Reasons for Designation
Wayfarers is recommended for listing at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Architectural: a very good example of a seaside family house in the Art Deco Moderne style, with an unusual extent of bespoke decorative elements
* Social interest: built for a prosperous cotton manufacturer, it exemplifies middle-class tastes and aspirations during the interwar period
* Intactness: the house retains many decorative and built-in features and is little altered, save for an extension
Details
LYTHAM ST ANNES
621-1/0/10034 CENTRAL DRIVE
13-JUL-10 ANSDELL
34
WAYFARERS
II
A two-storey suburban house built in 1934 in an Art Déco or Moderne style by the architectural practice of Lumb and Walton.
MATERIALS: Brick and white render beneath a roof of Belgian green glazed tiles.
PLAN: Sub-rectangular.
EXTERIOR: The front elevation of the house is of three bays, the central of which projects forward and contains a front door of horizontal glazed panels with a brick surround beneath a flat porch, the edges of which are decorated with a line of V's. There are original metal window frames with glazing bars virtually throughout the house with brick lintels to the ground floor. A brick plinth and a brick string course at first floor sill level are carried around the building and the building sits beneath an overhanging roof. The attached garage projects slightly forward to the left of the front elevation of the house and is topped by the continuation of the brick string course around the house which swoops down above an enclosed passageway with door situated between the house and garage. The east elevation has two windows to the first floor above the garage and passageway. The rear elevation of the house has a projecting ground floor extension with a timber-framed bow window to the right bay and French windows to the central and left bays. The first floor windows have decorated external wooden shutters. A door gives access to the passageway between the house and garage and there is a window to the right of the door. The west elevation has a projecting ground-floor timber-framed bow window with windows matching those on the east elevation to the first floor. There are two chimney stacks; one a roof stack the other a cross-axial stack.
INTERIOR: Entrance via the front door leads into an entrance hall containing a WC to the left, a dog-leg staircase ahead, painted ceiling beams and a window with leaded lights depicting a rising sun design. There is a lounge to the right, a dining room beyond the staircase, and a kitchen to the left. From the kitchen there is access to the rear morning room. Also from the kitchen there is access to an enclosed passageway illuminated by a glass-panelled roof with doors off leading to a coal bunker, washroom and the garage. Most rooms throughout the house contain many original fittings including veneered doors with their door furniture, light fittings including wall lights designed as candle holders with candles, and metal windows, while the lounge and dining room also contain French windows with original handles and latches that give access to the rear garden. The lounge contains a stone fireplace while the dining room contains a built-in electric fire with attached wooden shelving along the full length of one wall. There is a serving hatch above the shelves. The morning room has a brick and tile fireplace. The kitchen is of a 1960s design. The staircase has timber newel posts and chromed steel handrail and balusters. The first floor has a galleried-style landing to the front of the house off which are three rear bedrooms, a fourth bedroom to the front right of the house and a bathroom to the front left. There is a WC and box room also off the landing. Surviving original or early features in the bedrooms include built-in gas fires, built-in drawers and cupboards, and washbasins and mirrors. The landing has a leaded skylight above the stairwell, built-in bookshelves, wall cupboards, and a leaded front window depicting a cloaked figure gazing across a valley to distant hills. The bathroom and both the ground floor and first floor toilet have matching tiles while the former has a leaded window with a rising sun pattern.
HISTORY: 'Wayfarers' was constructed in 1934 to a design of the Blackpool-based architectural practice of Lumb & Walton. Lumb & Walton designed a number of houses on the Fylde coast, notably in Cleveleys and the Rossall Beach Estate and also undertook work on the Grade II listed Rossall School. Wayfarers was built for the Yorkshire-based cotton manufacturer Roland Cyril Coates on the site of a former market garden. The Coates family spent lavishly on construction of the building which borders the Royal Lytham Golf course. The son of the first owner was an artist and it is thought that the decorations on the house's window shutters were undertaken by him. In 1942 the house was sold to Philip and Pamela Barlass. The house was rented out during World War II and it became well known as the temporary home of Vera Lynn. The building saw some modernisation during the 1960s when a single-storey rear extension was added to the morning room and a new fitted kitchen installed.
SOURCES: Yorke, Trevor., British Architectural Styles (2008) pp.54-9. Countryside Books.
Black, A&C., 2008, Lynn, Dame Vera, (Dame Vera Margaret Lewis)', Who's Who 2009, Oxford University Press. Retrieved on 6 August 2009 from http://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/article/oupww/whoswho/U25187
REASONS FOR DECISION: Wayfarers is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Architectural: a very good example of a seaside family house in the Art Deco Moderne style, with an unusual extent of bespoke decorative elements
* Social interest: built for a prosperous cotton manufacturer, it exemplifies middle-class tastes and aspirations during the interwar period
* Intactness: the house retains many decorative and built-in features and is little altered, save for an extension
