Listed Building: WESTBROOK HOUSE (467411)

WEYMOUTH SY6684 CHURCH STREET, Upwey 873-1/6/529 (West side) 12/12/53 Westbrook House GV II* Country house in its own grounds. Partly of 1620 for Sir Thomas Freke, substantially modified and extended c1740-1750 by William Freke, or the new owner (from 1741), John Floyer; some alteration c1806, when NC Daniel acquired the property. Portland ashlar, some rubble, slate roofs. PLAN: the original L-plan house with central hall and projecting porch to the W enclosed by new blocks to the S and E, with a matching unit to the W to give a symmetrical S front. The principal staircase opens from the NE corner of the early hall, and links with a block to the N which is difficult to explain, but may be part of the early C19 work. All is generally in 2 storeys with attics; no cellar is recorded. EXTERIOR: the E front, facing the river, is in fine ashlar, in 3 bays, with 12-pane sashes in plat band surrounds on stone sills. There are 2 flat-roofed small-pane 2-light casement dormers, above the outer bays. A central 6-panel fielded door has a radial fanlight in a moulded arch with keystone and responds to pilasters contained in a Roman Doric entablature doorcase on half-columns. Small plinth, moulded cornice, blocking course and parapet, returned at the ends, which contain a single matching 12-pane sash at each level, and a dormer above, matching those to the E. The S front was reorganised in 1740 to create the principal facade. The central 3-bay block, in fine ashlar with rusticated quoins, steps forward, having been planted on the front of the earlier hall, and has 3 very deep 15-pane sashes at the first floor, reaching to floor level, above 12-pane sashes, with central unit as 3 over 9-pane as a door; all these in moulded architraves, and with very slender glazing bars, probably part of the 1806 modifications by Daniel. The returns each end have 12-pane sashes in moulded architraves, but these are blind windows. The steep hipped roof is set behind a high parapet on moulded cornice. Set back to the left the added wing matches that to the right (the S end of the E front), with matching dormer above a 12-pane sash and a 24-pane light as a door. Stone stacks rise at the rear and ends of the centre block. On the return to the W, which continues in rubble, the hipped block has 12-pane sashes with plat bands facing S, and to the W the small hipped C17 projecting porch, with a wave-mould stone mullioned 2-light casement above an ashlar arch with keystone and imposts, cropped to the right by later alterations, over a 6-panel door in bold plat band surround with key. The N front, mainly in rubble, has, to the left, a 2-storey hipped unit with a wide flush-panel door in the N face, and a sash on the E return; it is linked to the back of the original hall, and a partially blocked doorway is set to the S return. The 1620 building is exposed here, and in the return wing to the right, is a blocked doorway with a flush chamfered 4-centred arch on dressed quoins at the N gable end; a 6-light window has been inserted under the arch. The back of the hall has a fine 8:12:8-light Palladian window, set tight to the projecting E block. The wing to the right, probably part of the original L-plan has various lights, and continues to the W as a 2-storey attached cottage. INTERIOR: the C17 hall is on a Portland stone slab floor, and has a fine original plastered ceiling with flowing intertwined moulded ribs and various enrichments, including rosettes, dragons, crowns and thistles. The fireplace, in Portland stone, is an unusual Gothick design of c1760. At the E end is a triple opening, the centre arched one from the entrance lobby, flanked by doorways to the study and sitting rooms, each with moulded cornices and C18 fire surrounds. The drawing room has a pair of fluted Ionic columns, without entablature, inserted to flank the central doorway, a dentil cornice, and white marble fire surround. Ground floor has original window shutters to most openings, and many 6-panelled C18 doors in moulded architraves. There are two C20 secondary staircases, but the grand mid C18 stair opens from the NE corner of the old hall. It is a generous open-well quarter-landing stair in polished oak, with open string to enriched panel ends, very slender turned balusters, 3 to each tread, and a moulded and wreathed handrail, stopped to a bold enriched wreath, and with fluted Corinthian newels. A dado with fielded panelling, and anthemion cornices. The stair is lit by an elliptical skylight with radial bars. The first-floor front room, the principal salon, is very lofty, and has a white marble fire surround with delicately fluted pilasters and frieze with 3 panels carrying carved goddesses; a large tripartite rococo mirror with fine Adam detail surmounts the whole. This room has an anthemion cornice, but adjoining rooms have bold egg-and-dart cornices. In the small room over the C17 porch the window has wave moulded members inside. The rear extension adjoining the main staircase, and accessible from the first quarter landing, formerly had a large free-standing stack, with a service stair behind, but this area is now modified. This is a rich house, carefully maintained in the C20; a covered swimming pool has been added, attached to the W side of the C17 porch, with a lobby covering the previously exposed C17 doorway in external walling (qv). (Valuable information from study of the house by Katherine Geddes). (RCHME: Dorset, South-East: London: 1970-: 367). Listing NGR: SY6659484364

Record last edited

Jan 20 2010 12:09PM