Summary
House, walled forecourt and outbuildings, of 1908-1909, to designs by Walter Brierley, as the medical superintendent’s house for The Retreat mental asylum for The Society of Friends (Quakers). Built in the Queen Anne style inspired by late C17 and early C18 domestic architecture.
Reasons for Designation
Lamel Beeches, the row of outbuildings and the forecourt, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Historic interest:
* Lamel Beeches was built as the house of the medical superintendent, a key member of staff at The Retreat mental asylum, established and run by The Society of Friends (Quakers) since the late C18 and highly influential both here and abroad for its pioneering humane treatment of the mentally ill;
Architectural interest:
* it was designed by the noted architect Walter Henry Brierley (1862-1926), known for the quality of his designs and craftmanship with many listed buildings to his name;
* the house was designed three years after Brierley’s own home of Bishopsbarns (Grade II*) in York and shares similarities of design in the use of materials and layout, being homely and private, convenient to run and logically laid out, with attention paid to providing good conditions for the servants still required in the running of early-C20 houses;
* for its attractive irregular massing and elevations predicated by Brierley’s preferred layout, with a mix of window types, steeply-pitched, hipped and catslide roofs with distinctive sprocketed eaves and tall brick chimneystacks, elegant main doorcase, and large balcony and verandah overlooking the garden and Lamel Hill;
* the interior retains many of Brierley’s original good-quality fixtures and fittings, including horizontal-panelled doors, an inner lobby door with octagonal light of deep green glass, generous main staircase and simpler back staircase, decorative iron window catches and curved, sliding window stays, several fireplaces, built-in cupboards, panelled window seat to the drawing room bay, moulded architraves and cornices;
* the setting of the house was treated holistically, with Brierley designing a formal walled forecourt with brick herringbone paths, shaped and stone-coped steps, retaining walls and terrace rising to the front door;
Group value:
* Lamel Beeches has a strong functional and historical group value with The Retreat (Grade II*) and the numerous listed buildings on that site, as well as the Grade II* landscape.
History
Lamel Beeches was built in 1908 to 1909 as the medical superintendent’s house for The Retreat to designs by Walter Brierley.
The Retreat mental asylum had been founded at the end of the C18 by William Tuke of the Society of Friends (Quakers) for fellow Friends, with the money raised by subscription and building beginning in 1794 to designs by John Bevans and construction supervised by Peter Atkinson of York. It was highly influential in its humane treatment of the mentally ill, being instrumental in fundamentally changing their care for the better in this country, and also in Europe and America. The Retreat quickly became a success and expanded. In 1824 the York architects Charles Watson and James Pigott Pritchett added a north-east wing which contained a reading room and a medical superintendent’s house.
In 1907 Walter Brierley was commissioned to design a new recreation hall and superintendent’s house, having previously designed a nurses’ home in 1897 to 1899 as a partner in the practice of Demaine and Brierley; James Demaine then retired. The committee had already decided that the best place for the recreation hall was on the site of the pre-existing superintendent’s house and proposed to replace it with a new detached house of moderate size within the grounds of The Retreat and near to the Heslington Road boundary.
An appeal was issued in February 1907 for funds for both buildings from members of the Society of Friends and others likely to be interested, with an estimate of £1,500-£1,800 for the superintendent's house. Plans and elevations for the house were submitted to the Commissioners on 20 July 1907 and approved on 23 July 1907. The plans show an informal house with the principal rooms of dining room, drawing room and study on the south, garden side and a service wing to the north. On the first floor were four bedrooms and two dressing rooms, with a bathroom, nursery and two servants’ bedrooms in the service wing. Brierley’s schedule of estimates for the building work, dated August 1907, gave detailed specifications for the work to be done by different tradesmen and the materials to be used, including alternative choices such as roofing in light green Westmorland slates from Ellerswater, Buttermere (or other approved quarries), or red handmade tiles from Messrs Wheatley & Co, Springfield Tileries, Newcastle, and a verandah of Baltic redwood or English oak. It also noted that some materials, including bricks, stone steps and fireplaces were to be reused from the original house. The foundation stone was laid in 1908 and it was completed in 1909. The Retreat Medical Superintendent at this time was the well-regarded Dr Bedford Pierce, who held the position from 1892 until his retirement in 1922 and was married with a son and daughter. Historic photographs and postcards show the house with a fenced garden on the south side with a central lawn, sometimes with a tennis net, flower borders and a timber loggia on the west side.
In the late 1990s an extension of one- and two-storey ranges were built as care home facilities enclosing the south garden and attached by corridors to the east and west sides of the house. At this time the first floor of the house was partly converted to provide a dining room and kitchen for the residents.
The care home facility closed in 2022.
Details
House, walled forecourt and outbuildings, of 1908-1909, to designs by Walter Brierley, as the medical superintendent’s house for The Retreat mental asylum for The Society of Friends (Quakers). Built in the Queen Anne style inspired by late C17 and early C18 domestic architecture.
MATERIALS: the house is built of handmade red-orange bricks with brick and tile dressings, green Westmorland slate roofs and tall brick stacks. The row of outbuildings is built of handmade red-orange brick with a slate roof. The forecourt has side walls of handmade red-orange brick, brick paths, steps and terrace with stone dressings.
PLAN: L-shaped plan with the main range aligned east-west with the principal rooms, a verandah and balcony facing south onto the garden and the front entrance and projecting service wing on the north side. Between the north side of the house and The Retreat boundary wall along Heslington Road is a rectangular forecourt with a gateway and path lining up with the front doorway and on the north side of the service wing is a row of single-storey outbuildings aligned east-west against the outer boundary wall.
HOUSE
EXTERIOR: The house stands in the north-west corner of the grounds of The Retreat, close to the boundary wall and separate from the main hospital building (Grade II*, National Heritage List for England: 1257679). The south, garden elevation faces Lamel Hill, an Anglo-Saxon tumulus (Scheduled Monument, NHLE: 1004886), which is also enclosed within the walled grounds (Grade II* registered Park and Garden, NHLE: 1459114).
It is of two storeys with a partial basement beneath the service wing and irregular elevations of brick in English bond with a stepped brick and tile string course between the ground and first floors of the main range (not the service wing), projecting tile sills to the windows, some of which have segmental, brick lintels over square-headed window frames, hipped roofs of Westmorland slate with sprocketed eaves, and four tall, rectangular brick stacks with decorative brick quoining and cornices. The windows have moulded timber frames painted white and are a combination of horned hung-sashes, casement and fixed-frame windows.
The north front is L-shaped with the main range set back with a terrace in front and the service wing projecting on the left-hand side. The irregular main range has a deep, catslide roof to the left bay and a two-storey, hipped bay to the right. The front doorway to the left of the right-hand hipped bay has two stone steps, a white-painted timber frame incorporating upper side lights of diamond-set, small-pane leaded glass and a deep round-headed and shaped moulded timber hood supported on elaborately-carved timber scroll brackets. The painted timber door has three horizontal fielded panels decreasing in depth from the bottom. To the right is a small vertical rectangular transom window with two small-pane leaded lights and in the centre of the first floor is a small, square window with cross glazing bars. To the left of the doorway is a horizontal, simplified Venetian window lighting the hall. It has a brick soldier lintel with a giant keystone of brick slivers and small-pane leaded light glazing, with two casements to the central, segmental light, covered by external secondary glazing. Above, in the catslide roof is a flat-roofed, horizontal dormer with three small-paned leaded lights, the central light a side-hung casement. Returning on the left-hand side is the west elevation of the service wing with two storeys and a hipped roof to the centre, the roof continuing as a catslide to the left-hand, outer bay and a steeply-pitched roof to right-hand bay attached to the main range. It contains a stair window set under the eaves and over-sailed on the right-hand side by the catslide roof of the main range. It has a cross frame with small-pane leaded glazing, side-hung casement to the lower left side with external curved, sliding window stay and top-hung casement to half of the upper right side. The other irregularly placed windows are three six-over-six pane hung sashes and a small, vertical rectangular window of six panes. A basement window has a louvred frame. The north elevation of the service wing is hidden behind the forecourt wall. The catslide has tile corbels to the outer corners. There is a large round-headed doorway, with steps, towards the right-hand corner with panelled double doors with upper glazing lights and irregularly-placed windows of differing sizes, all with small-pane glazing. Above is a hipped dormer with three lights of small-pane glazing. In front is a full-length passageway with a pedetrian doorway at both ends and flanked on the north side by the row of single-storey brick outbuildings, with horizontal, multi-pane window frames with tile sills and segmental-arched heads. The slate lean-to roof is set against the Retreat boundary wall and hidden by the forecourt wall and a higher wall with sloping, diagonally-angled brick coping at the east end.
The south, garden elevation of the main range is of two storeys and five bays with a hipped roof and an offset, projecting third bay with decorative quoin tiles to the first floor above the string course and a hipped roof. On the ground floor is a large, tripartite window with small-pane glazing to the hung sashes and on the first floor is a similar, but slightly narrower tripartite window. The right-hand return has vertical rectangular windows on both floors with small-pane hung sashes. The left-hand return has a similar window on the ground floor and a square brick pier with stone head and foot towards the outer corner supporting the timber balcony running the length of the first and second bays. The balcony is also supported on three, circular brick columns with rusticated banding, stone capitals and bases (presently covered in ivy) and another square pier towards the outer, south-west corner of the main range. The ground floor has two adjacent double French doors opening onto the verandah which has a herringbone brick floor. The French doors of white-painted timber have partial small-pane glazing and rectangular overlights with small-pane glazing. The balcony has shaped timber beams and a timber balustrade with square posts, moulded rails and turned balusters, all stained dark brown (a modern metal rail is presently affixed to the top of the posts to raise the height of the balustrade). The first floor has two widely-spaced double French doors opening onto the balcony. The doors have moulded lower panels and small-pane glazing. To the right of the projecting third bay the ground floor has a single, central ground-floor window with an eight-over-eight pane hung sash frame, with two six-over-six pane hung sashes on the first floor.
The east elevation has two central, recessed bays with a steeply-pitched roof flanked by projecting hipped bays, the roof continuing as a catslide to the right-hand, outer side. The ground floor of the two-bay central section has a shallow porch with leaded lean-to roof and a half-glazed door with an overlight and side light to the left, an adjacent horizontal, multi-pane window to the right and a similar first-floor window above, with a larger multi-pane casement window over the porch. The projecting, hipped two bays to the left have a six-over-six pane hung sash on the ground floor and a four-over-four hung sash on the first floor, close to the right-hand corner. The two similar windows towards the left-hand, outer corner have been replaced by a modern two-storey, enclosed corridor* linking the house to the modern extensions* (the corridor and extensions are not of special interest and are excluded from the listing). The hipped bay to the right projects further, with a four-over-four pane hung sash to the return first floor. The first floor has a large, eight-over-eight pane hung sash, with two six-over-six pane hung sashes on the ground floor. The basement level is covered by an attached modern double garage*, which is not of special interest and is excluded from the listing. A basement window and window now converted to a doorway remain within the garage.
The hipped, two-bay west elevation of the main range has two six-over-six pane hung sashes on the first floor. On the ground floor the second bay has an eight-over-eight pane hung sash, with a modern single-storey, enclosed corridor* to the left linking to modern extensions* (the corridor and extensions are not of special interest and are excluded from the listing), and immediately to the left a small, square window with cross glazing bars.
INTERIOR: the layout of the ground floor remains largely intact, with more extensive alterations on the first floor (latterly used as a dining room and kitchen for the care home), though the original layout remains readable. Many original fixtures and fittings remain (mostly painted white), including moulded cornices, three-panelled doors, moulded architraves, built-in cupboards, main and back staircases, several fireplaces, and decorative iron window catches and curved, sliding window stays.
The front door opens into a small, rectangular entrance lobby with a red tiled floor with moulded skirting, plastered groin vault, circular borrowed light with multi-pane glazing, and a wide, two-panel inner door to the left with an octagonal upper light with leaded panes of deep green glass and moulded timber frame. It opens into a rectangular hall with a moulded cornice, picture rail and skirting. The lobby door is paired with a three-panelled door leading into a lobby to the study at the west end of the house. Both doors are set in round-headed niches with a separating panelled pier with two corresponding round-headed, open arches at the opposite end of the hall screening the main staircase. The staircase rises against the far side of the left arch, which has a painted, panelled dado surmounted by a framed timber balustrade with slender, turned and painted balusters. The open-well staircase has a closed-string with painted panelling beneath. The ramped inner balustrade has painted turned balusters, unpainted moulded timber handrail and square newel posts with a carved scroll bracket at the half landing. On the first floor the outer side of the staircase has panelled piers with inset balustraded frames (now infilled behind the balustrading).
On the south side of the hall (originally opening off it) is the large drawing room with a moulded cornice and a bay window and French doors opening onto the verandah. In the centre of the east side wall is a fireplace with a painted, moulded and panelled timber mantelpiece with a dark blue-green tiled surround, hearth and fender. To either side a narrow, round-headed archway has been inserted linking to the dining room. A panelled timber window seat wraps round the square bay with shaped outer arms.
The dining room in the south-east corner has a moulded cornice and original doors into the hall and a former serving room on the north side.
In the south-west corner is the study with a three-panelled door, moulded cornice and French doors opening onto the verandah. The inner wall has a fireplace with a painted, moulded timber mantelpiece with beige tiled surround and hearth, and a built-in panelled cupboard and shelving to the left.
The kitchen (now subdivided) retains the large fireplace with a timber mantel also over built-in, panelled cupboards to the left, with a tall built-in cupboard with panelled double doors to the right.
At the north end of the service wing is the back staircase. It has an inner, timber balustrade with square and rectangular newel posts, slender, square balusters and a moulded handrail, with a moulded dado rail to the outer walls.
The first-floor north corridor has a central, square window bay flanked by two built-in cupboards and a doorway at both ends, all with three-panelled doors. The opened-out rooms on the south side retain beams demarking the layout, two double French doors and a built-in cupboard with panelled door in the north-west corner.
Beneath the service wing are a series of basement rooms, two retaining stone benches.
SUBSIDIARY ITEMS
FORECOURT WALLS, PATHS, STEPS AND TERRACE:
Between the round-headed gateway in the Heslington Road boundary wall (listed as part of the Grade II* listing of The Retreat) and the north elevation of the main range is a rectangular forecourt which rises towards the house and is enclosed to each side by a high wall of brick in English bond with a coping of diagonally-set bricks with a square brick ridge.
The east wall runs between the boundary wall and the north-west corner of the service wing and is ramped up at the right-hand end. It has a segmental-arched doorway with a stone sill towards the right-hand, south end through to the external service wing passageway, with a second, blocked doorway to the left (into the outbuildings). The west wall is similarly built, with an opening at the left-hand, south end onto the terrace in front of the house, before returning to abut the north-west corner of the main range.
In front of the boundary gateway is a flat, circular platform of herringbone brickwork bounded by low brick walls with stone coping and stone-topped steps to each side and the middle rear. A straight brick herringbone path leads from the middle steps towards the front door with a flight of stone-topped steps at the midpoint with brick side walls with stone coping. In front of the main range is a narrow, brick terrace with a herringbone brick surface and stone edging and a central, recessed flight of curved, stone-topped steps. A herringbone brick path also leads from the left steps of the circular platform to the service wing doorway in the east wall.
* Pursuant to s1 (5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 ("the Act") it is declared that these aforementioned features are not of special architectural or historic interest, however any works which have the potential to affect the character of the listed building as a building of special architectural or historic interest may still require LBC and this is a matter for the LPA to determine.
MAPPING NOTE: the enclosed forecourt on the north side of the house, between Heslington Road and the front door, contains shaped retaining walls, paths, steps and a terrace in front of the house. These are not individually mapped on MasterMap, so the entire forecourt is mapped to include these features.
