Reasons for Designation
List at Grade II.
Details
785/0/10164
ELSTREE HILL
The Italian Villa, including terrace balustrading, steps and entrance gateway
18-FEB-11
II
Summer house with terrace and steps, later incorporated into a house with separate entrance gateway. An early C19 casino or summer house built for Lord and Lady Farnborough, later incorporated into a 1930 house with separate gateway designed by E Alexander Young using late C19 architectural salvage.
MATERIALS: The summer house is of brick in Flemish bond, the remainder of the house of darker yellow brick in Flemish bond with red brick dressings, some roughcast and tile-hung pediments and slate roof with brick chimneystacks. The terrace is lined in slate with brick balustrading. The entrance gateway has a stone front and red and yellow brick rear.
PLAN: Single storey summer house, incorporated into a two storey house with single storey section to the north and a detached gatehouse.
EXTERIOR:The principal front faces north-east and originally overlooked the Italian garden. The southern end of this is of two storeys, the ground floor of early C19 brickwork with a round-headed arch with early C19 French windows, the upper storey of 1930 with darker yellow brickwork, projecting wooden pediment with paired brackets and an open balcony of red and yellow brick. Adjoining to the left is a single storey 1930 doorcase with round-headed arch with fanlight and side-lights, the right hand one blocked. The 1930 door has a large glazed roundel and there is a projecting cornice over which is integrated into the left side single storey north side of the building, which has a large tile-hung gable with wooden bargeboards and two windows, one metal, one wooden,the metal one incorporating a French window. In front of the north part is a slate terrace with brick balustrading and steps. The south-west side has a full-height red brick bay window. The south-east side has a projecting pediment with paired brackets to the south, casement window to the ground floor and garage doors to the basement. The right hand side has a projecting staircase bay of brick and roughcast with a narrow sash window in a round-headed arch and a casement below. The lower part is partially obscured by a projecting single storey north wing with large tiled gable.
INTERIOR: The ground floor has four rooms and a staircase hall. The staircase hall has a C19 stained glass roundel and a dogleg staircase with alternate splat and stick balusters and square newel posts. A door with marginal glazing leads into the former casino or summer house which has on the south east wall four vertical painted panels, one horizontal panel and two spandrels with painted rose garlands, the horizontal panel additionally depicting an urn, by Amelia Long, Lady Farnborough. A corner fire surround also has a small relief pointed portrait thought to depict Lady Amelia Long. The ceiling has a cornice and brackets and there is a shallow alcove on one wall. The lounge to the north has a circa 1900 fire surround in an Arts and Crafts manner with stone four-arched fireplace with copper hood and green tiles set in an oak surround with an overmantel of three panels and projecting carved panel supported on twisted pilasters. The ceiling and walls have applied timber decoration, which includes a plate-shelf. The bedroom over the casino has a c1930 fireplace and cupboard. A very narrow passage leads to a small room with sloping ceiling to the north-east and attic to the north west. The basement has the entrance to a tunnel, mainly blocked with rubble, which is thought to lead to the Bromley Court Hotel.
ENTRANCE GATEWAY:This is situated to the south-east of the house, its south face comprising the doorway of the 1874 School Board Offices, designed by Bodley and Garner and re-erected here in 1930 by E Alexander Young. The other elevations are of 1930 in yellow brick with red brick dressings. The south side is in Neo-Jacobean style comprising a round-headed pedestrian entrance with enriched keystone and impost blocks, flanked by Composite panelled pilasters and a moulded cornice with enriched panel bearing the date 1874 in Roman numerals. Above this is a gable with a central moulded panel with shield flanked by pilasters supporting a curved pediment with finials. There are larger side finials. The 1930 wooden double gates have curved tops. The other sides are of two storeys with large round-headed arches to the ground floor. The entrance arch is attached to a yellow brick garden wall in Flemish bond about six feet high incorporating a stone tablet erected by E Alexander Young detailing the history of the doorway.
HISTORY: The Italian Villa incorporates an early C19 single storey terrace casino (or summer house)o f Bromley Hill Place. The estate was bought in 1801 by Charles Long (1760-1838) who was created Baron Farnborough in 1826 and his wife Amelia Long. Charles Long, politician and connoisseur of the arts, made the grand tour between 1786 and 1788 and laid the foundation of his art collection. He was a friend and ally of William Pitt and was successively an MP for Rye, Midhurst, Wendover and Haslemere. In1803 he was the chief intermediary between Pitt and Addington, which took place at his Bromley Hill estate.
William Wilberforce is said to have visited and enjoyed gambling and drinking sessions at the terrace casino. Long was Chief Secretary for Ireland between 1805 and 1806 and Paymaster of the Forces between 1807 and 1826. He used his influence to further artistic causes such as the purchase of the Elgin marbles and the establishment of the National Gallery and George IV consulted him over commissioning architecture, painting and sculpture. Long married Amelia Hume in 1793, the daughter of the connoisseur Sir Abraham Hume and the favourite pupil of Thomas Girtin (1775-1802) the watercolourist.
From 1801 the Longs proceeded to enlarge the existing 1760s house to their own designs and Amelia designed the celebrated Italianate grounds that she often used for her sketches in watercolour, pencil, charcoal and chalk. She also decorated the terrace casino with watercolour garlands of roses. Amelia Long's early work was characterised by a topographical style but her later work concentrated on picturesque elements of architecture,natural foliage and country scenery. She made three visits to France and Holland between 1815 and 1819 but apart from this her surviving sketchbooks (located in the V & A, The Tayside Museum and Art Gallery Perth), indicate that her travels were mainly in the South of England.
She was respected by professional artists and gained honorary status at the Royal Academy (1807-22) and the British Institution (1825). Watercolours by Amelia Long are in the Tate collection. The V & A has an oil painting "Landscape with an Old Woman" C.1817)and Anglesey Abbey an oil painting of St Cloud with British troops on duty. Amelia died in 1837 and her husband followed in 1838. As they were childless,the title died out.
The 1895 Ordnance Survey map shows the terrace casino and terrace surviving and a fountain situated to the west. The main house is still called Bromley Hill. These features are repeated on the 1912 edition, but by then a road, Elstree Hill, has been constructed to the south of the casino and the main house is now called Bromley Park Hotel. In 1930 E Alexander Young RIBA, the District Surveyor of Lewisham, incorporated the casino and terrace into a house in which he also brought in salvaged features from other buildings, including a detached entrance gateway constructed out of the original doorway of the London Board School offices designed by Bodley and Garner, which had been built in 1874 and demolished in 1929.
Bromley Hill House survives much altered as the Bromley Court Hotel on Bromley Hill.
SOURCES: Colvin,Howard,Oxford DNB article on Charles Long.2004.
V&A sketchbook of Amelia Long htp://vam.ac.uk/servlet/Artist Works Accessed 19/07/2010.
Tate Online for six watercolours by Amelia Long http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/Artist Works Accessed 19/07/2010.
www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/long-amelia.html Accessed 08/11/2010
the Courtauld Institute of Art http://www.artandarchitecture.org.uk/images/gallery3a945d62.html
Accessed 08/11/2010
REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: The Italian Villa, including terrace balustrading,steps and entrance gateway is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Architectural merit: an early C19 summer house later incorporated into a quirky inter-war house with interesting later C19 architectural salvage.
*Historical interest: the summer house was built by the prominent politician and art connoisseur Charles Long, and was visited by William Pitt and William Wilberforce.
*Rarity: the summer house has the only known painted internal decoration by Amelia Long and is a rare surviving example of the fashion for interior shellwork, featherwork and painted decoration by ladies in the C18 and early C19.
*Intactness: the early C19 summer house survives with its painted decoration intact and the 1930 house is little altered.
