Description

GODALMING FRITH HILL ROAD
SU 94 SE
(west side)
2/99
The Red House
23.2.70
- II*

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

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17548391

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Derbyshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Churches: An Architectural Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2