Description

TQ 55 SE PLAXTOL TONBRIDGE ROAD
3/14 (east side)

1.8.52 Fairlawne

I

Country house. Earlier building rebuilt for Sir Henry Vane 1630-55, additions by Lord Barnard 1680, completed for Lord Vane 1723, in part by James Gibbs. Victorian additions and interior decoration by William Burn before 1840 and J MacVicar Anderson 1872. Most Victorian additions removed 1954. West front. 1680. Dressed and coursed Kentish ragstone on ragstone plinth with painted stone pilaster-strip quoins, plat-band at architrave window surrounds. Modillion cornice and parapet hiding slate roofs. Two-stage cupola off-centre to left, square, with canted corner pilasters and entablature on lower stage and lead cupola, 3 brick stacks, 2 either side of centre, one at left-hand end. Two-storeys; 9 bays, the central 4 spaced slightly further apart, glazing bar sashes. Three-bay Roman Doric 'porte cochere' with paired columns, added in 1872 by J MacVicar Anderson. Slightly recessed northern extension, possibly hiding part of the earlier house with facade probably by Gibbs in 1723. Dressed and
coursed rubble with painted stone pilaster-strip quoin and keystones to windows.
Cornice, parapet and left and stack. Three storeys; 4 bays, glazing bar sashes.
South front quoins and dressings. Plat-band, modillion cornice and parapet hiding slate roofs. Central 2 bays project slightly with pediment in parapet area. Two storeys; 6 bays, glazing bar plinth with stone pilaster-strip quoins and dressing. Plat band, modillion cornice and parapet hiding slate roof. Two storeys, 5 bays, glazing bar sashes. Central glazed door with rectangular over-light and segment pediment hood. Taller 2-storey block to north-east with attic pediments facing south and east. Two bays to south, with glazing bar sashes; 3 bays to east, sashes without glazing bar sashes. Seven-bay conservatory of 1872 to east, with Roman Doric colonnaded loggia and glazed internal barrel-vault. Interior. Entrance hall. Panelled with 1872 plaster ceiling and single C18 black marble fireplace. Study. Two-storey fireplace, topped by broken swan-neck pediment and door surround with carved and pierced frieze. Great Room. Wood panelled with carved ornament. Door surround with fluted Ionic half-columns and triangular pediment. Marble fireplace with half-columned and pedimented sedicular overmantel. Drawings for this room survive in the Gibbs Collection at the Bodleian Library in Oxford. See Country Life, 30 October and 6 November 1958. Also 27 November 1958 for correspondence on the attribution to Gibbs of the Great Room.

Listing NGR: TQ5933754660

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Fairlawne at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q17530246

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

• 
  England's Post-War Listed Buildings
• 
  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Sussex: East with Brighton and Hove (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cambridgeshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 4: North: North v. 4 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)