Description

374/0/10095
03-AUG-04

COPSEM LANE
14
Tawny House

GV
II

Former estate laundry, later private house. Circa 1740, part of William Kent's improvements at Claremont. Altered and extended from the 1920s when it became a private house.
EXTERIOR: Original part of two storeys three windows. Stuccoed with hipped slate roof retaining the bases of brick chimneystacks. On both the east and west fronts the central bay projects under a pediment which has a tablet with lion's head and cornucopiae to the eastern pediment. End quoins, moulded cornices and rusticated ground floor. Windows and central doors retain the semi-elliptical arches shown in a c1740 painting although windows and doors were replaced in the later C20. Probably in the 1920s the building was extended by one storey and two bays to both north and south in rusticated stucco with flat roofs carrying parapets with square piers and diamond-shaped cutouts to balustrading. To the north this has been further extended by three bays in the later C20 with flat roof and flat-arched casements. Attached to the west is a C20 flat-roofed kitchen extension, rusticated but with flat-arched windows extended further to the west with a further later C20 flat-roofed extension. Attached to the south side of the kitchen extension is a late C20 conservatory and verandah.
INTERIOR: Central staircase hall remodelled in the 1920s in an Arts and Crafts style with well staircase with turned balusters and square newel posts but splat balusters to the gallery above, dado and wall panelling and a fireplace with curved wooden bressumer, upright posts which are probably upended recycled spine beams and brick fireplace flanked by wooden seats. Two panelled rooms to the south with almost full-height plank and muntin panelling. Stone four-centred arched fireplace to the room adjoining the staircase hall and smaller fireplace with cast iron firegrate and tiled surround to the northernmost room. The southern room has a brought in marble Louis Sixteenth style fireplace. No original features survive on the first floor.
HISTORY; Shown in a painting of c1740 as one of a series of picturesque and symmetrical farm buildings designed to be seen from the main drive to the house and shown in Rocque's map of c1750 as the estate laundry. As it is not shown on the c1725 estate map it is by William Kent not Vanbrugh.
Circa 1740 William Kent estate laundry which, despite C20 alterations and extensions, is a rare estate building by that architect and forms part of a group of listed estate buildings at Claremont.

[Chapter by Giles Worsley in "Sir John Vanbrugh and Landscape Architecture in Baroque England 1690-1730" 2000, particularly p132-3 and p187.]

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26670524

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

• 
  London 1: The City of London: City of London v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gloucestershire 1: The Cotswolds: Cotswolds Pt. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Development and Design of Heritage Sensitive Sites: Strategies for Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas