Fiesole (Youth Hostel)

Details

BATHWICK HILL (North side) Fiesole (Youth Hostel) 11/08/72

GV II*

Detached villa, now a Youth Hostel. 1846-1848. By H.E. Goodridge. MATERIALS: Limestone ashlar, shallow pitched slate roof with wide bracketed eaves, stacks with moulded stone brackets to ridges, slopes and corners. EXTERIOR: Two storey Italianate villa; three window range to the south entrance front. Ground floor platband; rusticated quoins (except to the tower). Under the gable of a central four storey east entrance tower is a Venetian window in a raised surround with keystone that opens onto a stone balcony balustraded to the front, on shaped stone brackets. A platband coinciding with the plinth of the balcony encircles the tower. The second floor three/three pane sash window is in a raised eared-and-shouldered surround. Over the first floor French window the encircling platband steps forward as a shallow pediment; a sill band projects on brackets as a sill. Below is a crest. The ground floor has a triple arcade with ornamental capitals to the two columns in antis. The stepped-forward two storey range to the left has a raised eared-and-shouldered architrave to a French window opening onto a balcony similar to that on the tower and a four/four pane sash window in a raised surround with a moulded sill on brackets. The stepped-forward range to the right has a pent roof with wide eaves, a tall two light casement window in a raised eared-and-shouldered architrave with a sill band projecting on brackets as a sill. The ground floor is set forward and weathered. The two window range south garden front is dominated by a virtually central shallow-gabled stepped-forward range crowned by a gabled stone bellcote with a semicircular arched opening. To the first floor is a semicircular arched French window, to the ground floor is a full height tripartite window with French windows to the centre. A further stepped-forward narrower gable is over arcades fronting both floors. That to the first floor is open Venetian style with pierced balustrades to the openings. Tripartite openings with keystones to the ground floor arcade. To the right (the left return of the front), an axial stack with a triple shaft to the first floor, pierces the eaves; set in the stack at ground floor level is a slit window in a raised bracketed surround. To the left is the set back right return of the gabled west front. A window under the eaves has stone balcony over a tall window in a raised surround. The west front with a view over a valley, has two gabled blocks flanking a single storey range. The gable to the south-west end is similar to that on the south front, the gable to the north-west end has a 2 storey canted bay with French windows to the ground floor. INTERIOR: The interior is of very high quality. The hall has a polychromatic tiled floor, an open well, open string stone staircase with decorative cast iron balusters leading to an arcaded landing. Ground floor rooms retain much fine plasterwork. Tripartite screen to north side of entrance hall with full entablature running across; above entrance is a plaster relief showing the mounted men of the Pan-Athenaic procession from the Parthenon. Arcaded landing to hall at first floor level, with a plaster relief depicting Goodridge and his wife, surrounded by putti frolicking with emblems of the Arts and Sciences. Coffered ceiling to hall with central skylight. HISTORY: This house was reputedly intended for one Lt Col John Willoughby, but he moved into it himself in 1848 when he sold Montebello (now Bathwick Grange qv). Its construction was funded by the development of Casa Bianca and La Casetta just below, with which it forms a distinctive group of outstanding early Victorian villas. This house is of exceptional interest for its highly idiosyncratic style, showing Goodridge¿s fusion of the Greek Revival and the Italianate Picturesque (hence the name). SOURCES: David Watkin, `Thomas Hope 1769-1831 and the Neo-Classical Idea¿ (1968), 142-43; Neil Jackson, `Nineteenth Century Bath. Architects and Architecture¿ (1991), 112-13; Howard Colvin, `A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1660-1851¿ (3rd ed. 1995), 415.

Listing NGR: ST7640164588

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

509664

Legacy System:

LBS

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