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Listing: By William Johnson Harrison Weller for a Mr. Hall-Jones. A
cleverly and competantly (sic) designed Arts and Crafts composition by a local
architect, in which the quality of both external and internal detailing has been
sufficiently high to withstand the damage of later additions and alterations.
Comment: once the centre of a large estate, it is now surrounded by
surburbia, mainly of the late 60s and early 70s. Since the last of the resident
family moved out it has seen a number of uses, of which the best remembered
seems to be a club and restaurant. The photo above, taken in 2000, shows
the front door which is in what is otherwise a side elevation - a not unusual
arrangement in this style. The main elevation, to the left, could not be
photographed through the surrounding boscage and wire mesh fence. In 2001
planning permission was given to convert the house into flats and for a lot of
new build flats to be erected filling the rest of the site.
This is the result. It cannot be denied that the site
is a whole lot neater and tidier; but the development as a whole is out of
scale and character with the 1960s open plan suburbia which now surrounds
it. Taken by itself it is a very successful effort at producing
something which matches the original building without being a fake. It
may also be significant of the present state of suburban architecture that
the new build could pass as almost any modern estate.
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