Durham House, Beer, Devon

 

This building is on Fore Street in the village of Beer. I'll be adding it to another article all about the street itself, which is full of wonderful Arts & Crafts buildings, but this deserves a page of its own for its fab architecture and to use more photos than I will with the longer street article. 

Delightfully higgledy-piggledy, it has different levels along the roof line with two gables above two of its bays, inbetween them a taller flat extension of the roof above two central doors on the ground floor, and a sloping roof at one end above the main ground floor door. There are canopies above all three doors, bargeboards on the gable roofs and drip moulds above some of the windows.

As with the two galleries, seen in the previous post, this surprisingly isn't a listed building. There isn't a lot of information about it, but it was built in 1897 and is commensurate with the erection and remodelling of several buildings on Fore Street. These include those designed by the architect David Carr, who lived in Beer and worked for Clinton Estates who own parts of the village. Interestingly, this was built the same year as another property designed by Mr Carr.

Built with a facade of Beer Stone, from the quarry situated above the village, it has a lovely creamy colour, contrasting nicely with the doors of light wood. Some of the late Victorian characteristics include the arched doorways.

I think the two doors lead to self-catering holiday lets and the main door to the Bed & Breakfast part. The main entrance door being open on my first photo visit, I saw the lobby with its beautiful Art Nouveau Minton tiling.

Having seen photos online of the interior another feature is the gorgeous stained glass in the windows. Some can be seen in the ground floor window, below.

Altogether a scrumptious fairytale creation with lots of interest.  :)

Just a short article but well worth looking into a bit more thoroughly. I think there might be another stand-alone one from Fore Street before I embark on writing about the whole street at some point. It's the usually cry of 'need more photos', lol! 

I'm also gradually editing photos taken in Lyme Regis that I visited a few weeks ago, so there'll be some from there too. Lots to do and finally have the energy recently to write more as well as catch up with house maintenance and other neglected jobs, which is a huge relief. 

Cheers. :)