Description

BRAY WINDSOR ROAD
SU 97 NW
(north-east side, off)
10/27 Water Oakley
25.3.55 Bray Film Studios (formerly listed
as Down Place)
II

Large house beside the river Thames, now offices for film studios. Early C18, altered late C18,
C19 and C20. Part brick, part painted render, render with incised horizontal joint lines on south
front. Slate roof. Irregular plan. Part 2 storeys with cellar, part 2 storeys with attics.
Chimneys now gone, those that remain are cut down to a low level. Mostly sash windows with glazing
bars. Battlemented parapets. West wing: earliest part. Red brick with random blue headers, in
Flemish bond. 5 bays. Moulded brick strings at first and second floors. Parapet. Slate mansard
roof with 3 segmental-header roof dormers. 5, flush sash windows on first floor under segmental
brick arches; 4 remaining on ground floor; the centre window having been replaced by a C20 flat-
roofed square projection. North front: painted render with battlemented parapet concealing low
pitched roof. 7 bays. Windows of 4th,5th and 6th bays on ground floor are in projecting rounded
bay of one storey, surrounded by early C19 semicircular portico with fluted, Doric columns and
plain entablature. On the right of this front and projecting forward at an angle is a smaller wing
of 7 bays, 2 storeys and attics with 3 square-headed roof dormers. Battlemented except over centre
bay. Windows on each side of centre bay are in large, projecting, rounded bays; centre window
blocked on first floor. Ground-floor windows are tall casements with glazing bars. In the centre
there is a doorcase of attached fluted columns with foliated capitals and plain entablature. The
entrance is on the south front, which may have been re-faced in the C19. The entrance doors appear
to be original and are half-glazed, with moulded and fielded bottom panels and original ironwork.
On the south-east is an adjoining structure which may have been a chapel and is now 2 houses,
listed separately (10/28). Interior: inside the west wing is an early C18 staircase with turned
balusters, cut string with plaster enrichment to soffit. Fluted Ionic columns as newel posts. In
the late C18 the house belonged to Richard Tonson, a descendant of Jacob Tonson and a founder of
the Kit Kat club. The portraits by Kneller, of members of the Kit Kat club, were brought here
fron Barn Elms, and a special room was added to house them. On Richard Tonson's death, the
portraits passed to Mr Baker of Bayfordbury, Herts. They are now housed in the National Portrait
Gallery. Bray Film Studios was formerly known as Down Place.

Listing NGR: SU9199877943

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26411009

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

• 
  Nottinghamshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 6: Westminster (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England): Westminster v. 6
• 
  Warwickshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Cumberland and Westmorland)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1967)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects by Harwood, Richard (2012) Paperback