Viletta

Cadw's description

Location

Situated towards the N end of Stow Park Crescent. House directly fronts street, with small garden to S behind high wall.

History

Built c. 1880 in the Vernacular Revival style, popularised from the 1870s by the country houses of architects such as Richard Norman Shaw and Philip Webb. The (then semi-rural) area of Stow Park Crescent and Stow Park Circle was developed c. 1870-1890 for higher class detached housing. Several of the houses were designed by A. O. Watkins of Newport, a well-established local architect. The majority of the houses in Stow Park Circle, adjoining immediately to the W are designed in a similar style, some with datestones of the 1880s. Viletta survives intact as among the best designed and detailed examples.

Exterior

Two storey house of complex composition and detail. Plan is roughly cross-shaped. Construction basically of squared sandstone, with extensive Bathstone detail. Red clay-tiled roofs; of gambrel type to S, with small bargeboarded gablet above containing triangular louvre. Gabled cross wing to N with lower gabled service block beyond. Tall brick chimney stack to l. of centre to main N-S block: of cruciform section, with ribs and heavy tabling. Chimney between cross-wing and service block has stone plinth with carved Bathstone plaque; shouldered stage above in brick (flues truncated). S front of house has its upper floor hung in shaped clay tiles (returning to E above porch). Upper floor jettied out on triple Bathstone corbels. Ground floor canted mullion-and-transom bay window of Bathstone. Above is a timber rectangular oriel window of six lights, ogee-shaped base: window slightly breaks eaves-line. Door to r. with Bathstone frame, set between main block and high blind wall fronting street, which has moulded Bathstone copings. The wall is a continuation of the E front, which directly fronts the street.

E front has gabled cross-wing, which has half-timbered upper floor with tripartite sash window, each light with 6/1 glazing. Tripartite sash below in Bathstone frame; small-paned glazing. Roof of main block sweeps down over short section to l. of cross-wing, which has an elaborate Bathstone frame (possibly original door); tablet above under cornice, carved with house name. Small window to r. Long frieze-like dormer above, with sloping roof. Service end of house has gable facing N, swept down to r. of cross wing. Tile-hung N elevation with sash windows. W elevation faces garden, and has broad projecting central gabled section.

Interior

The interior was not available for inspection at the time of survey (April 1999)

Reason for designation

Listed as well-designed late C19 house of regional interest built in the Vernacular Revival style, by a well-known Newport architect, retaining much of its original character.