Oceania, West Parade

Oceania, West Parade
LL ref:	54
Start date:	1903
Architect:	Arnold Bidlake Mitchell
Builder:	William Abraham McCormick
Original use:	Residential
View on map:	Local List | Bexhill-OSM
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Oceania is a substantial four storey property on West Parade, facing the beach. Dating from 1903, this distinctive house was designed by Arnold Bidlake Mitchell (1863-1944) for William Abraham MacCormick, a master builder from London who had been involved in developing West Parade.

The façade is dominated by a very large gable which extends almost the full width of the front elevation - the pediment is of cream terracotta with a raking dentil cornice which includes and egg and dart moulding below the dentils. The pediment frames a pair of paired windows with terracotta widow surrounds, hood moulds, cills and central mullions which have a triangular section. Above these is a porthole window set in a chunky circular terracotta moulding. The roof comprises a steep dual pitch, clay tiled with an impressive pair of chimney stacks, one at either end, again with terracotta mouldings.

A pair of three-storey canted bay windows frame the central doorway at raised ground floor level above which is a balcony with diamond pattern openings in the brickwork. The upper ground box sash windows have six-multi-pane upperlights over a single pane, the lower ground floor has narrower window with six or four pane upper lights over a single pane, and exaggerated keystones. All have robust terracotta surrounds, cills and mullions.

The first floor balcony is supported on a pair of circular-section terracotta clad columns with ionic capitals, the name Oceania on the 3^rd stage in raised black lettering. The original front door, sheltered by the balcony above, is framed by reeded mouldings, retaining its ironmongery, with a pair of top lights above, again set in beautifully moulded architraves.

A flight of steps leads down to street level lined by brick parapets with terracotta copings and a pair of spheres topping the piers at ground level. Steps lead down to the lower ground floor entrance doors either side below the upper ground floor porch.

William’s daughter Janet McCormick married Arthur Herne Plummer in 1913. Their son, Desmond Plummer, was leader of the Greater London Council from 1967 to 1973. Desmond [1914-2009, later Baron Plummer of St Marylebone] and his wife Pat and their daughter had many happy holidays in Bexhill. By 1922 Oceania was owned by the Plummer family, who applied to the local authority to convert the premises into flats.

Mitchell is described in the Times by Marcus Binney (6/6/03) as ‘one of the ablest and most prolific' of architects who were responsible for ‘the remarkable group of architect-designed homes that were built between 1890 and 1910... the golden age of good craftmanship when houses were superbly built of excellent materials’.

He has a long entry in A. Stuart Gray’s seminal work, Edwardian Architecture which gives a good account of his training under Ernest George and Harold Peto, FT Baggallay and TJ Bailey in the London School Board office and a summary of some of his works which were dominated by domestic commissions and educational establishments. Gray also records Mitchell receiving the Soane medallion in 1885, the RIBA Silver Medal for measured drawings in 1886 and an Architectural Association Silver Medal in 1888.

He has four mentions in Clive Aslet’s The Edwardian Country House (Frances Lincoln Ltd, 2012) and three of his country houses in Wales, Surrey and Belgium feature in Aslet’s great work The Last Country Houses (Book Club Associates, 1982). Over 20 of his other works (houses, a school and a hospital) are on the National Heritage List designated at Grade II* or Grade II.

Sources say the house was built to commemorate the sinking of a coastal barge called Oceania.

Gallery

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  1904