VISIT BROAD LEYS
The Bedrooms
“the fireplace is the heart of the room”
The house was originally designed with six bedrooms, two bathrooms, a separate WC, a play room and a housemaids closet on the first floor.
There are two bedrooms with commanding views over the lake with stone and metal bay windows that complement each side of the hall's tall bay window between them.
The master bedroom (now Room 3) commands the best views of the lake and the northern fells. Originally interconnected with the adjoining main bathroom, these were split in 1987, with the room now having its own modern en-suite.
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The third main bedroom faces south over the croquet lawn. This room has fitted wardrobes. The western wardrobe still contains some of the original wall paper used in the house, now protected for preservation.
The fourth main bedroom is on the eastern side – facing the entrance court – a space originally conceived as simply a wide galleried seating area overlooking the hall.
The remaining bedrooms are smaller, less decorative rooms facing north located over the service wing. The housemaid’s closet is now a bathroom for guest bedroom 6.
Each of the bedrooms has its own fireplace. Voysey's fireplace designs formed a central and integral part of the architecture and interiors that he created, combining the functional and the decorative. He wrote that, "the fireplace is the heart of the room, or the countenance of the whole face”.
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Voysey utilised a broad range of designs within a single building, with contrasting fireplaces helping to define the purpose and atmosphere of each room, in a range of styles and materials. These include the use of tiles under a shallow elliptical arch, which can be seen in some of the rooms at Broad Leys. The use of less decorative fireplaces in the other rooms may well be an indication of their proposed use within the original design.
It appears that sinks in some of the rooms may have been part of the original design but all of the porcelain and the ensuites you see today are later additions , circa 1987. The final first floor space is now the club steward’s apartment, originally the play room!