Bowes Museum With Steps And Railings Attached

BARNARD CASTLE

NZ0516SE NEWGATE 770-1/7/149 (North side) 24/02/50 Bowes Museum with steps and railings attached

GV I

Private museum, publicly owned from 1952, with side and rear area railings. 1869-c.1885 (opened 1892). By J Pellechet; JE Watson of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, builder. For John Bowes, son of the 10th Earl of Strathmore. Ashlar; roof of light grey slates. Chateau style. EXTERIOR: 2:3:2 storeys with basement and attics; 3:5:4:5:3-window ranges with central and end pavilions. Entrance pavilion of 3 storeys: high plinths to paired free Corinthian columns flanking round-headed arch with cartouche key and pilasters; double painted-iron doors with studded framed panels under split semicircular overlight with fishscale fret, and leaf-carved spandrels below entablature with deep modillion brackets. Panelled plinths and entablature continue around set-back narrow side bays and returns, with 2-light windows. First floor has similar columns and entablature on smaller plinths, and windows from floor level; smaller top-floor windows with panelled pilasters and pedimented entablature. To end pavilions: paired windows and wide panels on ground floor, high round-headed window on first floor between paired columns, and narrower pedimented attic window. Links between pavilions have similar ground floor windows in corniced panels under continuous cornice, the first floor pedimented under bracketed cornice which continues across entire facade. Rusticated basement has plain 2-light stone mullioned windows. Steeply pitched pseudo-Mansard roof, hipped over pavilions and convex-hipped over centre, has 2 levels of lights, the lower pedimented dormers at eaves level, the upper round-headed in archivolts, except in pavilions where they are oeils-de-boeuf. Tall corniced chimneys at sides and behind front slope. Pavilions have raised low pyramidal tops. INTERIOR: lavish decoration with much marble cladding and notable marble staircases with wide grip handrails on turned balustrades. Contents include architectural fragments, some local, including panelled room from West Auckland Manor House. Spear-headed railings enclose areas at rear and sides. (Buildings of England: Pevsner: County Durham: Harmondsworth: 1983-: 88).

Listing NGR: NZ0556416317