Westover, 65 Station Road, Amersham, Buckinghamshire

Summary

A house of about 1910, believed to be designed by John Harold Kennard.

Description

A distinctive Edwardian vernacular house of about 1910, with dominant gable and good survival of contemporary decorative detail and plan form, built to the designs of John Harold Kennard.

MATERIALS and PLAN: brick with roughcast render and exposed brick dressings and a tiled roof. The building has two storeys and an attic.

EXTERIOR: the steep roof descends in Arts and Crafts fashion to just above ground floor level and the windows of the first and attic floors appear as dormers on the flanks of the building, The east and west fronts are gabled. Windows are casements with moulded wooden surrounds, unless indicated.

The west front faces the road and is symmetrical. It has three ground floor bays with a half-glazed door to the centre with an arched hood. At either side are three-light mullioned and transomed windows. A projecting band of tiles runs across the building at eaves level and above this is a central, six-light window to the first floor. The attic has a central, two-light casement and above it is a arch and keystone motif in exposed brickwork.

The eastern gable end is similar in having a projecting band above the ground floor. The upper two floors are also symmetrical; here with a three-light casement to either side of the first floor. The ground floor has a central door with a three-light casement to its right and a single-light to its left.

The south front has an angled bay window to the centre at ground floor level, flanked by blank walling to its left and a later-C20 metal-framed casement to the right. The first floor has a gabled projection to the centre, the walls of which have been clapboarded. The central, three-light window has been replaced by a uPVC substitute. Two tall chimney stacks, which are also symmetrically disposed, straddle the ridge.

INTERIOR: survival of contemporary decorative detail throughout the public spaces. The front door, which is at the centre of the north side leads to the staircase hall. This has a dogleg stair with vase balusters and moulded handrail and square newels with ball finials. From the central hallway the sitting room is on the southern side and has a fireplace flanked by panelled, wooden pilasters and incorporating shelves above the hearth which has brick cheeks to the hearth, which appear to be of later-C20 date. The dining room also has a prominent fireplace which is now boarded. Both rooms have picture rails which circle the room and six-panel doors. The original kitchen has been adapted to form a breakfast room and the scullery and other store rooms have been combined to create one larger kitchen.

The first floor has a large bedroom which incorporates the wide window on the west front which, in common with other original windows, has simple but well-crafted latches. There are two further bedrooms on the eastern side with picture rails and cast iron fire surrounds and a bathroom which projects at the centre of the southern front. The attic has two rooms which also have matching cast-iron fire surrounds.

History

The house was built in about 1910 and believed to be by John Harold Kennard (1883-1926) as one of three chalet-style houses in the developing area of Amersham-on-the-Hill. Pevsner (see SOURCES) records 'This is outer London ... it is useful to know that the first houses were built just below the railway bridge in the 1890s, that the first shops of 1910 at the corner of Chesham and Sycamore Road were followed after 1918 by house just to the N and W of them and by shops down Sycamore Road. The main expansion happened after 1929 when the Metropolitan Railway bought up the Weller Estate with its large tracts of farmland and the town began to spread E towards Little Chalfont.' Kennard was, before his early death, responsible for several of the new buildings in Amersham-on-the-Hill, including the shops in Sycamore Road. He had an office in Station Road from 1906, where he was in partnership with William Sumner. Westover appears to have been one of three similar houses designed by Kennard in 1910. One has since been demolished. Westover retains the greatest quantity of its original form and details.

Reasons for Listing

Westover, 65 Station Road, Amersham is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* an interesting and early example of a suburban house, built to a limited budget, but showing distinctive and idiosyncratic qualities in its design and significant survival of plan form and detail..

Historic interest:

* a good demonstration of early-C20 domestic development around London due to the expanding suburban rail network.

Group value:

* with High and Over, designed by Amyas Connell (Grade II*) and Sun Houses, 4, 6 and 8, Highover Park (Grade II).

External Links

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