Description

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 16 October 2024 to update the name and address, amend description due to change of building use and reformat the text to current standards.

SY6879NW
873-1/18/175

WEYMOUTH
GREENHILL (east side)
No.8, Somerset House

(Formerly listed as No.8, Greenhill Hotel)


14/06/74

GV
II
House, hotel (at time of listing) converted to apartments in about 2010. c1840 and 1860. For the Duke of Somerset. Rendered or painted brick, slate roofs. The main front faces the sea, and is raised and set back from the adjoining Brunswick Terrace (qv). The original house was an L-plan, with two principal rooms to the east, and the staircase off-centre to the rear; a further range was added after 1857, on Greenhill, with the principal entry. The range to Greenhill, of painted brick, is of separate construction, but joined to the early building.

Sea-front range: two storeys, attic and basement, two windows; the mansard roof has a wide C20 three-light dormer, above two storey flat-roofed canted bays with 4:12:4 pane sashes. At the balcony level, raised on the basement, are two bows and central doors under a full-width ogee tent verandah with some glazing, enclosed by multi-pane glazing, with a light C20 balustrade. Below the balcony are concave units corresponding with the bows above, and central doors flanked by windows. A deep mid plat band, a thin moulded cornice at the head of the bays, blocking course and parapet, and end stacks, that to the right very high, to master the adjoining building. A C20 dormer also to the south.

Range to Greenhill: two storeys with two windows; plain sashes with a wide central arched opening over a panelled door with sidelights and a radial fanlight; an inner door has margin bar glazing. The cast-iron footscraper remains in situ. Plinth, mid plat band, cornice, blocking course and parapet, a stack at each end; to the left a coped half-gable rises above a later flat roof.

INTERIOR: the two ground floor front rooms have palmette cornices; the south room has a marble reeded fire surround enclosing some fine decorative tiles, and the other room has a fire surround in veined marble. Good original six-panel doors with panelled pilaster doorcases. The generous open-well staircase has Portland stone treads, decorative iron balustrade and a swept handrail. An inner door, possibly the former main door, has a deep radial fanlight.

A private house for the Duke of Somerset, but owned by Mr Vinings according to the 1857 map. This is the first property of a group immediately north of the main Esplanade terraces, marking the furthest reach of early C19 development in this direction.
(RCHME: Dorset, South-East: London: 1970-: 357).

Listing NGR: SY6823779993

External Links

• Wikidata Q26613665

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Hampshire: Winchester and the North (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings, Conservation Areas and Monuments
• 
  Liverpool: Pevsner City Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Norfolk 1: Norwich and North-East: Norwich and North-east v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Harrow on the Hill: A photographic portrayal of listed buildings and structures (Historic Buildings Picture Guides)