Denzell House

Denzell House is a substantial detached villa built in 1874 for Robert Scott, a Manchester spinning manufacturer, by the architectural firm Clegg & Knowles of Manchester. The house is constructed of rock-faced stone with ashlar dressings and has a coloured tile roof.

Plan and Layout

The house follows a two-storey rectangular axial plan. An entrance with porte-cochere on the north-west is linked to a conservatory on the south-east by a wide spine corridor or entrance hall, with rooms arranged to either side. A similar spine corridor runs along the first floor.

Exterior

The design is eclectic, combining Jacobean, Gothic and Italianate styles. The building features a stone plinth, ashlar quoins, a first-floor band, an eaves band, numerous gables, Tudor-style chimney stacks and steeply pitched roofs with crested ridge tiles.

The entrance façade is dominated by an asymmetrically placed porte-cochere with semi-circular arches, the front arch containing quatrefoil tracery bars. The porte-cochere has modillion eaves and a parapet with central cartouches and corner finials. Above it sits a three-light mullion and transom window, a cartouche dated 1874 with strapwork surround, and an elaborate shaped gable with chimney stacks projecting on either side.

The five-bay garden elevation (south-west) has shaped gables to the first and fifth bays. The first bay features a two-storey bay window, whilst the fifth bay has a ground-floor bay window. Both have mullion and transom windows on the first floor, cusped mullion windows on the ground floor, and pierced parapets. The second and third bays contain semi-circular two-storey bay windows with moulded bands, mullion windows, and smaller gablets or gables above. The fourth bay has an ornate three-sided oriel carried on a polished granite column, with traceried leaded lights, three triangular pediments and a steeply pitched conical roof which turns into a spire above an arcaded timber stage. To the right (south-east) is a recessed conservatory built against a wing projecting south-east in line with the main house. The timber construction is a recent replacement of the original design, set on the original stone plinth walls.

The four-bay north-east elevation of the main house has mullion windows with shaped gables to the first and second bays, a gablet to the third bay, and a shaped gable to the fourth bay with a two-storey canted bay window. Attached to the west side of the second bay and projecting at a right angle is a contemporary pedestrian gateway and screen wall of rock-faced stone with buttresses.

Interior

The wide spine corridor or entrance hall features stone tracery screens at either end with Tudor-arched double doors containing tracery glazing and decorative metal hinges. The porte-cochere screen opens into an entrance vestibule with patterned encaustic tiles, separated from the entrance hall by a carved and glazed timber screen incorporating leaded painted glass and a traceried door with leaded lights. Both the vestibule and entrance hall have carved wooden dado panelling and coffered timber ceilings.

On the north-east side of the entrance hall is a fireplace with a crocketed hooded chimneypiece of banded stone, carved with a scene of hunting dogs, grotesque figures to the outer corners, and blue decorative tiles. Timber doorcases incorporating Corinthian capitals, entablatures and small segmental pediments, with nine-panelled tracery-carved doors, open off the entrance hall.

The north corner reception room has carved timber dado panelling, a coffered timber ceiling, and a red and black marble fireplace in the centre of the north-west wall, set beneath a window—a design feature used throughout the house. The fireplace incorporates two square tiled panels depicting a musician to the left and an artist to the right. A full-height carved, gilded and painted timber overmantel with marquetry and mirrors has a central sliding screen which can cover the window.

The billiard room is located in the east corner of the south-east wing. Its coffered ceiling is painted with pictures of draughts, dice, cards, snooker, billiards and pipes, circumscribed by the motto "Play not for gain, who plays for more than he can lose with pleasure stakes his heart, perhaps his wife too, and whom she hath bore". The room has a banded stone fireplace with carved heads and decorative tiles.

On the south-west (garden) side of the entrance hall are two large reception rooms, one to either side of the main staircase. The room to the right (north-west) has a moulded coffered ceiling painted with a variety of birds, including a peacock in the centre, representing Aesop's fables, the woodwork painted gold. It has a two-tone marble fireplace, as does a smaller adjoining room. The room to the left (south-east) of the staircase has a coffered ceiling painted with foliate motifs.

The main staircase is recessed off the entrance hall behind a wide carved stone Tudor arch supported on corbel heads. The richly moulded and pierced timber staircase has a half landing lit by the oriel window, which contains stained glass depicting Chaucer, Shakespeare and Bacon.

The staircase opens onto the first-floor spine corridor through a second carved stone Tudor arch supported on foliate corbels. The corridor has a timber coffered ceiling with two glazed lanterns and a crocketed hooded chimneypiece of banded stone with decorative tiles on the north-east wall. A number of nine-panelled doors have timber doorcases with pilasters, entablatures and small segmental pediments. The south corner room has an acanthus leaf cornice and marble strapwork chimneypiece. An adjacent room at the south-east end of the corridor has a three-light stained and painted glass window.

To the right (north-west) of the staircase is a paired doorcase leading into two rooms, both with moulded cornices and similar fireplaces—one of red veined marble with tiles depicting Spring and Summer, the other of grey marble with tiles of Autumn and Winter, both with overmantel mirrors. The north corner room has a red and black marble fireplace beneath a window. To the right of the corridor fireplace is a stone archway supported on foliate corbels, behind which is a suite of four rooms with four-panelled doors. A room in the south-east wing retains a moulded cornice and carved timber fireplace with rose tiles. A probable dressing room has a plain marble fireplace with patterned tiles.

A secondary staircase with turned wooden balusters and swept handrail runs from the service area on the north-east side of the entrance hall up to second-floor servants' accommodation, which retains at least two original fireplaces.

History

In 1874 the seventh Earl of Stamford sold the ten acres of land on which Denzell stands to Robert Scott of 56 Moseley Street, Manchester, a spinning manufacturer. The house, which he built in 1874 for himself and his wife, cost £18,000, though it was rumoured to be over £30,000 in all. In 1904 Denzell House was sold to Samuel Lamb, a wealthy shipper from the firm Coddington and Lamb of Peter Street, Manchester, who developed the gardens. After his death in 1936, Samuel Lamb's children gave the house and its grounds to Bowdon Urban District Council. Whilst the grounds became a park, in 1938 the house became a residential Adult Education College for a short time, before becoming an evacuation centre for expectant mothers during the Second World War. Subsequently it opened as an annex to Altrincham General Hospital and remained in use under the regional health authority until 1979, when it became a retirement hospital for the elderly before closing in 1987. The house stood empty for a few years before being renovated into offices.

At an unknown date the entrance gates, lodge, clock tower and archway to the stable yard were demolished.

The house is designated Grade II* as a notable, very complete and high-quality example of a detached villa of this period. It has an outstanding interior decorative scheme with richness of medieval-inspired detailing in the manner of interiors by leading British architects at a similar date. There is a high degree of craftsmanship and high-quality materials are used both externally and internally. It represents an inventive eclectic design by an architects' practice noted for their palazzo warehouse designs in Manchester, and is a well-preserved example of a specifically commissioned late 19th-century house for a wealthy patron.