Description

TQ 3274 DORCHESTER DRIVE, SE24

963/24/10058 No. 5 (Dorchester House)

II

House and double garage. 1936 by Leslie H Kemp and Frederick E Tasker for Mr Morrell, a local builder and developer. Moderne style. Mottled red and brown Flemish bond brick, with flat roofs above tiled eaves and tall stacks. A long rectangular composition, with central 2-storey block flanked by integral garage to left and by single-storey billiard room to right. Roof-top tank room provides a vertical emphasis. All windows are original casements with horizontal glazing bars. Timber double doors to garage. Central entrance door of timber, with diagonal panels, set under projecting balcony of patterned vertical and horizontal bricks, and between planters of vertical bricks. Tiled door surround and mosaic steps. French window on to balcony; horizontal windows to either side of door complete a symmetrical composition. Garden front is more asymmetrical, having a regular 4-bay composition only in the centre, with smaller windows and service doors to right, and inset single-storey loggia to left. This has large (6-light) window to rear, giving on to the drawing room.
INTERIOR: the interior is particularly lavish. Hallway of double height, with open well staircase and balcony having Art Deco style metal balustrade with urn finials to hand rail. All rooms with original veneered doors and door furniture. The drawing room with stepped and moulded ceiling surround. Rooms with original fire surrounds, that to the drawing room of black marble, and that in the principal bedroom incorporating an original electric fire and fluted illuminated glass surround. Most remarkable is the bathroom en suite with the master bedroom, with onyx surrounds, peach glass mirrors and fluted lighting panels. Smaller tiled bathroom retains original tiling and fitments.
Included as a remarkably complete and lavish example of a 1930's house, for a successful local businessman with whom Kemp and Tasker had close connections.
(Source: Gray R: 'From William Booth to Six Pillars': unpublished research notes: cl991)

Listing NGR: TQ3223874908

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26328307

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

• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide
• 
  Old House Care and Repair
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House
• 
  Suffolk: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)