THE HOLLIES - DEMOLISHED ABOUT 1927

Prehistory: It is possible that the site was part of the property advertised as 'For Sale' in 1811, 'tenanted' by a widow, Mrs Hall. Bennison's map of 1835, however, shows quite clearly that there was no building on this long, narrow, site of about one acre which looks as if it was once one of the old strips of the Acrefield.

To some extent we can follow the development of the house on the maps; from a simple rectangle in 1840 quite near the road, to an extended house by 1891. But we offer the following observations on the basis of one photograph only.

Architectural description and style:

The house seems to have started, near the road, with a variety of the 2½ storey vernacular house in brick, possibly built end-on to the road and at some time between 1835 and 1840; so a few years later than Acrefield Cottage.

Then, to the east, and most probably by Scheuten, a double fronted house was added as an extension, in a revived French Renaissance style. This was of two storeys and an attic in a Mansard roof; two 2-storey bays, the left canted, the right square, on either side of a 1-storey porch with a balustrade. Basically this addition was brick, with stucco on the bays and porch, (The older building was re-windowed and re-roofed.)

Further to the east a pavilion was added in the form of a three storey stucco tower with dormers at attic level (prospect tower ?)

Stylistically this was in the French Renaissance Revival Style - proclaimed principally by the Mansard roof. The style was imported from France where one of its leading examples is the new block at the Louvre of 1852-70 by Visconti and Lefuel, architects. This was a style favoured by the 'nouveau riche' in England in the 1860s and 70s. The cornice, however, was ultimately derived from Vignola's Castello Farnese at Caprarola of 1559-64 - this type of cornice was a favourite model for architects during the 19th century. The architraves of the first floor round headed windows wore akin to those on a presently ruined terrace at the Catharine Street end of Princes Road.

continued . . .