Description

TIVERTON

SS9512 PHOENIX LANE, Tiverton
848-1/6/248 (South West side)
12/02/52 Gotham House including forecourt
walls and entrance gates
(Formerly Listed as:
FORE STREET, Tiverton
(South side)
Gotham House including forecourt
walls and gate)

GV II*

Large town house, now used as offices. Early C18, thoroughly
restored 1966 by Clement Toy, architect with Raymond Erith,
consultant architect.
MATERIALS: Flemish bond brickwork with some blue headers; rear
left return has bands of rubbed brick headers; left return is
Flemish bond; rubbed brick flat arches over windows; purple
slatestone footings. Slate roof. Glazed ridge tiles; cast-iron
rain water goods; stacks with brick shafts; brick bands,
corbelled cornice and tapering yellow pots.
PLAN: double-depth plan, under an M profile roof, 2 rooms wide
heated from end stacks with an open-well stair in a central
stair hall and through-passage. Kitchen in half-basement with
service stair at south-west end.
EXTERIOR: 3 storeys and basement. Symmetrical 5-bay front.
Ground and first floor have giant brick pilasters to left and
right and flanking centre bay. These have moulded caps and
bases and fluted sections below a deep moulded cornice that
projects out round the pilasters. Shorter pilasters above the
cornice rise to the top of the parapet. Moulded brick string
at first-floor level.
Pilastered doorcase with round-headed outer doorway with
fanlight and 2-leaf door. Ground and first-floor windows have
segmental-headed arches and are glazed with 6 over 9-pane
sashes with triple keystones. Second-floor windows are small 4
over 8-pane sashes with a moulded brick cornice over the
central window. Basement area has iron railings.
Rear elevation almost symmetrical, 3-bays with 5 windows. Bays
divided by pilasters. Small blind projection at right end,
perhaps a lavatory shaft. Platband below parapet; platband at
ground-floor level; bands above window sills in outer bays
only. Steps up to rear doorway which has segmental hood on
shaped timber brackets. Pilastered segmental-headed doorcase
with panelled reveals. 2-leaf half-glazed door, panelled below
with glazing bars with margin panes and intersecting glazing
bars in the head. Large, impressive stair window with
round-headed architrave of fluted Doric pilasters, rusticated
arch and apron. Window glazed with 8/12 sash with intersecting
glazing bars. Segmental-headed basement windows glazed with
high-transomed casements with glazing bars. ground-floor
windows have rubbed brick arches and keyblocks. They are sash
windows with boxed frames glazed with 6/9 sashes to left of
front door and 18-pane sashes to right. Similar first-floor
windows 6/9 sashes. Second floor attic windows glazed with 4/8
sashes. The left return has one ground and one first floor
segmental-headed 6/9 sash. Second-floor windows are
square-headed 4/8 sashes.
INTERIOR: good interior detail. Fine early C18 open string
stair with ramped wreathed flat-handrail and alternating
barleysugar and fluted balusters, 3 balusters to each
breacketed tread. Joinery includes 6-panel doors with fielded
panelled reveals; 2-panel doors to service. Panelled stair
dado with fluted pilasters. Massive wall cornice and plaster
roundel to stair hall. One good chimneypiece seen; others
believed to survive. Marble chimneypiece has Corinthian
columns and frieze of sphinxes and cherubs; cast-iron grate.
C19 fittings include butler's pantry and dumb waiter.
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: forecourt walls are crowned with C20
cast-iron railings. Square brick gate piers have urn finials.
HISTORY: the cornice on the front elevation was replaced in
1966 and the front boundary wall was coped.

Listing NGR: SS9551712446

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Gotham House at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q5587809

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

• 
  [(Cumberland and Westmorland)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1967)
• 
  Drawing up a Local Listed Building Consent Order: Historic England Advice Note 6
• 
  Harrow on the Hill: A photographic portrayal of listed buildings and structures (Historic Buildings Picture Guides)
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings and Other Heritage Assets
• 
  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings