Building MPM488 - CUMBERLAND HOUSE

Cumberland House is an Italianate villa that was built around 1856 by local brewer Richard Murrell. It has been suggested that the building was designed by Thomas Ellis Owen, but there is no evidence to suggest that Owen was involved. The Murrell's rented the house to tenants until it was bought by Edith Playfair (resident 1874-1927) in 1919. Portsmouth City Council bought the property in 1928 and it was opened as a Museum and Art Gallery in 1931. The building has been used as a natural history museum since the 1970s.

The central and eastern blocks were constructed in 1856/7 and are the earliest parts of the building. A coach house and outbuildings are shown on the 1860 ordnance survey map, but the coach house and stable may have been rebuilt between 1874 and 1898. The western block was probably added around 1874 (certainly by 1898), and the eastern bay of the central block was extended between 1874 and 1898 (probably before 1884). A number of alterations have been made to the interior of the building throughout its use as a museum, including the removal of internal walls and the creation of new doorways and an additional stairwell. A new conservatory was added on the south side of the building in 1986 for use as a butterfly house. This was demolished and replaced by a new butterfly house in 2017.

The red brick garden wall is probably original. The original front wall and a carriage drive to the north of the house were removed when the road was widened between 1910 and 1933. [1]


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Villa, now Natural History museum. c1830-40. Probably by TE Owen. Stuccoed. Low pitch Welsh slate roofs, hipped to centre and flanking parts, rendered stack to left of centre and left and right of right part. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys, 7 bays (3:3:1). Front facing Eastern Parade is divided into 3 parts slightly stepped back from each other. Centre part, 3 bays wide, has central projecting 2-storey flat roofed porch with 3 stone steps approaching a 2-leaf late C20 glass door and fanlight set under round arch, moulded architrave, paired flanking pilasters. To left and right of flanking porch on first floor is a 16-pane sash, each set under flat stuccoed arch, moulded architrave, bracketed sills to ground floor. Sillband at first floor and at centre of porch is a 4-pane sash with margin glazing, cornice and block parapet. Right part, 1 bay wide, higher than centre has rusticated quoin strips, plinth, rendered capital at first floor with short panelled strip over. At centre is a mullioned and transomed tripartite fixed casement, centre light 18-panes with flanking 12-panes, moulded architrave and heavy bracketed sill with incised panels below. First floor has similar tripartite casement but without transom and sill brackets, centre light 12-panes and flanking 8 panes. Left part, 3 bays wide, has on left of centre a 3 panelled door, upper panels glazed with fanlight set within slightly projecting 1-storey porch under round stuccoed arch, moulded architrave and flanking pilasters, stepped block parapet. On left and right of porch is a 16-pane sash, each set under flat stuccoed arch with moulded architrave and bracketed sill, sillband at first floor, 3 similar sashes except each sash flanking porch has 18-panes with 12-pane sash on right. On right is a projecting 1-storey flat roofed extension. (The Buildings of England: Pevsner N & Lloyd DW: Hampshire and the Isle of Wight: Harmondsworth: 1967-: 446-447).

Selected Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, (1967), 446,447

[2]

<1> Stedman, John, 2013, Cumberland House, Southsea, Portsmouth: A House History Report (Unpublished document). SPM562.

<2> Historic England, The National Heritage List for England (Index). SPM35.