Stanhope Castle

Stanhope Castle is a large house, now converted into flats, built in 1798 for Cuthbert Rippon. Additions were made in 1823, dated on the rainwater heads, for his son Cuthbert Rippon, Member of Parliament for Gateshead, and further additions in 1875 to accommodate a collection of stuffed birds and animals. The building is constructed of sandstone ashlar with a visible plinth; the roof is not visible.

The building has an irregular plan, with the south elevation featuring a three-bay main entrance front connected by a one-storey, five-bay conservatory link to a two-storey, gabled wing set on a lower ground level, resulting in a total of eleven bays. The entrance front has steps leading to a porch with a Tuscan order in antis, and the entrance is located in a curved rear wall. The outer bays on the entrance front contain sashes with glazing bars, below paired renewed sashes flanked by pilasters. Ground floor windows have projecting stone sills, with sill bands in the outer bays. A band runs below a stepped parapet. The conservatory windows have segmental heads and glazing bars. The right-hand wing has a central four-light window with renewed glazing, an inserted door, and a two-light window to the right. The first floor, continuous with the conservatory, has Perpendicular tracery in three windows of two lights. A top band supports the stepped parapet. A tall central tower is present.

Inside, the entrance hall behind the main front has curved doors leading to flanking oval rooms with classical motifs in the ceiling cornices. The room on the left features a Gothic-style stone chimney-piece, while the room on the right has a dentilled dado rail. A first-floor gallery and one room have dentilled cornices. The open-well stair has a round-topped handrail on a painted brass balustrade with delicate pineapple finials to the low curves between the rods.

A two-storey, flat-roofed rear extension from the 20th century is not of particular interest.