Description

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BROADSTAIRS AND ST PETERS
Broadstairs
CALLIS COURT ROAD
Long Barn

07.02.07

II

Detached house. Designed in 1925 for his own occupation by the architect Edgar Ranger (1888-1971) in Arts and Crafts style, built by a local builder called Piper. The later C20 one storey annexe and two storey garage to the east and the two storey later C20 addition and conservatory to the west are not of special interest.

MATERIALS: Ground floor of stretcher bond vari-coloured brick and first floor of handmade tiles, except for the central gable to the south which is timberframed with plastered infill. Tiled roof with a series of gables and three very tall chimneystacks in two inch bricks, two of them set diagonally. Irregularly placed metal casement windows with leaded lights. The main entrance to the south-east has an oak plank door with original ironmongery under a brick Tudor arch.

PLAN FORM: The original plan comprised a small entrance lobby to the south-east leading to a narrow staircase hall originally communicating directly with the adjoining lounge which occupies most of the south side of the building. An original photograph shows that the lounge could be divided into two spaces by a central curtain. The dining room led off the hall to the north-east and the north-western side was occupied by the service rooms, kitchen, scullery, larder, coal and logs. The upper floor had five bedrooms and a dressing room, bathroom and boxrooms. Attached to the west was a motor house on the ground floor with architect's studio above, approached externally by wooden steps.

EXTERIOR: The north or entrance front has two windows, the southern over the front door, the northern in a gabled projection facing south and west. Attached to the eastern end is a two storey section of lower elevation, the ground floor originally a motor house with exposed framing with herringbone brick infilling, the upper tile-hung with two casement windows. The upper floor is approached by wooden steps and was built as an architect's office. The south or garden front has three gables. The central gable was originally timberframed and flush with the other gables but was later extended, probably by Ranger, so that it now projects on wooden piers and has a first floor oriel window with hexagonal leaded lights. The flanking gables each have a casement window with varying numbers of lights. The west side has a catslide roof to the south with large gabled dormer and has a range with hipped roof behind with first floor oriel. The north side has a large gabled dormer to the west and catslide roof to west over the kichen below and a timberframed gable to the east with four-light mullioned and transomed window.

INTERIOR: The entrance lobby with beamed ceiling leads to an oak dogleg staircase with wide stick balusters and octagonal newelposts with moulded knops and pendants. The lounge has exposed ceiling beams with decorative adze marks and moulded plaster cornices with vine motifs. The windows have coloured armorial glass roundels. Originally there was a large four-centred stone fireplace with herringbone brick infill to the eastern end and a smaller brick fireplace to the other end. The eastern fireplace has been replaced by a late C20 cocktail cabinet and the western fireplace by a large stone bolection-moulded fireplace. A late C20 screen in matching style now separates the lounge from the hall. There are a series of oak panelled doors. The dining room has a ceiling of cross beams with ovolo moulding and runout stops. There is a plastered frieze with honeysuckle motif. There are two panelled doors and a serving hatch. A stone four-centred fireplace has grapevine to the spandrels. The window has fine quality stained glass inserts of bucolic scenes, one of a shepherd and shepherdess, the other of a shepherd and his flock. The service end of the building retains the original service bells. The former architect's office retains oak wall-framing with picturesque, slightly curved, tension braces and a corner brick fireplace with four-centred arch. The other bedrooms never had exposed wall framing and do not retain any original fittings.

HISTORY: Edgar Ranger was a prolific architect influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement, M H Baillie Scott, Sir Edwin Lutyens and others. He started in private practice in Gerrards Cross in 1911 where he designed a house, Old Basing, for his own use but moved to Broadstairs, following war service, in 1919. In 1930 he became a licentiate of ther RIBA and in 1931 he was elected a Fellow. He designed about 40 houses in Thanet, including Long Barn, and others elsewhere in the southern counties, and in 1934 moved to Marlow in Buckinghamshire. During the Second World War he worked as an architect with a government ministry and moved to Pinkneys Green, Maidenhead. In 1951, he converted three C16 cottages at Curridge, near Newbury, for his own use.
His houses were the subject of articles in Country Life, Ideal Homes, The Builder, Studio Year Book of Decorative Art, Architecture, Architecture Illustrated and others including French and German magazines.

SUMMARY OF IMPORTANCE: A substantially intact example of an Arts and Crafts style house using high quality materials, designed by the architect Edgar Ranger for his own use and retaining the original attached architect's studio.

SOURCES:
Tony Ranger "A Selection of Houses designed by Edgar Ranger FRIBA" 1996. An unpublished selection of original photographs and drawings with copies of magazine articles and an outline of Ranger's life and works.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26671197

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

• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)
• 
  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 6: Westminster (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England): Westminster v. 6
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  England's Post-War Listed Buildings
• 
  Sussex: East with Brighton and Hove (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)