Description

SP 75 SE COURTEENHALL

5/39 Courteenhall House and
23/08/55 attached offices
(Formerly listed as
Courteenhall House)

GV II*

Country House. Built 1791-93 by Samuel Saxon for Sir William Wake, 9th baronet.
Limestone ashlar - local limestone with Weldon stone dressings - hipped slate
roof, brick lateral and ridge stacks. Modified double-pile plan. Neo-classical
style. 3 storeys and basement. 5-bay entrance front has central part-glazed
double-leaf doors, approached by 5 stone steps in moulded wood surround with
overlight, flanked by three-quarter Tuscan columns and narrow 8-pane sash
windows. Blank panel above door, plain frieze either side with dentilled
cornice, door and side windows within shallow segmental-headed recess. 12-pane
sash windows to ground floor in similar recesses, all with moulded stone
surrounds on brackets with paterae. Similar sashes to 1st floor with flat-arched
heads. 6-pane sashes to basement and attic floors. Weldon stone plinth. Central
bays break forward and ground floor arches linked by cornice moulding with
plain frieze moulding to piers. First floor sill band, dentilled stone eaves
cornice and blocking cornice. Steps flanked by low stone plinths bearing
cast-iron standard lamps with circular globes and finials. 7-bay garden front
has similar set of sash windows, those to ground floor of 3-bay centre flanked
by Ionic columns with plain frieze and dentilled cornice, and all set within
segmental-headed recesses. Centre breaks forward and has low pediment with
oeil-de-boeuf window. Left side elevation of 5 bays has similar sets of sash
windows and central part-glazed door to library with pedimented stone surround
and approached by low double-armed stone stairs with elliptical-arched window
below landing with cast-iron grille. Central 3 bays break forward and have
pediment. Right side elevation has flat-arched sash windows, those either end
blank and central single-storey link corridor to offices and kitchen court.
Attached offices of one storey and attic with hipped slate roofs surround 3
sides of courtyard, the 4th side enclosed by single-storey segmental arms
flanking carriage-way. Offices include former kitchen and laundry. Square
louvred cupola to range facing garden with gilded ball finial and weathervane.
Main range has very deep bracketed eaves to courtyard and 6-pane sash windows.
Interior: hall has chequered stone paving with black diamond insets and 3-bay
column screen at inner end with Roman Doric columns. Plaster frieze with
garlanded paterae. Dining Room has plaster frieze with vine garlands and panels
with playing cherubs in low relief. Column screen to inner end wall with
Corinthian columns. Central sideboard recess within screen with
elliptical-arched head filled with plasterwork fan motif. Library has segmental
apse to inner end wall with 2 curved niches, each with pair of fluted columns
with capitals based on those of the Tower of the Winds in Athens; open lunettes
above entablature and scalloped coves. Fitted bookshelves. Plaster panels above
and plaster anthemion frieze. Staircase hall has stone cantilever open well
staircase with simple iron balustrade with anthemion and mahogany ramped and
wreathed handrail. Original marbled walls and glazed oval dome. Spinal 2-storey
corridor to first floor with similar glazed oval dome and internal sash windows
lighting attic corridors. Round-arched recesses frame doors to principal
bedrooms either side. Seat of the Wakes.
(Landscaped Park, by Repton, included in the H.B.M.C. Register of Parks and
Gardens of special historic interest at Grade II; Country Life, 12-19 August
1939; R. Richardson 'New Vitruvins Britannicus' 1810 plates 67-70)

Listing NGR: SP7614053132

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Courteenhall House at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q17545266

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Farrow & Ball How to Decorate: Transform your home with paint & paper
• 
  Setting up a Listed Building Heritage Partnership Agreement: Historic England Advice Note 5
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Hampshire: South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)