HER 11844 - THE RED HOUSE

House. 1899. By Edwin Lutyens. For Rev W H Evans. Red brick in Flemish bond; plain tile roof. Square on plan, built around central stair and into hill slope giving 2 storeys on north-east (entrance) elevation, 3 storeys on returns and 4 storeys on south-west (garden) elevation. 4 x 3 bays. Leaded-light windows with wood frames and mullions; corniced multiple flue stacks. Principal, garden (south-west), elevation: bay 1 narrow with 2-light window to 1st and 2nd floors. Bay 3 wide with round-arched board door on right of lowest floor (into garden room); window of 4 lights to left on ground floor, 6 lights with tile dripmould to 1st floor, 2 lights with dripmould on right between 1st and 2nd floors and 6 lights to 2nd floor. Projecting, polygonal, asymmetrical towers to bays 2 and 4, that on right having 2-light window to lowest floor and continuous windows above wrapping round corners; that on right having, on ground floor, 2 lights returned from window on left return, and continuous windows above. Stacks at ends and between bays 1 and 2. Rear (entrance) elevation: flight of brick steps down to central panelled door with side-lights under bracketed canopy with a 2-light window either side and 4 above, all with tile dripmoulds; parapet with cyma-moulded coping; hipped roof with tall end stacks. South-east return: central bay has doorways to both ground and 1st floors: on ground floor the door is fronted by triple-chamfered segmental-arched porch with splayed reveals and parapet on which stand columns supporting the hipped roof porch which protects the two lst-floor doors; brick steps rise from the lower porch to the upper porch; the doors are all I-glazed with small-pane glazing; the lower door has a side-light; on 1st floor the left door has a 2-light side-light, the right door has a 3-light window to right; on 2nd floor a window of 4 lights to left, 3 lights to right, slightly stepped down. To left of porch is broad external stack with offset near top; similarly offset, lateral stack at right corner. Left bay has a 2-light window on each floor including one to lower ground floor which has a moulded brick surround and mullion and timber lintel; on left are the ends of the wrap-around tower windows; panelled parapet. North-west return: central board door; asymmetrically-placed windows, mostly of 4 lights, some with elliptical relieving arches with tiled tympana; 4-bay outbuilding range projecting on right with 2 board doors and 3-light windows. Interior: the major feature is the central, open-well, wooden stair, with closed string, diagonally-set balusters, square newels with vase type finials and traces of original leaf-trail painting on handrail; stair lit by coved top light with columns supporting cornice. South-east side has principal rooms, that on ground floor having wide chimney-piece with giant, tripartite keystone and side pilasters to fireplace; side niches with impost and keystone bands; and cornice on floating capitals. Former butler's pantry on lower ground floor retains wall cupboards. This is an early seminal work by Lutyens. Rev Evans was a retired housemaster from the nearby Charterhouse School (q.v. Item 2/146). G Stamp, The English House 1860-1914 (The Flowering of English Domestic Architecture), 1986, pp 100-101. Listing NGR: SU9676844984

Data represented on the interactive map is for illustrative purposes only and does not represent an accurate or complete representation of archaeological sites or features. Further information

• View this record on Surrey's Interactive Map

The online HER is not suitable for commercial use, as some information has been withheld from online publication for reasons of confidentiality or protection of sensitive sites. Further Information.
The inclusion of a site in the database in no way implies that public access is available. The vast majority of sites (including Scheduled Monuments) and buildings are on private land and have no public access. Further Information.

Have your say