Rockliffe Hall In Rockliffe Park

Country House, now hospital. Built 1863–1865 with 20th-century alterations. Designed by Alfred Waterhouse for A Backhouse. Red brick with ashlar dressings and patterned slate roofs with decorative ridge tiles. Fourteen tall decorative chimney stacks. Ashlar coped gables and ashlar window surrounds. Two storeys plus attics.

The north entrance front features an off-centre doorway in a projecting porch with a pointed archway, hood and pierced parapet with blank central panel. The inner doorway has a roll-moulded surround and original glazed door, with a single light casement above. To the left stands a gabled two-storey square bay with five-light cross-mullion windows, those on the ground floor with pointed heads; the gable contains a decorative roundel. To the right are two plain sashes above a double plain sash, then a three-light mullion window with sashes and relieving arches. Beyond is a further two-storey gabled square bay with five-light cross-mullion windows, the upper one with a relieving arch and the gable containing a pair of lancets. Beyond a pair of cross-mullion windows and three plain sashes are three through-eaves gabled dormers, each with a cross-mullion window. To the right is a further gabled, two-storey projecting bay, canted on the ground floor with a central two-light window and flanking single side lights; the storey above is square with two pairs of plain sashes and a blank panel in the gable. Beyond are a pair of two-light cross casements and a single-light through-eaves gabled dormer above. Beyond again is a single-storey wing with a projecting gabled west front containing a pointed arch with double garage doors.

At the north-east corner is an attached pierced wall with chamfered ashlar coping and a garden gateway with a gabled wall topped by a ball finial and double iron gates.

The east front has a slightly projecting central bay with a glazed door and flanking side lights, above which is a large staircase window of four lights with ashlar tracery, topped by a gable with ball finial. To the left is a single cross casement on the first floor; beyond is a projecting canted two-storey bay window topped by a gable with ball finial, featuring a two-light cross casement with flanking side lights and above a two-light cross casement with a small lancet in the gable. To the right is a single cross casement to each floor; beyond is a slightly projecting gabled wing with two shouldered arched windows and between them a buttress supporting an upper oriel window.

The south front has a central two-storey canted bay window with three-light cross casements. Either side are slightly projecting two-storey gabled wings with four-light cross casements on the ground floor and light cross casements above; each gable contains a small lancet and is topped by a ball finial. To the west is a set-back single-storey conservatory with five large windows, partly obscured by a 20th-century lean-to wooden addition, with gabled upper floors behind and an octagonal bell turret in the corner. To the west again is a two-storey gabled wing with a projecting two-storey ashlar bay window, canted on the ground floor and square above, topped by a balustrade with a small tracery window in the gable above.

Interior

The original cross-plan hall contains two triple-arched arcades with marble columns and ornate carved foliate capitals. A single flight and return staircase features an unusual hexagonal-patterned balustrade. The upper landing also has two triple-arched arcades with plain columns and capitals. The former drawing room has 18th-century style plaster panels, coving and ceiling. The former dining room has dado panelling, fine pedimented doorcases and a swagged plaster frieze and coving. A western ground-floor room features a fine marble fireplace with elaborate marble overmould incorporating a fine three-light stained-glass window. Most original doors and doorcases survive, along with some plaster ceilings and a single wooden fireplace.