Description

RAMSGATE LONDON ROAD
TR 3764 SW
(South- side)
17/250 Bon Secours
Nursing Home
5.11.74
GV
II
House, now nursing home. Core built c.1795, extended C19 and especially
1884. Stock brick the main block rendered with flint extensions and
plain-tiled roofs. Entrance front: 3 storeys rendered ground and 1st
floor with string course to shaped gabled 2nd floor. Hipped roof with
flat railed central portion with stacks to left and to right with shaped
gables to return elevation. Wooden casement with label hood in gable,
3 to 2nd floor, 3 mullioned and transomed windows with label hoods to
1st floor and 2 to ground floor with double half-glazed doors in arched
moulded surround in central projecting porch with pierced parapet. The
corners of this central block are recessed and curved with elaborate
scrolls incised into the render. 2 storey hipped wings to left and to right
with mullioned and transomed and label hooded windows to each floor,
extended to right by 1 storey C20 weather boarded range with flint tower
behind, and to left by projecting 2 storey stock brick wing, dated 1884
in shaped gable, with 2 sashes on each floor of each face. Garden front:
Central 3 storey hipped block (the original late C18 range), with attic,
and later C19 cross-wing behind with shaped gables. Single dormer,
3 wooden casements and 1 small light to left on 2nd floor, and 3 on 1st
floor with tented canopy. Mullioned and transomed bays on ground floor
with glazed door to centre left with verandah, also carried across right
hand wing. Two storey hipped wing to right with sash on first floor,
mullioned ground floor openings. End wing to right of 2 storeys, with
canted bays of differing sizes on 1st and ground floors. Gabled
2 storey flint wing to left with mullioned and transomed window and door
ensemble. At end left is a round, battlemented flint tower, certainly
there in 1806 (as illustrated in contemporary prints). At the end of
range of outbuildings to the right (east) are 2 further flint buildings,
the remains of other flint towers illustrated 1806. The outbuildings
here include a laundry building with an open arcaded ground floor with
segmental cornice, and corniced windows. Interior: large staircase hall
with wreathed handrail to stair and gallery. The house was built c1795
for Joseph Ruse and named Belmont. Purchased and the home of Earl of Darnley
1801-1817 (re-named West Cliff House), seat of Warre family 1877-1904.
Princess Victoria was a frequent visitor to this, one of Ramsgate's most
important seats. A nursing home since 1949 (See Busson, Ramsgate, 110 & 120).

Listing NGR: TR3710464340

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26372086

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

• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Dorset (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings