Chapter 4: Early modifications

We now come to the features of Exmouth House displaying an ‘ogee’ motif, one of the house’s most distinctive aspects. These comprise the glazed lights in the upper part of the front door; the wide inner doorway in the hallway; view image the glazed bookcase in the sitting room and the doors to the cupboard beneath it (and, of course, the French windows at the rear of the house, though the latter - based on the inner front door -- date only from 1993). What is clear is that none of these are original to the house, for various reasons. Thus, with the front door, these pointed arches rather clash with the Greek key pattern in the lower part of the door, suggesting that they are a later insertion, presumably to increase the amount of light. View image. Similarly, the inner front door was clearly added after the original cornice had been made, and it is rather ungainly in the way it sits between the dentils (it is also worth noting that the moulding surrounding it differs from that of the original front door, and, incidentally, that it has a rectangular panel above it which probably once opened but no longer does).

Ogee bookcase in sitting room

As for the glazed bookcase and cupboard in the sitting room, that neither is original is suggested by the fact that the original skirting goes round inside the cupboard, implying that the cupboard was not originally there. The ogee arches on its doors suggest that it may have been inserted at the same time as the glazed bookcase above it, though it is possible that the doors were remade at that point (the fact that it has a moulding that continues beneath the base of the bookcase, looking slightly uncomfortable in juxtaposition with it, could suggest that it was originally free-standing -- but this may just be how it was designed).

Lastly, the glazed bookcase cannot have co-existed with the bell pull that came to light in 2013: if a cord or wire had been pulled with the bookcase in place, it would have scored the cornice, which is in fact pristine. View image. The bookcase must therefore have been inserted after the bell had ceased to be used. When these changes were made it is unfortunately impossible to know, but they must be fairly early, i.e., perhaps within the first twenty or thirty years of the house’s existence.