Building Name

“The Sycamores” Seymour Grove Old Trafford

Date
1864 - 1865
Street
Seymour Grove
District/Town
Old Trafford, Manchester
County/Country
GMCA, England
Work
New Build

"The Sycamores," is a house, erected in 1864-5, in Seymour Grove, in Old Trafford — a locality situate south-west of Manchester, and which is rapidly assuming the character of a suburb of that town. The site of the house, and the land immediately surrounding, are flat. The principal front of the house looks west, or towards the road, Seymour Grove, which runs north and south, that is to say, parallel with the front. The drainage in the Grove being at no great depth, the level of the principal floor of the house is raised six feet above the surface of the site. The house being quite detached, each of its four fronts was studied for effective appearance; and there is no "back," as commonly the phrase is understood. The general character and details of the design, decoratively, may be described as modernized domestic-Gothic, of the English variety, subordinated to the expression of the chosen materials; of which the most important is the red-brick of the locality. There are, however, no arched heads to the windows: lintels of stone are substituted; and some of the windows have mullions of the same material: otherwise, in the structure, stone is but sparingly used. The building was specially contrived so as to get a considerable amount of convenience without extended area on the ground. Thus whilst the kitchen is on the ground-level, or nearly on the level of the principal floor  of the house, there are altogether three storeys in that portion of the area, which are practically within the height of two storeys in the other division of the plan: though, it is to be observed, one of the three storeys, containing one bed-room, is partly within the roof. There are, indeed, in the house, seven distinct levels of floor, including a basement proper, and an attic over the principal staircase (see the section, Plate LXXV.) There are three day-rooms, or reception-rooms, and a conservatory; five bed-rooms, to one of which a dressing-room is attached; and the attic, or room entirely within roof. The house occupies an area of which the principal dimensions are 60 feet from front to back, and 50 feet frontage, not including the projection, southwards, of the conservatory. Ground Floor.—A grass-terrace extends along the western and southern sides of the house, and a portion of the northern; where are the windows of the principal rooms. The terrace is reached from the ground around the building by two flights of steps; whereof one to the entrance of the house is provided with gas-lamps, of ornate design. The terrace being crossed, there is an ascent of three steps, under a porch, to the front-door, placed in one of the re-entering angles of the plan. The external angle of the porch is formed by a stone column carrying a block for the support of one of the skew-backs of a pointed-segmental arch, the opposite skew-back being carried by the angle of the building. The porch is terminated by a weathered coping of masonry. The entrance into the house is, first, into a square vestibule; which receives its light through a glazed panel in the door, and through a fan-light. Beyond this, but separated by folding-doors in a glazed screen, is the hall itself; from which doors, to the right, lead into the dining-room and the breakfast-room, and a door to the drawing-room leads to the left. The two more important rooms have their principal windows in the front of the house ; and each has a smaller window in one of its sides: in the case of the dining-room, this latter window has opposite to it that flight of steps by which the terrace is reached on the southern side. The large window of the dining-room is of three lights; that of the drawing-room is in an octangular bay that is carried up to provide for a similar window of the storey above, and is covered at the top with a hipped projection from the main-roof. The breakfast-room, which, as each of the other rooms, is lighted by windows on two sides, has a way out of it into a conservatory; whence there is a way, down-steps, into the garden. At the end of the hall, opposite the breakfast room door, is the principal staircase, lighted from the north by a large window, which is filled with stained glass. Under the stairs are a lavatory and a lady's store-room : these form portions of a small addition to the main-building, covered by a lean-to roof. In the end of the hall, or opposite the front-door, is the door that leads to the kitchen-department, back-staircase, and back entrance. From a landing within this door, a broad flight of steps, six in number, leads down to a similar space, where are the kitchen-door, the backdoor opening into a court-yard, and the way down to the cellars. From the first landing, and parallel with the descending flight, is a narrower flight of stairs of ascent to the floor of the principal bed-rooms, and thence to the w.c. the bed- room of the third storey, and to the attic. This portion of the house is lighted by a window over the back-door, as well as by one at the side of the door. To the kitchen are attached a small pantry, and a scullery. The scullery, furnished with sink and copper, has a door into the court-yard ; close to which are the back-door of the premises, an external w.c, and the place for ashes— the two last being screened by a wall, so as not to be seen from the breakfast-room. The principal rooms on this floor are 12 feet in the clear height; the kitchen is 11 feet; and the scullery is 13 feet 6 inches in the highest part. CHAMBER STOREY. The bed-room over the kitchen is reached from the first landing of the principal stairs. The upper or main landing in the one-pair floor, of the principal part of the house, has connected with it the back-staircase; attached to which is the w.c, entered from a landing three steps above the one-pair floor. The principal bed-room, to which the dressing-room is attached, has a window looking north, besides the bay-window. On the same floor is a room containing a bath and a lavatory; and there is also a housemaid's sink. The principal bed-rooms are 12 feet in the clear height; that over the kitchen is 11 feet. The fifth bed-room, partly in the roof, and 10 feet in the highest part, is reached by the back-staircase. In it is the cistern. From the landing at the door of this bed-room, there is an ascent to the room that is entirely within the roof; and through this attic there is a way into the remaining portion of the roof. The attic is lighted through a skylight; and it might be used as a bed-room, though not so regarded in this description. The Basement contains little more than a larder and the space for coals  and wine. Under the conservatory is a potting-house, with a stove : this place is reached by steps from the garden. The materials used for the walls of the house, and for the greater number of the partitions, are bricks. The bricks are of three kinds, namely, the "common" bricks of the locality, for the body of the external walls and for the partitions; the best pressed red-bricks, for the general work of the facing of the fronts; and the best Staffordshire blue-bricks, for portions of the cornices and strings. The bricks of the two first kinds were carted about two miles to the site. The facing-work was neatly pointed in black mortar, and was afterwards pointed with white mortar, in each joint and bed, in thin projecting lines. The partitions that are not of brick are of timber-quartering, trussed where requisite, and filled in with brick-noggings. A layer of asphalte is laid over one of the lower courses of brickwork throughout the area of the building. This prevents rise of damp from the ground. To prevent the ingress of damp through the walls, all the external walls are hollow: each in fact is as two walls, one 9 inches and the other 4^ inches in thickness, having a cavity of 2\ inches between, so making up a total of 16 inches thickness; and the work of the external and internal faces of the whole is tied together by wrought-iron clips; of which there are two to each superficial yard of wall. All the flues are circular; though, accidentally, some are otherwise shown in the plans. The stone is from the Huddersfield quarries, Yorkshire. In the carpenter's work, the timber is the best Memel; and in the joiner's work, the materials are Petersburg red-deals and St. John pine. The floorboarding is of tongued-battens. The windows have the ordinary arrangement of double-hung sashes. These are glazed with plate-glass, excepting the staircase-window, which has stained glass from a design by the architects. In this house there are special provisions for ventilation, exclusive of the windows. They include fresh-air inlets and escape-outlets to every room. Each bed-room has a circular grating, 1 foot 9 inches diameter, in the ceiling, below a funnel; from which a pipe is carried upwards into the roof nearly to the ridge. Over each grating is a valve, which is worked by a cord from the bedside: so that the opening and closing are regulated at will. The inlet -opening is near to the ceiling, and is furnished with a valve (one of Sheringham's) that is regulated by a cord in the usual manner. The outlets,     as regards the lower rooms, are into vertical flues, not shown in the plans, which pass up next the smoke-flues and terminate in the roof. From the roof-space itself, the escape into the open air is by means of lucarnes that are shown in the roof-plan (Plate LXXIV.) as well as in Plate LXXIII. The roof-covering is of Bangor slates, blue and purple, disposed in varied courses and in chevron-forms. The ridges are covered with Staffordshire red-tiles, having an ornamental cresting. The valleys are laid with lead. The water descends, externally, from iron eaves-gutters, by iron pipes: these are shown in the plans, and in the elevations and view. It may be here mentioned that the whole of the space under the bath and lavatory, and under the housemaid's-sink, is covered with lead, so as to prevent leakage through the ceiling of the dining-room which is below. The house, originally, was contracted for at £2000—the works of the different trades together; and this may be taken as what under ordinary conditions the house itself might have cost, exclusive of grates and chimney-pieces, heating apparatus for the conservatory, and some of the kitchen-fittings, whilst inclusive of boundary-fences to the ground. But extras were as follows:—Foundation works (which were heavy in consequence of an old water- course that was discovered intersecting the site); flooring to the hall (as shown on the plan) of Maw & Co.'s tiles, introduced after the house was built, and iron-girders and stone-flagging to carry the tiles; elaboration of finishings generally, in the joiner's work and the plasterer's, together with change of material for the staircase, from pine, to the best English oak; and Clark's patent revolving-shutters to all the ground-floor windows : these extras came to a total of £500. Then, gas piping (not fittings), joiner's fittings in closets and store-rooms, kitchen-dressers, scullery-shelving, linen-closet, flower-stands in the conservatory, and sundry other items, made up £150 more. The chimney-pieces, the grates and ranges, and the heating-apparatus of the conservatory came to about £400. The grass-terrace cost about £60, with the steps, but without the gas-lamps. Vineries, boundary walling to a kitchen-garden, and divers outbuildings cost £500. So that the total cost of the house and its appurtenances was not less than £3610, though including much that might be dispensed with in a house with the same provision of accommodation, but with fewer provisions for luxury.    [Villa & Cottage architecture pages 10]

Reference:          Villa & Cottage architecture: Select examples of country and suburban residences recently erected with a full descriptive notice of each building. Published London, Blackie. 1868. RIBA Library