Description

CHELTENHAM

SO9421SW THE PARK 630-1/22/897 (West side) 14/12/83 No.2 Cornerways (Cheltenham and Gloucester College of Higher Education) (Formerly Listed as: THE PARK No.2 Cornerways)

GV II

Villa. c1839-50. Architect SW Daukes. Stucco over brick with slate roof; tall brick and stucco ridge stacks with cornices; iron balcony. Italianate style. Irregular plan, approx T-shaped with further ranges and tower. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys with attic to right and gabled range to front, with 4-storey tower-porch to angle. Stucco detailing includes horizontal rustication to ground floor, left return; moulded first-floor band, imposts and keystones to round-arched windows. Mainly 1/1 sashes. Entrance to base of tower a 6-fielded-panel door; to left a round-arched window; tower has pairs of round-arched windows to first floor with cross-shaped lights above; wide eaves on brackets; upper stage has 2 round-arched openings to each side, with keystones and imposts. Broken pedimented gabled range to right has 2 round-arched first-floor windows and canted bay with casement windows to ground floor; casement to attic. Left return a similarly broken-pedimented gabled range has two 1/1 sashes to ground floor, 2 round-arched windows to first floor. Similar gabled range to right return with infill to ground floor at right. Wide eaves on brackets. INTERIOR: many original features remain including central dogleg staircase with oak balustrade with lion's paw to newel; joinery includes shutters to windows and panelled doors. Some fireplaces. Plasterwork includes deep coving and cornices. SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: balcony to tower has U-motif. HISTORICAL NOTE: The Park had been laid out by 1833 by its owner Thomas Billings as an oval tree-lined drive with a central park which for a short period in the mid-C19 became a zoological garden. In 1839 the development was bought by Samuel Daukes who continued the building. One of the principal developments influenced by White's and Nash's schemes for Regent's Park in London (1809-11). Cornerways is reputed to have been built as the zoo-keeper's house and an eyecatcher

from the zoological garden, known in 1855 as The Park Spa, then Florence Villa (after one of Billings's daughters) and by 1906 as 'Gonia'. In 1938 it was a doctor's surgery and in 1968 it passed to St Mary's Training College. Occupies an important cross-roads site. (Sampson A and Blake S: A Cheltenham Companion: Cheltenham: 1993-: 92; Merrett HS: Plan of the Town of Cheltenham: 1834-; Sampson A: The Historic Buildings of Cheltenham and Gloucester College: 1991-; Girouard M: The English Town: 1990-: 270-271).



Listing NGR: SO9418221135

External Links

• Wikidata Q26667580

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