Description

TQ 1656 SE
12/130
7.9.51

LEATHERHEAD
CHURCH STREET
(west side)

Nos. 68, 70, and 72
(The Mansion)

GV
II

Large house, now council offices and library. 1739 rebuilding of earlier house, by
Alexander Akehurst, partly remodelled c.1810; altered. Red brick in Flemish bond,
with stone dressings (painted white), red tile roof. Double-pile plan, with wings
added at each end. Two storeys and 1:7:1 bays over cellars, symmetrical, the end
bays breaking forwards; rendered plinth, punched rusticated quoins, plain frieze
and moulded cornice, parapet with flat coping; the centre has a rectangular flat-
roofed porch with fluted Ionic corner pilasters, plan frieze and dentilled cornice,
and recessed glazed doors; the windows are all 12-pane sashes, those at ground
floor with elaborate moulded architraves and cornices on consoles and those
above with raised sills and similar cornices. Two-span hipped roof with 2 ridge
chimneys. At the left end is a set-back 1-bay link to a service wing (which is
not of special interest), and at the right-hand end a set-back 2-bay extension.
Rear: the 7-bay main range has a central doorway with moulded architrave and
cornice on large consoles and a glazed door, some blocked cellar openings in the
plinth, an inserted glazed door at the right-hand end, 12-pane sashed windows on
both floors with louvred sliding shutters, an oculus at the left end of the 1st
floor, and a hipped roof with a small dormer in the centre and 2 ridge chimneys.
Attached at each end is a 3-bay wing (that at the south end set back), with
similar windows at 1st floor and a large square conservatory projected from the
ground floor, both with Tuscan columns tetrastyle in antis, glazed screen walls
and flat roofs. Interior: the entrance hall has pilasters and vine frieze, ceiling
beams with similar decoration, and a fine early C18 doglegged open-string
staircase with flying upper flight, carved brackets, 2 turned balusters per tread,
and ramped handrail (perhaps ex situ); and inserted partition walls. The rear
range (now the public library) has a moulded plaster cornice and a shouldered
fireplace of white marble with a wooden entablature in the central room, and to
the south of this a panelled room containing a Doric screen with 2 fluted
columns distyle in antis.

Listing NGR: TQ1661656262

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26279734

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

• 
  Farrow & Ball How to Decorate: Transform your home with paint & paper
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990
• 
  Nottinghamshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Norfolk 1: Norwich and North-East: Norwich and North-east v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair by Hunt. Roger ( 2008 ) Hardcover
• 
  Cambridgeshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)