Description

1207/0/10168 NIGHTINGALE LANE SW12
11-JAN-10 56
Coach House

II
Former coach house, built 1870 by Eaton and Chapman, as an addition to Dudley House, built 1869-70 by William Higgs for Henry Clifford Green, wine and spirit merchant. First floor billiard room and link to main house, probably added 1898 by J Carmichael for James Ryan O'Connor, Commission Agent (Turf Accountant).

MATERIALS: Stock brick with red brick and terracotta dressings; pantile and concrete tile roof.
PLAN: Ground floor row of stalls entered from the east elevation with a rear tack room. First floor top-lit billiard room, originally reached by stairs from a separate entrance in a link bay between the main house and stables. Sub-basement area and single-storey storage under lean-to roof attached to roadside elevation.

EXTERIOR. Exterior roadside elevation is of two storeys in two bays, with a single bay set back to the left. The ground floor lean-to extension which bonds into earlier grey brick gate pier has a pair of round arched sashes. First floor round-arched sashes have terracotta aprons and are set in a rich terracotta frieze with enriched keystones between swagged panels. Plain deep oversailing eaves above a plain red brick band and corbel table with a dog tooth band, which continues across all exposed faces. The left hand bay has an altered first floor window over a ground floor entrance and a similar enriched cornice. The roof, mostly in concrete pantiles, with the originals at the rear over the inglenook, has a hipped glazed timber lantern and scrolled finials at the angles. The east elevation has a tall stable doorway with a ledge and braced door, beneath an overlight under a segmental arch and now with coloured glass, flanked by a pair of round-arched horned sashes. These are set back under a steel lintel supported on columnar shafts carrying the projecting upper floor, above which is a flush red brick band. Either side of the doorway are a round-headed waterhead and a cast iron lion's head loop. The rear of the building has a pair of ground floor round-arched sashes, set back under a deep lintel which supports the first floor chimney breast which is flanked by small rectangular inglenook windows under red brick arches, all in a projecting bay with a shallow corbel table and plain eaves, repeating the decoration of the main block. The stack which is external to the main block rises through the roof and has a twisted terracotta shaft. The single entrance bay has been altered at ground floor and has a raised first floor entrance, with a small paned and panelled door and rectangular and round-arched sashes with red brick dressings.

INTERIOR. The stables are divided by cast iron columns moulded with a lattice pattern, with similar finials, cast iron brackets and partitions with tongue and groove panels. Floors are of Dutch tiles with cast iron drains intact. Walls are lined with a tongue and grove panelled dado below hexagonal ceramic wall tiles. The door has robust strap hinges. At the rear is the former tack room. Round-arched windows of the former roadside ground floor are now internal. The billiard room was approached by stairs with very robust carved newels and now has a moulded rail with replaced turned balusters. The stairwell, now subdivided to create a small first floor room, has a dentil cornice and is lit by a vented lantern with coloured glass panels. The WC at the head of the stairs is lined in encaustic tiles. The billiard room is lined in Ionic pilasters arranged on the lateral walls 1:3:1 beneath a rich carved frieze, with a modillion cornice supporting a coved roof embellished with ornate rococo fibrous plaster panels. Windows have deep moulded architraves. The door set between Ionic pilasters has an eared architrave embellished with rosettes and swags under an enriched rococo head. The door has five panels with low relief ornament. Painted wall panels, the margins painted out, depict hunting scenes, and a family in a coach. Repeated low relief plaster ceiling rondels, depicted in different colours, show boys playing cricket and football, and country sportsmen with gun dogs. The lantern is set above a frieze of sculpted panels of winged putti, some with air vents, and has an inner coloured glass toplight portraying pairs of horses heads and horse shoes. The inglenook at the north end of the room is set back under a wide timber arch flanked by Ionic pilasters, with enriched spandrels and brackets, and a keystone above which is an splayed feathered crest. The fireplace is introduced, but closely follows the proportions of the original and is said to use marble slips from Dudley House. The hearth retains glazed ochre and floral tiles. Above is a painted panel portraying a fully laden horse-drawn coach. The billiard room floor consists of parquet blocks using different woods with an ebony or stained wood fillet.

HISTORY: Dudley House, No. 56 Nightingale Lane was designed by William Higgs and built by 1869-70. The coach house and stables was completed in 1870 by Eaton and Chapman, for the owner of the house, Henry Clifford Green, a wine and spirit merchant. The billiard room which is above the stables probably dates from 1898, coinciding with ownership of house by James Ryan O'Connor who was a Commission Agent, in other words a Turf Accountant who changed the name of the house to Mount Cashel. The billiard room was built by local joiner and builder, James Carmichael. Carmichael was registered as a joiner based in Trinity Road in 1885 and by the turn of the century was established as a general builder, J Carmichael Contractors Ltd. Projects included work for St Thomas' and University College London Hospitals, Arding and Hobbs, Clapham, Harrods, the Gaiety Theatre and the Hotel Cecil, the Strand. Known as a local benefactor, he died in 1934.

Although the garden of Dudley House has been built over, maps suggest that the associated buildings were not demolished and, therefore, that the coach house is an important component of the surviving 1870s layout of house, ancillary buildings and gate piers, which describe the status of Nightingale Lane in the late C19. Opposite are contemporary terraces (Grade II).

SOURCES
The Buildings of Clapham, Clapham Society, 2000
Cartwright News, summer 1983, Battersea local history collection.
M Girouard, The Victorian Country House, 1979

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION
The Coach house, formerly attached to Dudley house, built in 1870 with a billiard room added in 1898, is listed for the following principal reasons:
* The 1870 coach house complete with stable fittings is an unusual survival of this building type in suburban London.
* The later C19 billiard room is lavishly decorated with rich joinery, plasterwork, painted panels and stained glass.
* The history of the building associated with a Commission Agent or Turf Accountant is of interest.
* The context of associated house, stables and contemporary listed terraced housing survives relatively intact.

Reasons for Listing

The Coach House, formerly attached to Dudley House, was built in 1870 with a billiard room added in 1898, is designated for the following principal reasons:
* The 1870 coach house complete with stable fittings is an unusual survival of this building type in suburban London.
* The later C19 billiard room is lavishly decorated with rich joinery, plasterwork, painted panels and stained glass.
* The history of the building associated with a Commission Agent or Turf Accountant is of interest.
* The context of associated house, stables and contemporary listed terraced housing survives relatively intact.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26672783

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

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  Old House Care and Repair
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  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)