Description

CAMDEN

TQ2887SW HIGHGATE WEST HILL
798-1/5/869 (West side)
16/12/70 No.41
Witanhurst

GV II*

Substantial detached house. 1913-20. By George Hubbard. For
Sir Arthur Crosfield. Incorporating part of Parkfield, an
early C18 house enlarged 1881 by Allen William Block, a
merchant, and 1894 by Walter Scrimgeour, a barrister. Restored
1946. Red brick with stone dressings. Tiled roofs with dormers
and tall brick chimney-stacks.
PLAN: L shaped plan in William & Mary style.
EXTERIOR: entrance facade (NE front) of 3 storeys and attics
10 windows main block; right hand forward return 2 storeys and
attics 8 windows; left hand attached block (part of original
house), 2 storeys 3 windows. Main block with channelled stone
ground floor and quoin strips; central entrance with Doric
stone doorcase. 1st floor windows segmental-arched sashes with
lugged architraves; 2nd floor sashes with stone keystones and
cast-iron balconies. Modillion eaves cornice. Right hand block
red brick with stone band at 1st floor level, recessed sashes
with keystone, modillion eaves cornice. Left hand block red
brick with recessed sashes and modillion cornice.
Left hand return (SE front) incorporates part of the original
house; red brick with hipped tiled roof with wooden modillion
eaves cornice. Original flat topped dormers replaced by hipped
dormers. 2 storeys, attics and semi-basement. 5 original C18
windows bays at south-west end. Gauged brick flat arches to
recessed sashes (originally flush frame with exposed boxing);
1st floor windows with projecting brick aprons and
semi-basement with segmental-arched recesses. Main, SW garden
front with Ionic loggia having modillion cornice surmounted by
balustrade. 4 window centre and projecting end bays each with
Venetian window, modillion pediment and architraved
oeil-de-boeuf in tympanum.
INTERIOR: in 1914 White Allom and Co were commissioned to
decorate and furnish the house. Percy Macquoid acted as
consultant and designer, being responsible for the overall
design of the Music Room, Drawing Room, Study, Hall and
staircase, and most of the bedrooms, all in an opulent
Classically detailed style. Other richly decorated rooms
include the Dining Room, Chinese Room, Billiard Room, and the
Gallery. The house has 65 rooms.
HISTORICAL NOTE: Sir Arthur Crosfield was Chairman of the soap

manufacturers Joseph Crosfield and Sons and had been the MP
for Warrington.
(Survey of London: RCHME: St Pancras Part I (Village of
Highgate): 1936-: 72-73; Victoria County History: Middlesex,
Vol. VI: London: 138).

Listing NGR: TQ2811787189

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Witanhurst at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q15979614

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

• 
  Setting up a Listed Building Heritage Partnership Agreement: Historic England Advice Note 5
• 
  Listed Buildings, Conservation Areas and Monuments
• 
  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gloucestershire 1: The Cotswolds: Cotswolds Pt. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Nottinghamshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)