in the entrance, hall and garden passage.
HISTORY: Hawkshill Place was built for W Sandford Hodgson, a brewer, in the early 1880s as a substantial private house, complete with stable yard and lodge, the latter marking the entrance from the Portsmouth Road. It was set in landscaped gardens, laid out with terraced lawns, planted with specimen trees and shrubberies. Much of this survives so that, increasingly rarely for a house of this type and period, its original context is recognisable today. Little is known about J Loxwood King except that he was based at 18 North Road, Surbiton. He trained under Henry Woodyer in Guildford, and worked for three-and-a-half years for Alfred Waterhouse, who nominated him for the RIBA in 1882. W Sandford Hodgson is commemorated on a memorial plaque in Christ Church, Esher.
SOURCES:
The Building News, Jan 25 1884
Hawkshill Private Hospital, brochure, inter-war
Mark Girouard, The Victorian Country House (1979)
Directory of British Architects, 1834-1914, RIBA
REASONS FOR DESIGNATION
Hawkshill Place built 1883-4 by J Loxwood King is designated for the following principal reasons:
* Although subdivided, this is a well-detailed example of a large late C19 house which is sufficiently intact and almost identical to the published drawings of 1884.
* The architect is not well known, but trained with notable exponents of domestic architecture and the house reflects ideas emerging from major contemporary practices.
* The context, particularly of the gardens of which much of the layout and planting survives, is strong.
