Description

TL 31NW STANSTEAD ABBOTS HOLLYCROSS ROAD
(east side)
5/15 Easneye
(All Nations Christian
College)

GV II*

Country house, now a college. 1867-8 Alfred Waterhouse for
Thomas Fowell Buxton (drawings at house). Red brick with black
diapering, moulded ornamental brickwork, and red tiled roofs
banded with scolloped tiles. Ornamental ridge. Asymmetrical
plan of 3 blocks in echelon stepping outwards NE to enclose the
recessed entrance into S block of 2-storeys and attics containing
the principal rooms ranged round S and W sides of a vast beamed
hall, entered off-centre by a vestibule and project gabled porch.
Staircase with traceried windows arranged in NW corner rising to
a toplit upper hall serving the bedrooms. The middle block has
the dining room and servants hall, with nursery over, and is
expressed externally as part of the south block. The N block is
for kitchens, dairy and staff. It is equally decorative but of
one and a half storeys with giant lacarne windows and gables.
Each function is expressed externally in this muscular
Gothic style. Crow-stepped gables, only 3-bay windows (2-
storeys, canted). Undivided sash windows with moulded brick
surrounds and moulded segmental arches all struck from a radius
of 9 feet (note on drawing). Main elevation faces E and has
moulded double plinth, diaper patterned brickwork, deep band of
moulded relief lattice panels at 1st floor, impost band,
equilateral arches with hoodmoulds and decorated roundel in
tympanium over upper windows, arched and corbelled eaves table.
Crow-stepped gables with finials, and similar windows to 1st
floor lighting the attic floor. Patterned octagonal chimneys,
with moulded caps and bases. 3-storeys gabled projecting
entrance porch expanded at base with battered buttresses to
accommodate front door in pointed arched Gothic red terracotta
doorway with segmented spiral shafts and moulded caps similar to
portals of Natural History Museum London of 1872. Contemporary
interior with hall fireplace and carved capitals and corbels in
Mansfield stone. Granite ringed shafts to stair arcade. Dining
Room panelled, with Jacobean ribbed ceiling and red and green
granite Norman chimney piece. Stained glass on staircase and
front window to hall (dated 1868 and with naturalistic roundels
of birds, bats, butterflies, etc.). Of outstanding interest as
an unaltered example of Waterhouse's country-house work with
complete contemporary interiors. Estate buildings and design
drawings also survive.

Listing NGR: TL3806113430

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• All Nations Christian College at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q4729143

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

• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  Hampshire: Winchester and the North (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)
• 
  For the Record
• 
  Worcestershire Revised Edition (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Drawing up a Local Listed Building Consent Order: Historic England Advice Note 6