History

Part of the mid-C19 development of the suburb of Maindee comprising modest terrace housing at river level and more stylish terrraces and villas on the hillside. Built 1854 for Thomas Spittle who developed the Cambrian Foundry on a site known as Spittlespoint. He also owned works on the E bank of the Usk where 3 iron ships where launched. First Edition Ordnance Survey map shows the plan of the house very much as at present with the rear service wing, the long W wing with verandah and long flight of steps to front; also shown but not extant is a fountain and turning circle to front garden below. When listed the building was a hotel; it is currently the headquarters of a medical foundation.

Exterior

Italianate villa, one of several in this planned mid-C19th Newport suburb development. Built of stone rendered with stucco, painted, with a plinth of coursed rock-faced stone with tooled quoins; Welsh slate roof with iron apex finials, overhanging eaves with moulded brackets and decorative bargeboards. 3 storeys with a taller slender belvedere porch tower with pyramidal roof; also basement. Raised quoins and decorative banding between floors extending over first floor windows to form semicircular hoodmoulds. Windows are mostly horned sashes with largish panes, a number are round-arched, or with round-arched surrounds, many paired, the main ones separated by capitals with Corinthian columns. Main S facing frontage comprises two bays, the right gabled and projecting, each with a single window range and with the porch tower in the angle between them. This is approached by a steep flight of 13 nosed stone steps bordered on both sides by a ramped rendered wall which sweeps upwards to frame the porch in the form of giant inverted brackets; round-arched entrance doorway has slender columns and heavily bracketed cornice, carved enrichment to brackets and spandrels. On ground floor to left (W) of porch and extending round the primary bay of the S frontage is a wide iron verandah comprising an arcade of slender columns and semi-circular arches, rosette frieze and decorative spandrels; a shallow pitched roof with boarded ceiling, swept eaves and front balustrade. Attic windows are small and paired; larger to the belvedere tower which has a small iron balustraded and bracketed balcony at main eaves level; first floor windows are paired to left and tower, tripartite to the right wing which also has a canted bay window to ground floor with heavy moulded cornice; ground floor window to left under balcony is also tripartite with Corinthian capitals and incorporating a French door. W garden frontage is also of two bays, one gabled and slightly projecting; here the recessed bay has a small canted bay window with hipped roof. Hipped roof 2-storey service wing to rear and further later small infill extensions.

Interior

Interior has an L-shaped central hallway with reception rooms to right and left and staircase rising at right angles to rear. Some moulded plasterwork, marble fireplaces and shutters are retained. Reception room front right has a heavy ceiling rose and frieze with convulvulus motif. Hall has bracketed arches, billet moulding and a cantilevered dogleg staircase with cast iron balusters and a wreathed handrail; large window of 2 round-arched lights with Corinthian capitals, ball-flower mouldings and margin glazing. Eared architraves to the doors which are mostly 4-panelled.

Reasons for Listing

Listed as a fine example of a mid-C19 villa, representative of this favoured style in this Newport suburb development; group value with the church of St John the Evangelist and The Lawns.

External Links

• Cadwr Listing
• Wikidata Q29482970

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.

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