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Upmeads is a grade-II*-listed house on Newport Road in Stafford, Staffordshire, England, built in 1908. The design by Edgar Wood is considered groundbreaking; Nikolaus Pevsner describes it as "pioneer work and worthy of any book dealing with the pioneers of the C20 style internationally."

Location
Upmeads stands at, on a driveway off the north side of Newport Road (A518), in the west–south-west suburbs of Stafford. The house was built in a semi-rural setting, into which later housing had encroached by 1974. Nearby listed buildings include Stafford Castle and St Mary's Church, Castlebank (to the west), and Rowley Hall (to the south-east).

Description
The medium-sized house in the Edwardian Free style follows a simple "cubic" plan, of two storeys with attics, which are set back, only over the central portion. It is in red brick with dressings of ashlar stone, under a flat concrete roof. The windows throughout have mullions with a square-cut profile.

The symmetrical entrance (north) front has a central curved recessed section, with the main entrance in the centre, flanked by three-light windows. The stone door surround is continued upwards through the first floor and onto the attic level, forming a prominent central vertical stripe. Within this stone stripe are three-light windows at first floor and attic level, with a decorative panel between them, featuring initials. At the roof level of both first-floor and attic storeys runs a brick parapet; the central curved section is finished with an embellished stone coping.

The asymmetrical west face has an entrance with an ashlar surround and a two-storey canted projecting bay, with bay windows to the ground floor and first floor. The principal ground-floor windows on this face are transomed. The east side is screened by a brick wall, forming a kitchen court. In the original plan, this face had a small projecting wing at the north end, including a coal store.

On the garden front the windows are placed asymmetrically.

To the south and west sides of the house lie formally laid out gardens. The garden front has a terrace (included in the listing) delineated by a low partly curved red-brick wall, finished with a stone coping and ball finials; paired stone steps descend from the terrace into the garden. The original plan includes a detached "motor house".

External link

 * Wowhaus: interior and exterior photographs