Swiss Cottage and Generating House

Reasons for Designation

Yes list

Details

850/0/10043 ZIG ZAG ROAD 13-APR-10 Box Hill Swiss Cottage and generating house

II Cottage. A mid-C19 cottage ornée. The C20 conservatory and decking to the east and link block to the north are of not special interest.

MATERIALS: Constructed of unknapped flints with deeply incised lime mortar with some stone dressings of local Greensand stone and some shingle cladding on the south-west. The roof is tiled with a series of gables, hips and half hips with wooden bargeboards and finials and a massive brick clustered central chimneystack with stacks set diagonally and a smaller similar chimneystack to the south. The windows are mainly wooden mullioned or mullioned and transomed casements.

PLAN: Irregular, of two storeys to the south, with basement under the sitting room and one storey to the north service end.

EXTERIOR: The north-west or entrance front has a half-hipped gable with one tripartite casement on each floor and, further south, a gable with similar windows and an attached wood and tiled verandah supported on rustic poles, which has a multi-coloured patterned tiled floor. The main entrance under the verandah has a wide plank door with narrow sidelights. The south-west side is of two bays, the western bay set back with tall ground floor mullioned and transomed windows, and a projecting east bay under a gable. This has an eight-light canted bay on each floor divided by a deep shingled band and a deep plinth with stone band and quoins. The south east side has an additional external entrance in the south bay over which was constructed after 1935 a flat-roofed conservatory in matching materials and a large wooden platform supported on two flint clad pillars. The adjoining bay to the North has a steep hipped roof with metal finial and two-light casement on each floor. The next bay to the north is lower, of one storey and attic with gabled dormer with wooden bargeboards and finial and four-light window below. This elevation originally terminated in a single-storey bay with half-hipped roof and three-light window but a post-1935 single-storey link block faced in unknapped flints now connects the house to a former outbuilding, possibly originally a washhouse, which is single-storeyed with gabled roof and three-light window.

INTERIOR: The main entrance leads into the staircase hall which has a tiled floor, dado rail and oak Jacobean style dogleg staircase with carved newelpost with knop, turned balusters with carved acanthus decoration and carved tread ends. Intermediate balusters have been removed. The sitting room occupies the whole of the south side, taking advantage of extensive views over Box Hill. It is lined in full-height linenfold panelling, incorporating Caernarvon arches supported on clustered pilasters to the three windows and a built-in window seat to the bay window, also with linenfold panelling. The door has six matching panels of linenfold panelling. The panelling was probably originally varnished but only the skirting and door retain this original finish. The north wall has a bolection-moulded fireplace with brick interior. North of the staircase-hall is the dining room which has a cambered brick arch to the fireplace, is flanked by later wooden cupboards and has a tiled floor. A larder to the west of the corridor retains slate shelves. Adjoining the dining room to the north, the original kitchen has an exposed chamfered scientific kingpost truss with runout stops. On the first floor the principal bedroom facing south does not retain any original features but bedroom 2 has a mid C19 wooden fire surround and elaborate cast iron firegrate and bedroom 3 has a smaller wooden fireplace with cast iron duck's nest firegrate.

SUBSIDIARY BUILDINGS: In the grounds to the north is the mid-C20 generating house erected by John Logie Baird to power his inventions. This is a two-bay structure with a light timber frame clad in either vertical or horizontal weatherboarding with gabled tiled roof. The roof structure has a queenpost and purlins. Much of the wall frame has been replaced.

HISTORY: The land on which Swiss Cottage is built was owned by the Deepdene estate through most of the C19. The building is not marked on the Deepdene Estate Map of 1840 (which was based on the Tithe Map) but appears on the First Edition Ordnance Survey map of 1870. According to Geoffrey Hutchins ("The Book of Box Hill" (1952), p250) Swiss Cottage was built as a shooting box by Mrs Hope and he also says that 'From quite an early period the tenants of the cottage were permitted to serve teas to visitors.' There is a suggestion in R W Burns book "John Logie Baird" (2000), that the cottage had once been the Duke of Marlborough's hunting lodge; however, there was no connection with the Duke of Marlborough at the period the property was built. The hilly terrain is unsuitable for hunting large quarry and the cottage has no extra facilities for hanging large quantities of game or accomodating extra guests so it is more likely to have been built as an estate cottage. In 1912 the Hope family of Deepdene put up 230 acres of estate land for sale, including the summit of Box Hill and Swiss Cottage, which was bought by the National Trust. Between 1929 and 1932 Swiss Cottage was rented by the television engineer John Logie Baird (1888-1946). Experiments were carried out from here including the transmission of radio waves to the roof of the former Red Lion in Dorking. A shed was constructed into which Baird put an electricity generating plant to provide power for his experiments. In addition, the "Noctovision" system was demonstrated in the garden, using infra red for the first time to enable ships to see each other's lights through fog. During his time at Box Hill, Baird made his first outside broadcast from the Epsom Derby. In 1931 Baird married Margaret Albu, a concert pianist, in New York, and Swiss Cottage was their first home. During the Second World War Swiss Cottage was occupied by Canadian soldiers for a short time. On 1 December 1988, during the centenary of John Logie Baird's birth, Margaret Baird unveiled a plaque at Swiss Cottage to commemorate their occupation of the cottage during some of Baird's most prolific years of invention. The current outline of the building is similar to that shown on the 1870 and subsequent editons of the Ordnance Survey map except that after 1935 a former detached outbuilding to the north-west was linked to the main house and a raised terrace, partially occupied by a conservatory, attached to the south-east.

SOURCES Burns, R.W, 'John Logie Baird. Institution of Electrical Engineers History of Television Series 28' (2000), 205. Hutchins, G.E, 'The Book of Box Hill' (1952), 205. R. W. Burns, `Baird, John Logie (1888-1946)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, May 2007 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/30540, accessed 16 March 2010] Malcolm Baird, "In search of television times past - the making of JLB" on http://www.bairdtelevision.com/documentary.html Accessed on 27/07/09.

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: * Architectural interest: a good late example of a cottage ornée, constructed of local unknapped flints and greenstone dressings with some shingles, massive clustered brick chimneystack, a series of varied gables with bargeboards, unusual wooden casements and verandah supported on rustic columns. * Interior: a number of original features survive including very grand and unusual elongated linenfold panelling to the sitting room. * Intactness: only minor alterations, and the original building survives very well. * Historical interest: rented by John Logie Baird between 1929 and 1932, who erected a generating house in the grounds to power experiments which were carried out here. This is included as a subsidiary feature.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

507636

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Hutchins, G E, The Book of Box Hill, (1952)
Institution Of Electrical Engineers History of Television in Series 28. John Logie Baird, (2000)
Burns, R W, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography in Baird, John Logie (1888-1946), (2004)

End of official list entry

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