Listed building or place reference: SA0095

Historic site reference
Property: Government House
Road name: St. Saviour's Hill
Parish: St. Saviour
Location: View on map
Grade: Listed Building Grade 2
Category: Law / government building
Statement of significance: A well proportioned and notable early C19 building, altered in the C19, retaining original C19 interior and exterior features and also of significance for the role it has played and continues to play in Jersey's history and governance. Set within an unusually extensive and complex early C19 villa garden with many features relating to its long use as the Governor's residence including lodge, sweeping drive, wooded shrubberies, sea views and a large walled kitchen garden. It survives intact and in good condition. The garden is contiguous with Steephill to the west and the two form an important pair of villa gardens. It is typical of the sophistication of large villa gardens of the period in the UK and reflects Picturesque designs published by John Claudius Loudon, but it is an increasingly rare and vulnerable type due to losses to redevelopment. This makes its survival all the more important. Of high significance as a fine layout clothed with a notable plant collection.
Context: n/a
External Description: Detached 6 bay, 3 storey house with outbuildings and guard house on roadside. Government House: Front (east) elevation: Hipped slate roof. Yellow brick chimneys. Yellow stock brick, the second floor being a later addition. Stucco moulded cornice between first and second floor and plain string course between ground and first. Brick half round arches over ground floor windows. First and second floor windows are 6 pane (3/3) sashes, the side panes being narrower. The ground floor windows are 16 pane (8/8) sashes, the side panes being narrower. Louvered shutters on all windows. Glazed porch and canopy at entrance, late C19 style with fretwork eaves and finial above. Porch glazing with margins. Door is double leaf, each 2 panel. Overlight with interlocking circle pattern. Side (south) elevation: Hipped slate roof. Yellow brick chimneys. Yellow stock brick, the second floor on the easternmost bay being a later addition. Stucco moulded cornice between first and second floor and roof; plain string course between ground and first floors. Half round bay at centre. Brick half round arches over ground floor windows. First and second floor windows are 8 pane (4/4) sashes, the side panes being narrower. The balcony doors are casements. Ground floor has French windows and casements. Louvered shutters on all windows. Rear (west) elevation: 5 bay, 2 storey. Single storey 5 bay extension to north. Hipped slate roof. Yellow stock brick. Stucco moulded cornice at parapet. First floor windows are 6 pane (3/3) sashes, the side panes being narrower. The ground floor windows are 12 pane (6/6) sashes, the side panes being narrower. Louvered shutters on all windows. Old coach house: Hipped slate roof. Cupola and weather vane above. Random rubble and brick, painted. Windows are 12 pane. The building has been considerably altered for use as accommodation. Various other outbuildings have also been modernised in recent years. C17 Jersey arch that has been heightened at some time in the garden wall. Guard house on St Saviours Hill: Single storey, 3 bay building with a curved frontage onto the entrance. Hipped slate roof with eaves. Brick chimney with burnt headers. Rendered. Windows are 12 pane (6/6) sashes. Stone boundary wall. Ashlar gate pillars with ball finials, iron gate. The gardens occupy the north side of St Saviour's valley on the periphery of St Helier, rising steeply from the road northwards to a plateau in the rear, north half of the site. The site overlooks St Helier and the sea to the west. The east, entrance front overlooks an open forecourt enclosed by a bank planted with two rare mature Ginkgo biloba specimens and other mature trees and shrubs. The garden fronts are to the south and west. The south front has a central bay window overlooking the south lawn which enclosed by a shrubbery to the south and east. This is the Governor's private lawn. The lawns west of the house enjoy a spectacular view west across the town to the sea. North-east of the house is the U-shaped stable block and coach house which is divided from the house by a service court. The main approach to the house is off St Saviour's Hill from the south-west. From the lodge, the drive serpentines north-east. Initially the drive is carried across the open valley bottom on a causeway with granite rubble parapets with dressed granite coping. From here the broad drive continues up the valley side following the contours. The drive is flanked by low clipped evergreen hedges and runs through woodland shrubbery. A line of mature limes lines the south side of the drive. At the top of the hill the drive opens into the forecourt on the east front of the house. A service drive gives access from the east at the top of the hill past St Saviour's church off Ruette du Sacrement. It runs along the plateau above the wooded valley to the south, through lawns, past the modern Governor's office building to arrive at the stable yard and forecourt. The garden is divided into three main sections: formal gardens on the plateau to the west and south of the house, informal woodland and lawns descending into the valley to the south, and a walled kitchen garden on the plateau north of the house and service yards. Immediately west and south of the house the formal upper garden is largely laid to lawn which sweeps northwards through a rose garden to a large rectangular lawn against the north boundary. The eastern half of the rose garden is focussed on a central ornate lead urn, possibly C18 in date. The west lawn slopes gently south to the shrubbery above the drive, with the remains of various low terraces evident in the slope. A tennis court occupies the north-west corner of the west lawn near Steephill. It is enclosed by a maturing hedge of white camellias. A saluting battery occupies the south-west corner of the west lawn. This terrace stands above the cliff to the south, with four outward-facing 64 pounder cannon from Elizabeth Castle at the west and south sides. The spectacular seaward view (now partially obscured) was a key part of the attraction of the site in the early C19. The west-facing drawing room is one of the principal public rooms to take advantage of this view, as well as rooms on the upper floors of the west elevation. Below the west side of the battery a path leads south down the steep slope to the informal valley garden which is bisected by the drive causeway. Below the causeway to the west a steep lawn runs down to a pool fed by springs further up. The pool is surrounded by trees and shrubs. Some distance above the causeway to the east is a larger pool set in lawn and surrounded by woodland. This pool is used as a storm catchment. Above the pool to the east is an area of woodland which belongs to the parish. Below the upper pool the valley runs down through a wooded lawn to the causeway. The rectangular kitchen garden is surrounded by granite rubble walls which have been rebuilt at various times. The main entrance is via a gateway in the centre of the south wall from the stable yard. A doorway in the north-west corner gives access from the paths at the north end of the west lawn. The remains of a cross wall are evident as spurs off the north and south walls, but its original extent is unclear. The kitchen garden is laid largely to lawn with a vegetable plot towards the centre, cutting borders and a modern glasshouse alongside the north wall. The garden contains many fine mature trees including London plane, beech, copper beech, lime, sycamore and oak. The 'Office of The Lieutenant Governor', built in 1974 and 'Nos.1-4 Belmont Cottages' built in 1987 are not included within the listing.
Internal Description: Double pile, 2 room wide with extension to north. Central passage, with quatre-partide shallow vaulting in entrance hall. 6 panel mahogany doors on ground floor. Door architraves on ground floor with lion head or flower motif paterae. Panelled window reveals, some of them internal shutters. Ground floor SE room has a white marble fire surround with meander pattern frieze and Egyptian style caryatids. Moulded cornice. Dining room facing south has a marble fire surround with Ionic columns and figurative frieze. Ceiling rose and moulded cornice. Small NE room by entrance has a fireplace with a simple marble surround and cast iron grate. Drawing room, spanning the west side includes 2 Ionic columns dividing the room into two spaces. Marble fire surround. 2 ceiling roses, plain moulded cornice and dado. Matching pelmets and frieze above doors incorporates festoons in a Regency style pattern. Cantilevered mahogany staircase with round handrail, simple but elegant turned balusters, full height newel posts and applique to the sides of the treads. Stained glass Palladian window and niches on staircase. The service staircase: dogleg rising from cellar to second floor. Mahogany handrail and turned balusters. First floor rooms have panelled reveals and 6 panel doors. No further historic features survive. Second floor rooms have 4 panel doors. No further historic features survive. Cellars, formerly the kitchens, altered when new extension was built in the 1930s. Wine cellars with brick partitions and food stores. No historic interior features reported in coach house.
Special interest: Architectural,Historical

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05/02/2016

Schedule Schedule Listed Building Grade 2

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