Description

CHELTENHAM

SO9421NE MONTPELLIER DRIVE
630-1/18/524 (North side)
12/03/55 Regent House with attached railings,
gate, gate piers and boundary wall
(Formerly Listed as:
MONTPELLIER DRIVE
Regent House)
(Formerly Listed as:
VITTORIA WALK
Boundary wall and gatepiers to NW of
Regent House and W of 16 Montpellier
Walk)

GV II

Villa, with attached railings, gate, gate piers and boundary
wall, now residential home. c1825 with later additions and
alterations (late C20 range at right not included). Architect,
JB Papworth for Pearson Thompson (his home). Ashlar over brick
with concealed roof, end stucco stacks and iron railings and
gate with ashlar piers and pinkish-brown brick walls. Double
depth plan with central hallway.
EXTERIOR: 3 storeys on basement, 3 first-floor windows with
2-storey, 2-window range set back at right. First-floor sill
band; second-floor band; surmounting frieze and cornice with
blocking course. First floor has 6/6 sashes, that to centre
has tooled architrave with frieze and cornice. Second floor
has 3/3 sashes. All in plain reveals and with sills. Ground
floor has outer tripartite 6/6 between 2/2 sashes in plain
reveals with cambered arched recess to head. Basement has 8/8
and 2/2 sashes. Central entrance has part-glazed doors with
margin-lights and fanlight within glazed conservatory and
projecting porch which has, to street line a 6-panelled door
with architrave with pilasters, frieze, cornice and blocking
course. To sides of porch are round-arched windows with margin
lights. Range to right has 6/6 and 3/3 sashes. Rear: to left a
2-storey canted bay window. Several 6/6 sashes remain.
INTERIOR: retains many original features including plasterwork
and joinery: open-well staircase has alternate stick and
embellished iron balusters with wreathed handrail and carved
tread ends, octagonal skylight to stairwell; rear room has
ceiling rose with honeysuckle motif and guilloche motif to
cornice, marble fireplace on acanthus corbel brackets; front
room cornice has guilloche motif; Regency marble fireplace;
doorcases have fluted architraves and fleurons to cornices.
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: gate at left of porch, then spearhead

railings with bars and dogbars curved on plan for approx 8m,
anthemion finials to stanchions. To right, similar railings
for approx 5m to gate, then pier with panelled shaft, lozenge
panel to frieze and moulded cap. Boundary walls abut railings
at left and extend to left return for approx 50m with
pedestrian plank gate, ending at similar ashlar pier.
HISTORICAL NOTE: this is one of the few remaining villas in
Cheltenham that can be attributed to Papworth and, as Verey
notes, it forms 'the prototype of the small Papworth type of
house of 3 bays, with 3-light windows - and segmental recess
above - either side of the front door'. Along with his son
Henry, Pearson Thompson was the developer of the Montpellier
and Lansdown Estates.
Forms an architectural unit with Stables and Carriage House to
Regent House with boundary wall and gate piers (qv).
Boundary wall and gate piers listed 14.12.83.
(The Buildings of England: Verey D: Gloucestershire: The Vale
and The Forest of Dean: London: 1970-: 143).

Listing NGR: SO9480321838

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26397873

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

• 
  The Victorian House Manual (2nd Edition): How They Were Built, Improvements & Refurbishment, Solutions to All Common Defects - Includes Relevant ... ... Properties (Haynes Manual) (Haynes Manuals)
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Sheffield and the South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability
• 
  [(Cumberland and Westmorland)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1967)
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Cork: City and County (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)