Description

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 01/10/2012

TQ3776 8/D14
4424
5.7.50

LEWISHAM WAY SE8
(North-east side)
No 281 (Stone House)

GV II*

Villa. c.1771-3 by George Gibson the Younger for himself. Brick core with Kentish ragstone
facing, with stone banding, window surrounds and quoins; hipped slate roof. Parapet lowered
and rear bay extended c.1930. Two storeys with set-back attic, which incorporates hidden
chimneys. Square plan at angle to road, each side five bays wide, with first floor tetrastyle
logia over built out ground floor, bow windows on returns. Ground floor entrance hall with
first-floor piano nobile. At ground floor angles stout buttresses curved out at base. All
windows with glazing bar sashes, round-headed to first floor, flat-headed to ground floor.
Road front first floor blank but for three round-headed windows in bow; four ground-floor
windows. South-east entrance front has five windows, three in centre bay, the middle one
higher. Four-panel door well set back in moulded wood architrave with cornice over.
North-west front with loggia; columns with capitals formed of leaves and florets, as also used
by Gibson in his St Mary's church, Lewisham (q.v.). Wrought-iron railings to loggia and
wrought-iron screens to heads of round-arched first-floor windows.

The interior is particularly interesting. Ground-floor entrance leads to circular vestibule,
flanked by two small square rooms, one leading to the old kitchen and pantry. Some original
shelving and latticed partitions survive; doors have been moved and rehung. Vestibule also
gives on to tight, top-lit octagonal staircase with vaulted ceiling and skylight. The sides of
the stairwell have raised panles and roundels containing, in low relief, neo-classical busts of
the Hanoverian kings. Principal flight leads to first-floor piano nobile, a secondary stair
continues to the attic bedrooms; both have wrought-iron balusters and a mahogany handrail.
Patterned stone sets to floors on ground and first floors. First floor has principal drawing
rooms: a circular space separated by open Ionic columns from two square spaces with vaulted
ceilings. Domed and fluted ceiling, with some mid-C19 decoration, but with Adamesque,
arabesque decoration to surrounding frieze late C18. Handsome marble fireplace with
cast-iron firebacks. Adjoining rooms also with good late C18 fireplaces, panelled double
doors and dadoes.
'A very personal interpretation of the villa form that had been revived by Chambers and Taylor in
the 1750s', Cherry and Pevsner, 'The Buildings of England, London South', 1983, p. 411.

Listing NGR: TQ3719476292

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Stone House at Wikipedia
• Wikidata IDs Q17553139 Q7618956

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

• 
  Huddersfield in 50 Buildings
• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Care and Repair
• 
  Georgian Style and Design for Contemporary Living
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Leeds, Bradford and the North (Pevsner Architectural Guides / Buildings of England)
• 
  Worcestershire Revised Edition (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)