History

Built in 1878 for Mr Davis, a Liverpool timber merchant. It was purchased in 1891 by the Birmingham Hospital Saturday Fund and opened as a male convalescent home in 1892, in which form it is shown on the 1900 Ordnance Survey. Extensions were made in 1899 and 1927. Early photographs indicate that in 1899 the building was extended on the L side of the front, followed in 1927 by further extension to the L end as well as additions to the R end. In 1971 the building opened as the Harriet Robertson Research Institute, housing offices, laboratories and library, subsequent to which further additions were made to the rear.

Exterior

A large Gothic former country house and convalescent home, of 2 storeys and attic, of snecked rock-faced stone with freestone dressings, slate roof behind coped gables on moulded kneelers, and with white-brick stacks. Windows have stone mullions to the main elevations. The front is asymmetrical. The original 1878 house was approximately 7 bays (bays 3-9), with 2 wide bays at the L end (bays 1 and 2) added in 1899 and 1927, and 3 bays at the R end (bays 10-12) added in 1927.
In the original section asymmetry was accentuated by the advanced gabled bay 5 and entrance in the gabled bay 7. The entrance has a panel door in a rounded-headed mullioned surround with leaded overlight and side lights. Above it is a 2-light window under a pointed tympanum and hood mould with foliage stops, under a gable. On its L side bay 6 has a pair of transomed ground floor windows beneath 2 tall pointed stair windows with tracery and linked hood. On the R side of the entrance bay 8 has pairs of cross windows and an added flat-roof 2-light dormer, and the narrower bay 9 simpler transomed windows. Further L, the projecting bay 5 is more richly treated. It has a 2-storey 5-light transomed window, and basement with 2 windows. The parapet has cusped arcading and central arched panel with lion in low relief. Dragon gargoyles are on the angles of the parapet string course. The kneelers of the gable have similar cusping to the parapet, and stone pinnacles. Further L are transomed windows to bays 3 and 4.
The added bays 1 and 2 form a continuous elevation with bays 3-4, with hipped roof to the end. This section retains original cast-iron rainwater goods. Set well back from the end, bay 1 has a full-height canted bay window under a hipped roof and weathervane, with cross window in each facet. This was probably built in 1899 as a corner turret (as shown on the 1913 Ordnance Survey), and was altered to form a bay window when the wall was extended to the L in 1927. Bay 2 has a 2-storey canted bay window with 5-light transomed windows and replacement steel-framed casements. The bay window has a parapet of cusped arcading incorporating a central stepped gable with blank shield. It is flanked by small windows in the 1st floor. A flat roof dormer is an addition.
In the added R-hand section bays 10 and 11 are brought forward under gables with loops, and the narrower bay 12 is set back and has transomed windows. Bays 10 and 11 both have 3-light transomed 1st-floor windows, above a single wide 5-light transomed canted bay window to the ground floor. The R end wall is 3 bays, of which the outer bays have hipped roofs. The narrower central bay has a full-height porch with parapet. It has replacement half-glazed doors, under a mullioned overlight, to the ground floor. A 1st-floor doorway has an original half-glazed door under a mullioned overlight, reached by modern escape stair. Outer bays have stone cross windows in the ground floor. A paved terrace is built around the front and side walls of bays 10-12, of rock-faced stone with freestone coping.
The rear of bays 10-12 matches the front, with narrower bay 12 and gabled bays 10 and 11. Windows are 3-light with casements, and transoms in the 1st floor. Between the gables is a rainwater head dated 1927. Set back further R the rear of the original building has a different bay structure to the front. Windows have mostly wood-framed mullions and transoms in dressed-stone surrounds. At the L end are transomed windows, then a 1st-floor 4-light stone mullioned and transomed window, with hood mould and foliage stops, over a lean-to with 2 large wood-framed transomed windows. Next are 2 wooden cross windows over a flat projection, then a 2-storey hipped rear wing of 1899. On the R side of this wing is a lean-to porch (opposite the entrance bay 7 in the front elevation) with cross window, then a single, pair and single cross windows to the R in the ground floor. The 1st floor has corresponding single cross windows. This section has 3 stone gabled dormers, of which the L-hand has a single, the central a pair of 4-pane sashes, and the R-hand is obscured by an added 2½-storey rear wing of pebble-dashed brick and slate roof. To the R of this wing is the rear of the 1899 section. It has an open lean-to porch with half-glazed door and overlight, flanked by wooden cross windows in the ground floor and similar window L of centre in the 1st floor. The end wall of bay 1 has a double-pile hipped roof, the rear pile of 1899 narrower. It has thin external stone stacks framing central replacement doors in ground and 1st floor, with escape stairs. To the R the front pile of 1927 has 2 cross windows in the ground floor and 3-light transomed 1st-floor window, all with stone dressings. Further L in the rear pile are 2 wood-framed windows in the ground floor and replacement door to an escape stair in the 1st floor.

Interior

The entrance hall has an open-well stair with turned balusters and newels, and the hall has a plaster cornice with emblems in relief.

Reasons for Listing

Listed for its special architectural interest as a Gothic country house retaining original character and fine detail, and of additional special interest for its Gothic extensions as a convalescent home, one of the better preserved of many such buildings in the district.

External Links

• Cadwr Listing
• Wikidata Q29483199

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

• 
  Listed Buildings, Conservation Areas and Monuments
• 
  Farrow & Ball How to Decorate: Transform your home with paint & paper
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House
• 
  Cambridgeshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)