Summary
A house of 1912 by J H Brewerton for Miss Moser with later garden studio and garage.
Reasons for Designation
Garth Carbery, a house of 1912. and the later garden studio and garage, are listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* a thoughtful and well-executed progressive design by the accomplished and versatile architect J H Brewerton;
* constructed using high-quality materials it survives well with a remarkably intact set of well-crafted interiors and with only minor alterations to the exterior and layout;
* the house is sensitively designed within generous grounds as an excellent example of an early C20 small country estate with a garden studio and garage that are also of special interest for their sympathetic architectural design and surviving interiors.
History
Garth Carbery was built in 1912 for Miss Edith Moser on a 3-acre plot to the east of Carbery, her father’s house. The Ordnance Survey (OS) map of 1909 shows a driveway having been laid out in preparation for the construction. The house was designed by Joseph Henry Brewerton (1858-1927) who added a conservatory to the west end of the house the next year. Subsequently, Miss Moser built another house further to the east, to which she moved, and Garth Carbery became the residence of Revd Harold Brierley of the nearby Immanuel Congregational Church in Southbourne Road. Brierley had a garage built to Brewerton’s designs in 1920 (later extended to provide an attic apple store).
In around 1923, Garth Carbery was bought by Henry Samuel Walpole Eyre who had the house altered as shown on plans of 1924 by Bertram Earp. The alterations provided staff bathrooms and converted the loggia and lounge hall into a study with glazed panels to light the ground-floor corridor. One of the four family bedrooms was later subdivided to provide two rooms for Mr Eyre’s sons. The house and garage are shown on the OS Map of 1933 and a larger garage, which is marked as ‘new garage’ on Earp’s 1924 plans, was probably built around this time and is shown on the 1938 map. A detached ‘Garden Studio & Museum’ was designed by Frederick Lawrence in 1935 and once constructed would provide a large open area to the ground floor with a balcony above. Few alterations were made to Garth Carbery in the later C20.
Details
A house of 1912 designed by J H Brewerton for Miss Moser, with conservatory of 1913 also by Brewerton and interior alterations of 1924 by Bertram Earp of Eastbourne for H S W Eyre. There is an associated garage with flat above (late 1920s/ early 1930s) and garden studio (1935).
MATERIALS: constructed of red and burnt brick with clay tile roofs and brick stacks. The house and garden studio interiors have pine and oak joinery with brass fitments. The buildings have timber double-hung sash windows and casements and the roofs are timber with tile coverings, although the studio roof is of steel construction covered in tile.
HOUSE
PLAN: a double-pile house with a central east/west corridor and main stair and service range to the rear. It is of two storeys plus attic.
EXTERIOR: in a restrained Domestic Revival style with symmetrical openings with timber sashes under rubbed brick arches in red brick elevations laid in Flemish bond and with brick corner pilasters and square bay windows. It stands under a deep hipped roof with oversailing eaves, moulded eaves cornices and substantial brick stacks. The principal entrance is centrally placed in the east flank façade with a projecting domed hood and sashes to each side and to the first floor. Facing the south lawn is the principal front with three central bays including a central door under a fanlight with openings to each side, all under tile creased arches as part of a former loggia. To each side are square projecting bays to the ground floor and the first floor has seven openings with sashes. To the left corner is a conservatory with a conical roof. The west flank has a projecting square bay with an integrated awning and sash openings to each storey and two dormers to the roof. The rear of the house (north) has a stair window to the left and to the right and the other openings across the elevation are sashes. In the service wing to the right there is a back door under a flat hood. There are cast-iron rainwater goods across the building.
INTERIOR: the panelled main entrance door leads into a glazed vestibule. To the right is a morning room with a tiled timber chimneypiece. The interior has complete set of stained pine joinery including corridor and room panelling, staircases and doors. The corridor is glazed with leaded panes at upper level. Each principal room has metal light fittings, brass light switches and door furniture and a chimneypiece with tiled back and push-button servant bell. The central ground-floor room was formerly a loggia and study and has had the dividing wall removed. At the service end of the ground and first-floor corridors is an early C20 wall-mounted telephone. Outside the dining room is a wall-mounted message board. To the service wing is a kitchen, pantry, larder and coal shed, some with early C20 fitted cupboards and worktops. To the first floor are bedrooms with chimneypieces, a bathroom and linen cupboard and, to the west end, a dressing room. To the service range there are bedrooms for the butler and housekeeper with fitted cupboards, and there are mid-C20 adaptations to provide wash-room facilities. To the attic are servant bedrooms and a boarded loft with fitted shelving.
GARAGE:
DESCRIPTION: probably designed by Bertram Earp in 1924 and built in the early 1930s, the garage was designed to replace the smaller earlier garage that became principally used as an apple store. It comprises a two-storey red brick building laid in stretcher bond with a garage and workshops to the ground floor and chauffeur accommodation above. It has a large timber glazed washing yard attached to the east elevation. The main front faces the house and has a design sympathetic to that of the house with multi-paned timber casement openings under rubbed brick heads and with oversailing eaves and tall brick stacks to the twin hipped roofs. To the rear is an external brick stair with a glazed timber canopy serving the chauffeur’s apartment. The apartment has no historic fittings. There are folding glazed timber doors to the yard and glazed timber sliding doors to the main garage. The yard and garage floors have a poured concrete surface and an inspection pit. The rear workshop has a braced and ledged plank door and fitted workbenches and cupboards, and the floor is laid in wood block. The office to the rear right has timber fitted cupboards and outside the plank door is an early C20 wall-mounted telephone.
GARDEN STUDIO
DESCRIPTION: built to the designs of Frederic Lawrence in 1935 in a similar style to the house with rubbed brick heads to the openings, brick pilasters to the corners of the building and oversailing eaves above a moulded cornice and under a deep hipped roof. The red brick building is laid in Flemish bond and has a principal south front with a panelled door to the right. The door architrave is tile-creased under a flat hood and window above and there is a window to the left under a wall plaque marked ‘1935’. To the rear is a large multi-paned garden window overlooking a stone well. The interior is oak-panelled and the vestibule opens into a ballroom with oak balcony to three sides. The garden window at the north end has a window seat and the lateral oak stair at the south end accesses the balcony. There is a large brick chimneypiece to the fireplace in the west wall and the floor is laid with wood block. The walls are lined with glass display cabinets and there is a 1930s heating system. The panelled ceiling is part-glazed with rooflights.
