There was no second storey.

The slate roofs were mean, low-pitched, without any grace of overshadowing eaves.
At either end, a tall chimney-stack rose like the long ears of some startled, vacant-faced small animal.

Behind the house, a thick plantation of beech and sycamore served to make its square blank whiteness visible for a quite considerable distance out to sea.

Built upon the site of some older and larger structure, it was blessed--or otherwise--with a system of vaults and cellars wholly disproportionate to its existing size.

One of these, by means of a roughly ceiled and flagged passage, gave access to a heavy door in the sea-wall opening directly on to the river foreshore.
Hence the unsavoury reputation of the place.