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Sunilaws House
Beacon Bay, KuGompo City (East London), Eastern Cape
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Click to view large map Coordinates: | 'Sunilaws' is an interesting example of a regional Arts and Crafts style house with some Tudor style references - presumably designed by a local East London architect for the (then) farm owner. The existing property description of Erf 3708, Beacon Bay was previously registered as Portion 99 of the Farm 817 in the Municipality of Beacon Bay. The house appears to date from the late 1920's. The house has a symmetrical H-plan layout with a central gabled projecting bay on the west side with entrance into a transverse passage. Both larger flanking end wings are gabled and embellished with half-timbered details. The two projecting end gables on the east side flank a large pergola and east facing stoep. The original roof covering was clearly Canadian Cedar shingles - as is evident from a small surviving section on the side of the central bay on the east side. Externally and internally the house is substantially intact, albeit having been adaptively re-used as offices. A free standing outbuilding - presumably a staff quarters - was constructed on the north side of the house but the space between has since been occupied with a later double garage. Some noteworthy features of the house and outbuilding are the hard burnt engineering brick and stone plinth to the external walls, the hard burnt engineering brick chimneys, the half-timbered gables, the 'pointed and quoined' brick arch over the porch at the front door, and the original Sunlilaws 'house name' in beaten sheet metal that has been mounted on an internal wall. An interesting feature of the original floor construction in the house is that a concrete sub-floor was cast which in turn supported timber battens placed at close centres onto which the tongue and groove floorboards were nailed. Garden features iinclude a raised 'lozenge' shaped swimming pool and one of the original (albeit modified) gateways into the original semicircular entrance driveway. William Martinson, March 2022 |