Description

TQ 4110 SE LEWES HIGH STREET
10/139 (south side)

25.2.52 No 32 (Lewes House)

GV II*

House, now council offices. Circa 1720 to rear with front block of circa
1810. Grey headers with red brick dressings. Doubled brick quoins and plain
parapet hiding roof; slate roofs with various end and rear brick stacks.
3 storeys; regular 5 window front, glazing bar sashes. Central entrance up
eight steps. Rusticated plastered entrance arch, panelled door and arched
overlight with octagonal lantern. Deep porch with Ionic columns and open
triangular pediment. Paved space either side of door with iron arrow-head
railed surround. Garden front: Early C18. Grey headers with red dressings,
and red brick central projection. Plain tiled hipped roof with tall ridge stack
to left. 2 storeys with plinth with roll-moulding, cornice-band and cornice to
parapet. Central pedimented projection. 2 bays to left of projection, 3 bays
on projection, the outer ones narrow, and 3 bays to right of projection, with
2 wide windows on ground-floor. Glazing bar sashes with gauged heads.
Central panelled door with cast-iron dog-gate; moulded blocked surround with
triple keystone supporting cornice moulding. 2-storey early C19 wing to left
projecting forward with hipped roof and central hipped projection. Half-glazed
door in round-arched surround to right. This wing, faced in knapped flints
to the west, ends in brick gate-pier to stable court. Interior: Committee
room: wide segmental arch recess with colonettes supporting surround.
Panelled fire-surround. Coved cornice. Hall: groin vault on brackets
with triglyph decoration. Screen to rear stair-hall with colonnade of attached
Doric order with triglyph and metope frieze. Registry: Wide segmental arch
recess at end with colonnettes supporting surround.Fireplace with doubled columns
supporting decorative mantel with swags and rustic scene. all panelling and
acanthus bracket cornice. Local land charges office: Bracketted cornice.
Marble fire-surround with fluted pilasters and eared and kneed overmantel,
flanked by pair of pier glasses in eared and kneed surrounds. Window shutters.
Staircase: 3-flight rectangular newel.Turned balusters with square knops and
fluted columnar newels. Ramped flat hand-rail and foot scroll. Greek key
decoration on string of landing. Bracketted cornice. Chief executive's
secretary's office: Eared fire-surround with bolection mould supporting mantel
shelf and eared and kneed overmantel with greek key decoration. Moulded
cornice. Chief executive's room: Eared fire-surround with dentilled mantel.
Electoral Registration office: Late C18 fire-surround with swags and central
panel of nymphs under mantel. District sectretary's office: Marble fire-
surround with dentilled mantel. More fireplaces on 2nd floor of north block.

Listing NGR: TQ4166310147

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17555860

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

• 
  For the Record
• 
  Northamptonshire: Buildings of England Series (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Dorset (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of History Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas