Preston Manor and Attached Railings, Brighton and Hove, The City of Brighton and Hove

Description

BRIGHTON

TQ3006 PRESTON DROVE, Preston
577-1/12/1038 (South side)
13/10/52 Preston Manor and attached railings
(Formerly Listed as:
PRESTON ROAD, Preston
Preston Manor)

GV II*

Manor house. 1250, rebuilt 1738, altered 1905. Stucco, roofs
of Welsh slate.
EXTERIOR: some remains of a house of c1250 in basement; the
house was substantially rebuilt in 1738, probably to the
designs of Thomas Western, then Lord of the Manor, and is of 2
storeys over basement with dormers in attic, and has 5 windows
to the centre on the northern, entrance front, with wings
blank on the upper storey apart from a single window
introduced into the east wing; this house was altered and
enlarged in 1905 to the designs of Charles Stanley Peach who
added a 2-window range west of the original house, and a
3-window range north and west of that. Steps up to enclosed
Doric porch with paterae over columns and mutule cornice,
double panelled doors with sidelights, and flat-arched windows
to the sides with aprons; the porch dates from c1800 but was
recast in 1905. Long and short quoins to sides. All windows
flat-arched, with simple dripmould and louvred shutters; the
ground-floor windows on the central portion have 6/6 sashes of
original design, those to first floor 3/3 sashes; in front of
the wings on either side are enclosed verandahs which act as
corridors within the house: they have cast-iron work in a
revived early C19 style, large windows of small panes, and
tented copper roofs; the western verandah dates from 1905 and
extends across the front of the first 1905 range; the eastern
verandah was designed in 1910 by WT Cripps, surveyor to the
Stanford Estate, as a duplicate of that of 1905; parapet,
upswept to the centre, double hipped roof to central part with
stack between the ridges, hipped roofs to the rest, those to
wings set transversely to the main roof. Railings to porch
steps.
The garden front has broadly the same arrangement of wings and
ranges. Steps up either side of a central enclosed porch of
dressed flint with stone dressings: flat-arched entrances to
either side with keystones under open segmental pediments on
consoles; south-facing window with architrave and pediment,
and carved coats of arms in a recessed panel below the window;
the cornice over the window is that of the porch as a whole;
parapet; this porch is a Classicised adaptation of a tower in
an Elizabethan manner which was erected on this front in the
late C19. On the central part, the windows are as for the
entrance front; the wings to either side have broad French
windows under a segmental arch, and balconies with iron
railings; the western extension has tripartite French windows
with engaged Doric columns and pilasters, entablature, and
pediment over the central window; parapet overall, upswept
between wings and centre; side stacks to all parts on this
side. Single-storey extension to east with a C18 round-arched
entrance, introduced from a house in London, with fanlight
with decorative glazing, panelled door of original design, and
doorcase of partly fluted Doric columns supporting an
entablature and open pediment with dentil cornice. Plain
single-storey extension to west.
INTERIOR: entrance hall formed in 1905 from 2 rooms and now
divided by a screen of paired cast-iron Ionic columns distyle
in antis, with capitals of Greek Revival design; chimneypiece
at the east end of late C17 date and in situ, the cornice at
this end of 1738; chimneypiece at the west end of early C19
date with scrolled brackets, pulvinated frieze and modillion
cornice to mantelshelf; modillion cornice at this end probably
of early C20 date. To the east of the entrance hall is the
Macquoid Room which has panelling designed by Percy Macquoid
after the model of a room from Clifford's Inn now in the
Victoria and Albert Museum; a marble chimneypiece designed by
Macquoid, the bolection-moulded surround modelled on one at
Belton House, the rest, with putti to the pilasters and
cornice breaking forward, Macquoid's invention; cast-iron
grate in the Georgian taste with imitation coals lit by
electricity, designed by Macquoid to emit light but not heat,
and an early example of such illusions. These fittings came,
originally, from No.8 Palace Court, Bayswater, designed for
Macquoid by Ernest George, and were bequeathed to Brighton
Corporation as part of the Macquoid Bequest in 1939. In the
north-east corridor, panels of Flemish, Swedish and English
glass of the C15-C18, inserted in the glazing, from the
Macquoid Bequest.
On the south front and east of the staircase is the Morning
Room with an early C18 cornice and a marble chimneypiece of
late C17 or early C18 date. On the south front and west of the
staircase is the Cleves Room, which has a chimneypiece of
c1800 formerly in the drawing room, with reeded architrave and
an oval panel of fruit; the east and west walls are covered
with a fine example of Dutch or Flemish leatherwork of
1675-80, formerly supposed to be associated with Anne of
Cleves; the coverings on the north and south walls, and the
frieze, are of Tynecastle canvas made to match.
The drawing room, immediately west of the entrance hall, is of
2 storeys in height, with dado rail, dentil and egg-and-dart
mouldings to cornice, coved ceiling of 1750-60 decorated with
arabesques, and oval dome of 1770-80; late C18 chimneypiece
with inlays in the form of fluting and panels of Classical
figures, the whole installed in 1905; 2 entrances on the east
wall have C18 architraves and panelled doors, but the
bracketed pediments and pulvinated frieze are of 1923 by
Messrs Fox of Brighton. The dining room is in the first,
western range added in 1905 and has dado rail, modillion
cornice, and a chimneypiece of c1770 in green and white marble
with flanking engaged Ionic columns and festoons to the
architrave. The north-west corridor has Doric pilasters at its
west end, and pilasters with scrolled brackets half-way along
its length.
The principal staircase, in the centre of the south front, is
taken from a pattern-book by Abraham Swan and dates from about
1738 and is of open well type with curtail step, turned newel,
column-on-vase balusters, wreathed, ramped and moulded
handrail, carved string and panelled dado. Alcove at the foot
of the staircase by JL Denman. The landing on the first floor
has a Vitruvian scroll to the cornice. There are 4 bedrooms
and a dressing room in the central block, all with C18 fielded
panelling and cornice, except for the north-east room where
the panelling appears to have been covered over. The
south-east room has a cast-iron fireplace of c1900 and is
fitted with night-bolts; the south-west and north-west rooms
have similar fireplaces; the north-east room has a fireplace
installed in 1911 from Acacia House, Preston village, of late
C18 or early C19 design and possibly a reproduction, with
fluted and cabled pilasters and panels of Classical figures,
and a ceiling light of petal form in copper and brass by WAS
Benson, of late C19 or early C20 date. The east wing at this
level contains 2 bedrooms, each with a Vitruvian scroll
cornice of 1738, fireplace surround of C18 date and cast-iron
grate of 1840s; the west wing is taken up by the upper part of
the drawing room.
The basement retains, under the central block, the vestiges of
the plan of hall, screen and parlour from a house of c1250; a
chamfered round arch perhaps of that date to the servants'
hall; a partly-obliterated late C16 flat-arched doorway in the
west wall of the kitchen and a fragment of a similar doorway
beyond the servants' hall; and a late C16 or early C17 brick
fireplace in the boot hall.
(Beever D: Preston Manor: Brighton).

Listing NGR: TQ3035006407

External Links

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