English: Mansion house. Core c.1750, extended 1853, c.1896 and in the 1920s. Red brick, tiled roof Plan: the earliest part of the house is at the south-east, where a 3-window range flanked by angled projecting towers or 'bastions' survives from the mid-eighteenth century. This is thought to have been consciously designed in imitation of a fort. The third bastion survives in part, the fourth not at all. The house was extended northwards in two campaigns, from the 1850s and mid-1890s. There are late C18 and C19 stable ranges to a yard, rebuilt in C20. To the east, C20 brick ranges date to occupation as a school. The post-war additions are of no interest. EXTERIOR. South-east front: Two-storey, three window range flanked by two-storey angled bastions. Tall, three-flue stack. To right: Mid-nineteenth century addition. 2-storey, 3- window range, dentilled cornice with brick parapet above. Ground storey: open arcade leading to square tower, 3 storeys with single arched window in each stage. Tiled pitched roof Entrance porch at base of tower. To right, (north elevation) 2-storey range with gable, 3 arched windows with blind tympana. Panel above showing Coat-of-Anns. Smaller gable to right. INTERIOR. Variable in quality and interest. Of particular note: Two mid-Georgian rooms separated by a stack at south west end of house, with timber moulded archways with carved woodwork in the spandrels, moulded cornices and panelling. Polygonal wooden panelled niche. In one room, an early nineteenth-century fire surround has been installed, evidently made up from separate carved marble panels, c.1823. Above this is a late nineteenth-century painted scheme depicting a north European Romantic landscape, An eighteenth-century staircase has been removed from its original place and now leads from the first floor service area to the attic. It is an open-string, two turned balusters to a tread, with fluted newel. The large stair hall in the north-eastern part of the house dates from 1853, with a staircase in the Jacobean style with heavy wooden balusters and newels. Rococo-style fireplace in hall. The stained glass in the large windows lighting the hall date from 1923. HISTORY. Traced in documentary sources from 1780 but thought to be built in 1743, the house has been occupied by many owners, among them Henry Berens, a Dutch barrister who lived there from 1822) When he died in 1852 his nephew Henry Hulse Berens purchased the house and lived there unti11883, extending the house. His daughter and her husband continued enlargements into the early years of this century. The house next became a school and, in the 1920s, Council offices for the Borough of Sidcup and Chislehurst. The London Borough of Bexley still owns and occupies the building. Listed principally for the early Georgian fort plan and interior features. The listing also includes the ha-ha to the east of the house, constructed of flint, c. 1m high and 90m long. The garden walls are not included as they have been largely rebuilt in recent years.