Survey Data
Reg No
16305025
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Social
Previous Name
Malvern
Original Use
House
Historical Use
Building misc
In Use As
House
Date
1790 - 1810
Coordinates
327886, 210811
Date Recorded
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Date Updated
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Description
Detached multiple-bay part two part three-storey, built c.1800 as a dower house for the La Touche family, but converted and extended to become a hydropathic establishment in the mid 19th-century, and now divided into two private homes with one of these incorporating part of a commercial garage. The building is of irregular plan with a two-storey hipped roof section to south, a lower two-storey pitched roof portion to north of this, and a taller hipped roof two-storey section to the north again. To west is a mainly three-storey wing, which is now a separate dwelling. The façade is finished in unpainted render with large portions now covered in creeper growth, whilst all sections of the roof are slated. The roof of the southernmost section is largely obscured behind a tall parapet with chimneystacks built into the parapet itself; the rest of the chimneystacks are rendered. The entrance to ‘Malvern House’, the larger property to the east, is now to the west side of the south front and consists of a partly glazed replacement door set within a large open porch with gable-ended roof. The entrance to the house to west, ‘Westgate’, lies to the west side of its south front and also consists of a partly glazed replacement timber door. The windows are largely flat-headed with sash frames, mostly six over six but some tripartite. To the south side of the east elevation of Malvern house, there is a large pointed arch window with Gothick tracery.
Appraisal
Large, prominent building which, whilst somewhat altered over the years, is of local historical importance and retains a certain presence within the streetscape. Building was converted to a Hydropathic establishment (i.e. a place where invalids etc could receive baths and other water treatments) some time prior to 1864 by a Dr. W. Alfred Johnson. Johnson renamed the building Malvern House after Great Malvern Spa in England, where his father, Dr Edward Johnson, had a similar establishment.