Description

CHALFONT ST PETER
CHESHAM LANE
Greene House at the National Society for Epilepsy

II
House for male residents. Designed 1897, built 1899 to the designs of Maurice B Adams, Mr Darlington contractor, erected at the expense of Frederick Greene.

Brick with stone banding to ground floor and tile-hanging to first floor set partly within sweeping tiled roof, single-storey wings to sides and rear are part of the original plan.

Greene House is a good example of the distinctive planning found at the Chalfont Centre, with a central two-storey range containing communal living areas on the ground floor and staff accommodation above, with single-storey wings to either side that formerly housed dormitories, now bedsitting rooms, and a service range to the rear, since extended. Upper windows have leaded lights under a pair of rendered gables, other opening casements renewed; those to ground floor centre in round arches set either side engaged columns that frame a further arch this with moulded keystone - containing the part-glazed door. Former sash windows to side elevations replaced by modern casements. A plaque on a pilaster at the side commemorates Frederick Greene. Interiors not inspected as understood to be altered

The former Chalfont colony was founded in 1894 to give a normal, healthy village life to epileptics. It pioneered the concept of a village community for mental patients, which was widely adopted, firstly for other epileptic hospitals and in the inter-war period for institutions serving other mental disabilities. Greene House is included as the most architectural and least altered of the villas at Chalfont Common, forming a strong group with Milton and Pearman Houses that perfectly demonstrates how the plan of the colony worked.

Source
Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England, unpublished report NBR no.100291.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26675992

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.

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