The White Hall

THE WHITE HALL

A small country house built in 1814–15, attributed to John Nash, commissioned by Arthur Maister. The building is constructed of yellow-grey brick in Flemish bond with sandstone ashlar detailing, sandstone and yellow rubbed-brick dressings, and a Westmorland slate roof, designed in the Greek Revival style.

The house comprises a roughly square main block with a sophisticated plan. The west front, facing the entrance, contains a 2-room layout with central entrance hall and inner hall leading to the north stairhall. The south garden front features a 3-room arrangement with a central semicircular bow extending to the drawing room. The east garden front is organised in 2 rooms. Flanking an inner north courtyard are paired service wings: a west office wing with a laundry at its north end, and a truncated kitchen wing to the east. Detached stables stand to the north, forming an outer courtyard.

The west front of the main block displays 2 storeys over 3 bays, with a recessed central bay. The flanking wing steps back to the left, presenting a lower 2-storey, 5-bay section, a higher 2-storey single-bay section breaking forward, and a single-storey screen wall adjoining a single-storey laundry with a gate pier to the stable yard entrance. A chamfered brick plinth runs throughout. The entrance has 2 steps with moulded nosings leading to a projecting Doric portico carrying 2 pairs of fluted columns with triple incised necking bands. These support a plain entablature with moulded cornice and blocking course. Flanking pilasters and moulded ashlar plinth frame a large recessed 2-fold, half-glazed panelled door in an ashlar architrave with panelled surround decorated with carved paterae. Above this sits an entablature with plain frieze and moulded cornice supported on consoles with shell ornament. The side bays contain recessed round-headed blind arches housing full-length 12-pane sashes (the right sash being dummy) with brick cambered arches and projecting ashlar sills on raised brick apron panels. A moulded wooden eaves cornice with projecting modillioned eaves crowns the composition. The hipped roof carries a pair of axial stacks; a further stack rises to the rear right with an ashlar cornice. The wing repeats similar plinth, sash detailing and eaves to the 2-storey range; the higher left section features a round-headed blind arch to the ground floor and a hipped roof with lateral stack. A blocked round-headed opening cuts through the stone-coped screen wall. A tripartite sash with glazing bars sits beneath a flat arch, with a hipped roof and end stack serving the laundry. A stone-coped gate pier adjoins to the left, crowned with a bowl-of-fruit finial.

The south front presents 3 bays. A full-height central bow contains 3 full-length 12-pane sashes beneath brick flat arches with ashlar corniced hoods carried on ribbed consoles hung with guttae. The side bays hold single recessed elliptical blind arches containing full-length tripartite sashes with glazing bars and ashlar panelled pilasters carrying plain entablatures. The first floor repeats 12-pane sashes and eaves details matching the west front.

The east front spans 6 bays with 2 central pedimented bays breaking forward. Similar 12-pane ground-floor sashes appear throughout; those to the central bays carry ashlar hoods on consoles. Two former dummy sashes to the left were opened circa 1970. The first floor repeats the sash pattern, including 2 dummy windows. The wing set back to the right comprises 2 low storeys over 3 bays: a half-glazed panelled door with 12-pane ground-floor sashes to the right, unequal 9-pane first-floor sashes, and a blind window panel above the door. A hipped roof with end stack completes this section.

The interior remains largely unaltered and displays considerable sophistication. The halls feature white marble flooring with black insets. A panelled chimney-piece with roundels ornaments the entrance hall. The inner hall is distinguished by a fluted Doric column screen, modillioned cornice hung with guttae, and a foliate ceiling rose. A pair of Classical-style white marble female statues on drum pedestals stand within. An exceptional open-well profiled cantilevered stone staircase ascends with a wreathed handrail and wrought-iron balustrade of S-scrolled panels with simple floral motif. A large stair window with margin lights is surmounted by an ornate pelmet with carved frieze and cornice.

The drawing room possesses a white marble chimney-piece with panelled surround and detached tapered fluted columns carrying the mantelshelf. Gilded leaf-and-dart moulding embellishes the skirting, whilst the plaster cornice and frieze display acanthus, anthemion and pellet moulding.

The north-east dining room contains a Greek Ionic screen to an apsidal north end, supported on grey marble scagliola columns carrying an entablature with panelled frieze. A scagliola chimney-piece faces the room, complemented by a ribbed cornice and grapevine frieze with pellets and ornate fan mouldings to the angles.

The south-west library features a series of arched recesses containing fitted bookcases with reeded architraves and a dummy bookcase door. A white marble chimney-piece similar to that in the drawing room but with attached columns is accompanied by fine plasterwork fan vaulting springing from clustered corner shafts. This vaulting carries an ornate scrolled acanthus cornice and anthemion frieze. Wallpaper, painting of plasterwork and the ceiling rose date from circa 1870.

The north-west study and south-east morning room each feature marble chimney-pieces with panelled surrounds and roundels, ribbed ceiling cornices with pellets, and acanthus ceiling roses (the latter to the study).

The upper hall displays a fluted Ionic screen and modillioned cornice, with a pair of elliptical-arched openings to bedroom passages fitted with elliptical-arched panels. The bedrooms are fitted throughout with marble chimney-pieces having panelled and reeded surrounds, and ribbed ceiling cornices. Boldly-moulded skirting and 6-beaded-panel doors in panelled surrounds with paterae ornament complete the decorative scheme.

This is a well-designed house with fine architectural detailing. It was constructed by the same distinguished London architect responsible for Wood Hall, Burton Constable, also commissioned by the Maister family. While stylistically attributed to John Nash, certain uncharacteristic details—notably the hoods to ground-floor windows—suggest modifications by another architect, probably a local practitioner such as Charles Mountain of Hull.