Building record LWT 594 - Briar Clyffe

CONTEXT.
English Heritage has been asked to consider the former house known as Briar Clyffe for listing. The building has been vacant for approximately 7 years and has been seriously vandalised recently. Located in the North Lowestoft Conservation Area, a planning application for the conversion of the building into smaller units and enabling development to the rear has been approved by the local planning authority.

HISTORY.
The Gunton Cliff area of Lowestoft was established as a high-class suburb to the north of the town centre largely through the efforts of Howard Hollingsworth, co-founder of the Bourne and Hollingsworth shop of Oxford Street. Hollingsworth was a well-known philanthropist who was made a freeman of the borough of Lowestoft in 1928.

In a generous plot, Briar Clyffe was built for Mr S.B Love, a local tailor and hosier in 1899, but was largely destroyed by fire, apart from the exterior walls, in 1901. Hollingsworth bought the house in 1904 and moved in in 1908. He extended the estate and refitted the house; the billiard room and dining room, once extensively panelled with highly decorative plaster ceilings, were Hollingsworth's work as was the grand staircase and extensive accommodation. Hollingsworth built a single storey winter garden to the south and continued to develop the property through the 1920s, extending the main house to the right and rear, remodelling the original coach house and building three lodges at the entrance to the house off Corton Road to the west and erecting a number of glasshouses to supply exotic fruits and flowers.

Hollingsworth died in 1938 and in the following years the Gunton Cliff estate was variously used and progressively sold off for redevelopment. In 1949, Briar Clyffe became an independent grammar school until closing in 1976. In 1977 it became a language school which closed in 2000, due to falling numbers, the house being vacant thereafter. Years of institutional use have resulted in numerous additions and alterations to the building, particularly to the rear elevation and interior.

DESCRIPTION.
A detached Victorian suburban house, of late nineteenth and early twentieth century, with later twentieth century additions and alterations. Built of red brick with painted stone dressings, the house has tiled hipped roofs with cresting and moulded brick stacks. The façade has a two storey, single bay extension to the right and single storey winter garden and late twentieth century additions to the left. The off-centre entrance has an early twentieth century classically styled doorcase with round blue plaque over stating that this was once the home of Howard Hollingsworth. On the first floor, the overhanging eaves break into a small pediment over the entrance, flanked by projecting full-height bays beneath hipped gables. Most of the windows are boarded, but those at the first floor at the façade are sliding sashes of four, eight or twelve lights. A moulded brick string course has applied rosettes above. All of the other elevations reveal a number of extensions to the building dating to the mid to late twentieth century, with many altered openings and late twentieth century fenestration.

INTERIOR
Most of the interior on both floors is unremarkable with late twentieth century fixtures and fittings. On the ground floor, the former dining and billiard rooms remain with some intact contemporary fixtures. The fireplaces and all of the panelling known to have featured in these rooms have been removed, but the decorated plaster ceilings survive. The dining room ceiling has bold intricate designs including embossed playing cards, raised panels with swags, fleur-de-lys, vine and shell motifs. The billiard room ceiling is coffered and has finely crafted and delicate foliate embellishment featuring swags of small roses and egg and dart on the coffering and cornices. Sadly, the grand staircase has been vandalised and although there are some good quality decorative door surrounds there are no other features of interest.

ASSESSMENT.
For buildings dating to after 1840, progressively greater selection is made when considering designation with the principal considerations being architectural interest, intactness and historical significance.

The Gunton Cliff estate has local interest for its historical association with Howard Hollingsworth and as a simply planned suburban development typical of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Briar Clyffe is an unremarkable example of a large suburban house built in the early twentieth century; not a rare building type regionally or nationally. A number of villas dating from the late nineteenth century to c1950 are located in the area in an eclectic array of styles, some pedestrian but others exhibiting architectural quality, such as number 24 Gunton Cliff (1910, grade II). Briar Clyffe has plain exterior treatment and has been considerably extended and altered; it does not compare favourably with other listed examples of the type.

The claim to special interest, however, lies principally with the quality of the interior fixtures and decorative treatment of two principal rooms on the ground floor. DCLG circular 1/2007 paragraph 6.11 states that where such fixtures remain which are themselves of special interest this may be sufficient grounds to list the building. It seems most likely that Hollingsworth, with his interest in interior design and furniture and considerable fortune, would have lavishly decorated Briar Clyffe. Photographic evidence from before the site inspection clearly shows good quality panelling with classical decoration including pilasters with ionic capitals, figures in relief and geometric Art Deco motifs. Substantial fireplaces, said to be of marble, were also present but have been since stolen from the building. Unfortunately, all of the panelling had been removed by the time of the inspection and the only features of some interest are the plastered ceilings. The plasterwork is good quality and has withstood the vandalisation and damage through water ingress; they are features worth preserving. However, their presence cannot compensate for the loss of other fixtures and fittings through the recent dereliction and previous school use and the lack of architectural quality and extent of alteration to the exterior. They are not intrinsically of sufficient interest in themselves for the building to be considered as having special interest, although clearly Briar Clyffe is an important building in the Conservation Area and it would be desirable for such features to be maintained in any scheme for re-use. (1)