Building record WBG 220 - The Cottage, 38 Cumberland Street

The Cottage at 38 Cumberland Street lies to the rear of neighbouring Brook House at no. 36 which operated as a girls’ school in the 19th century with 25 residents in 1851. A substantial household of this scale required extensive service outbuildings, and The Cottage was built early in the 19th century as a detached coach house in close proximity to its stable range. Clear evidence of wide central doors can be seen in the brickwork of the facade together with the outlines of tall, arched stable doors on each side. The building was depicted with its original rectangular footprint on the 1838 tithe map, but by 1880 had been converted into a domestic dwelling known as Brook Cottage. The vehicle doors had been blocked and a new porch added along with gable chimneys and an extension to the rear. The high internal ceilings had also been lowered to convert the hay loft into a pair of bedrooms with ceilings of their own. The new house was enlarged at the end of the 19th century by adding a substantial brick wing to the left with hood mouldings above its windows in the Mock Tudor style and a smaller matching wing to the rear. This aggrandizement probably coincided with the arrival of a retired Admiral who was living with his family at ‘The Cottage’ in 1901. Further alterations and rear additions followed in the 20th century, with the most recent in 1988 when the tapering structure containing the modern kitchen was built. Despite these changes the property remains an unusual example of a 19th century conversion of a non-domestic outbuilding, and is accordingly of considerable historic interest. In 1991 the stable block adjoining Brook House was also converted into a domestic annexe, but it retains a 19th century manger and hay rack that provides historic context for the original coach house (S1).