Design No. 32 — A Suburban Villa
One of the chief peculiarities in small suburban villas that have been erected near London within the last thirty years, is that of making the chief room on the basement the ordinary apartment for the family. The confined areas formerly adopted in front and back of the building are omitted, and the earth is sloped up in form of a bank, being adorned with flowers and shrubs so as to look pleasing from within the apartments. There is usually a side room in the basement, with descending steps to the entrance, which serves as an office to the occupier of the house. If his business be chiefly in the locality, this is very convenient; the chief room in the basement is used as a dining and supper room, and indeed for all common purposes by the family. It renders it unnecessary to have more than one, or at most, two servants’ rooms. The drawing-room, the library, and the superior dining-room are on the floor above.
This suburban dwelling very much resembles the same class of structure in America, where economy of space is carried out more completely than with us, and the residents are less dependent on servants. In the American house, the pantry is nearly always placed between the kitchen and the dining-room, and its chief approach is from the latter, even when the dining-room is on the ground floor. The American house has the office, or place of business of the occupier, on the lower floor, with its separate entrance. The Americans exhibit a compactness of arrangement and an attention to detail that prove they are in no way behind us in a knowledge of what is requisite for household comfort. One peculiarity in the American building is the verandah, which is considered to be indispensable. It is large and roomy, and often placed on three sides of the building; the climate, warmer and drier than our own, renders such an addition a great luxury. Our atmosphere in the winter months has often been pronounced of leaden gravity, and it does not permit of any erection that stops the circulation of the air, which would render it stagnant. Another peculiarity in the houses of our American cousins, is that they are often cased in wood. If the house be only two or three storeys in height, an 8-in. brick wall is considered sufficient: this is “furred off outside, and covered with clap boards,” in the ordinary way followed in a wooden building. Its advantage is, that it is sure to secure a perfectly dry wall. This mode of construction in England would necessitate the painting of the whole of the exterior once at least in every three or four years. One more suitable with us for a wall in a damp situation would be the plan the author pursued in the house on Salisbury Plain, putting quartering against the wall, and covering it with diamond slating. The surface could be varied with coloured encaustic tiles so as to present a pleasant appearance, proper ventilation being given behind the slating.
The small suburban villa represented in the plate is supposed to stand on a plot of ground with a frontage of 50 ft.; the construction is in brick and stucco, the small columns of the portico are of Bath stone. The plan shows a small hall a, the library c, 15 ft. by 14 ft., and on the right with a strong closet. The dining-room e, is 18 ft. by 15 ft., and on the left; the drawing-room d, is 23 ft. by 18 ft. There is a large commodious staircase b, and leading from it a small dressing-room i, and closet. This dressing-room might easily be made to contain a bath; the water for the bath in any one of the floors should always be heated by means of a close boiler attached to an ordinary kitchen-range. It is the most simple, economical, and efficient arrangement for that purpose, as no more fire than that used for cooking is required. The cold water is supplied from a cistern at the top of the house, and a continual circulation of the water between that and the boiler goes on, the hot water ascending, the cold descending. Pipes may be branched off from the ascending pipe, which leaves the top of the boiler, and taken to any part of the house, ensuring a supply of hot water to dressing-rooms, nurseries, &c. Instead of a boiler, a coil of iron or copper pipe is often used, rendering the circulation quicker and more effective. The one-pair plan of the suburban villa contains three large bedrooms, two dressing-rooms, and one invalid’s room entered from the staircase; to this room the closet could be attached. The staircase leads up to two large attics for the servants.
The section, p. 376, shows a portion of the front and back of the building, with the construction of the roof, the back wall not being carried so high as the front. This is done to give the building an imposing appearance from the road, a mode of construction very often carried out in suburban houses. The basement plan affords good accommodation; f is the kitchen, 18 ft. by 15 ft., g the scullery, h the larder, k the living room, l the business office, with its separate entrance. The closet for the servants is external; the footman’s pantry and the wine cellar lead out of the staircase b; the coal cellar is under the portico. The house thus contains seventeen rooms; the cost of its erection would be 3260l. completely finished. A detail of the windows is given on a large scale at page 378.
The following is an elevation of the vane, the constructive detail of which is given in a former vignette. The character is Elizabethan, and designed from an example at Oxnead Hall, Norfolk.