Description

SOUTHBOROUGH SPELDHURST ROAD
(south side)
1/6
Sir David Salomons' house
wall and terrace to south
14-3-73 (formerly Broomhill House)
- II

Irregular and complex Italianate house begun in 1820s but with additions until
1913. Cottage originally extended by Decimus Burton, 1829 for Sir David
Salomons (1797-1873), the Jewish Merchant Banker, Lord Mayor of London in 1855
and MP for Greenwich. Mainly 3 storeys of Tunbridge Wells ashlar blocks. East
front: L-shaped with stone parapet and balustrade. Ground floor has recessed
centre to south. Slate roof. Many stone chimney stacks, some pots concealed by
semicircular caps like acroteria. Irregular fenestration on two and three
storeys with some sashes and some casements. 2 colonnades of Tuscan columns
forming balcony on 1st floor. Plain doorcase with rectangular overlight and
linenfold panelled door. South front: Garden elevation also of 3 storeys with
balustraded parapet, dated 1854. 3 casements with a cast iron balcony to the
2nd floor and balcony at 1st floor level supported by 14 Roman Corinthian
columns and pilasters. West front: In similar style but with later additions to
the left. 2 cast iron balconies on 2nd floor. Ionic portico. Former library
projecting to left with round-headed windows flanked by Roman Corinthian half
columns. To left of library is 1913 extension plus the late C19 theatre, white
brick with row of 5 octagonal cupolas along ridge of roof. Rusticated terrace
wall decorated with urns and a flight of stone steps front the house to the
south. Interior: Entrance hall with marble steps and imposing open well
staircase with scrolled tread ends and 1 spiral baluster to each tread. Spiral
newel post and handrail decorated with carved ivy leaves. Gold Room, formerly
sitting room, in Louis XVI style with fine decorated cornices, marble fireplace
and decorated built-in cornice. room to left in same style with coved ceiling.
These two rooms form the Memento Rooms, displaying objects belonging to Salomons
and his son, and are open to the public. His son was an early technologist,
among other things powering the house by electricity completely by 1884,
including lighting, and holding the world's first motor show in the grounds in
1905. He built the theatre for the demonstration of machinery. It has cast
iron columns and the original painted back-cloths together with a permanent
stage set in Parliamentary Gothic-style remain. The most important relic is the
electric organ, by Welte of Hamburg, in the theatre, the earliest and largest
electric organ of its age in the world. It could be played mechanically by the
insertion of rolls, a collection of which remains in the house.

Listing NGR: TQ5689041722

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26482356

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

• 
  ENGLAND GUIDE TO POST WAR LISTED: A Guide to Post-war Listed Buildings
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Renovating Old Houses: Bringing New Life to Vintage Homes (For Pros By Pros)
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of Historic Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  Warwickshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Care and Repair