Description

RIPPLE
TR 34 NW

7/54 Ripple Court and
outhouses in rear
11.10.63 courtyard

GV II*

House. 1796 to 1802 for colonel John Baker Sladen extended late C19 and
c.1930. White brick with ashlar and coade stone dressings and slate roof. Rear
wings roughcast. Three storeys and basement with moulded plinth supporting
4 Corinthian pilasters with Coade stone capitals, with rendered frieze and
ashlar dentil cornice to attic storey. Sunk panelled pilaster strips and
cornice to parapet. Central double stacks with arcaded bridging piece. The
whole centre piece projects slightly from the main face of the elevation.
Regular fenestration of 3 glazing bar sashes on attic and first floors, and
2 on ground floor with moulded architraves and pediments on scrolls. Central
half-glazed double doors with rectangular fanlight in slightly projecting
porch with Doric pilasters and pediment and flight of 4 steps. Basement
openings to left and to right. Left return elevation: scrolled architraves
and pediment to ground floor windows. Right return: tented verandah with
valencing on clustered iron piers around ground floor bow, with pilaster-
moulded tripartite glazing bar sash and single glazing bar sashes on 2 upper
floors. The verandah originally extended along the whole elevation, but was
replaced c.1930 by single storey drawing room, with elliptically bowed front,
2 glazing bar sashes and central double French doors. Rear wing, late C19,
built as coachhouse with nursery over, the main feature an octagonal stair
turret in the re-entrant angle with a leaded cupola. The rear courtyard
includes also a small bakehouse and stable block, and arched headed doorways
to a series of barrel vaulted cellars which lie to the east of the house,
not below it or any other contemporary structure. The interior of the
coachhouse/stable block retains the stable fittings, and gymnasium fittings
used by the children from the nursery wing above. Interior: fairly simple
interiors with tall round-arched openings to passages and corridors and
simple elliptical stair with wreathed handrail and top landing. Moulded Neo
classical fire surrounds and plaster ceiling friezes and cornices. The
elevation and many details of the house and plan are reminiscent of Sir
John Soane, normally the least copied of Neo-Classical architects. The
facade in particular is related to Simonds Brewery, Reading (1794) and
Shotesham Hall Norfolk (1785-9) and some work at the Bank of England. Soane
designed Ringwould House (1813) 1 mile to the east, and worked at nearby
Walmer in 1812. There is no known connection with Ripple Court (see
D. Stroud, Sir John Soane, Architect, 1984).

Listing NGR: TR3493048811

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17557769

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.

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