Description

TQ0962 ELMBRIDGE SEVEN HILLS ROAD
Walton on Thames
374/10/10058

Fox Oak including attached terrace walls

II

Large house. Built between 1886 and 1892 by Halsey Ralph Ricardo for his brother. Arts and Crafts style. Built of red brick in stretcher bond with timber-framing to gables with pebble- dashed infill. Tiled roof with 5 brick chimneys. Roughly L-shaped in plan. Mainly two storeys and attics but service wing and gardener's flat to north east of one storey. North or entrance front of two storeys and attics, 6 windows. Left side three bays under hipped roof with central square lead cupola with weathervane has left side two projecting gables, the upper floors timber framed with pebble-dashed infill each having a 4-light mullioned and transomed to first floor. Below is a three-tight mullioned window and two doorcases with pediments, Tuscan columns and 6 panelled doors. Left hand bay has hipped dormer, two five-light windows with mezzanine circular window. Right side three bays project with 3 overhanging gables on carved brackets with three 5-light windows to first floor and one 6-light window lighting the ballroom/billiard room on ground floor. Service wing and gardener's flat to extreme left has projecting gable with cove and multi-paned window. South or garden front has service wing of one storey brick to right with 4 mullioned windows. Centre has three projecting timber-framed gables with three mullioned and transomed casements with leaded lights. Ground floor supported on 5 Tuscan columns. Left side three bays are set back with three gables and 3 mullioned windows to first floor. Two tall 6-light window to ground floor and left side doorcase with ftat hood on brackets.
INTERIOR: unusually complete. Very little altered. There are two main staircases; the northern one with stick balusters, the southern one larger with turned balusters. Hat[ has decorative leaded light windows and window seat. Dining room retains serving hatch disguised as cupboard and although the fireplace has been modified in the later C20 the original surround may remain underneath. Tiled fireplace to Drawing Room. Billiard/ Ballroom has oak axial beam and exposed floor joists, Ionic piers and columns and large curved alcove with blue De Morgan tiles, including pane[ with two ships. The service wing retains original room divisions and includes original wooden dresser and serving hatch to kitchen. First floor has several fireplaces with either plain or Delft tiled surrounds,windows seat to room with bow window, bath room with original fittings, ventilation panels and unusually tall shaft to cupola. Original doors throughout.
[Roderick Gradidge "Dream Houses" p209.]

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26607872

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

• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects, Supplement 2014
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects by Harwood, Richard (2012) Paperback