Moorgate Hall And Attached Outbuilding

Moorgate Hall and Attached Outbuilding

A large house with attached outbuilding, originally dating from the 17th century and rebuilt in the early 18th century. The late 18th-century outbuilding was probably designed by John Platt for Samuel Tooker. The building is constructed of deeply-coursed, dressed sandstone with a Welsh slate roof; the outbuilding has stone slates.

The main house is square on plan with an internal angle to the front right, and outbuildings extend to the right return, though the single-storey outbuilding is not of special architectural interest.

The entrance front is two storeys with attics and contains four first-floor windows. A central 6-panel door (four fielded, two flush) sits in an ashlar surround. Four sashes with thick glazing bars occupy square-faced surrounds; the window to the left of the door is blind and painted. A continuous dripmould runs across the front. Above the door is a small chamfered, round-arched window with stanchion and dripstone. To the right is a large sash with glazing bars in a cavetto-moulded surround, matching a blind and painted window to the left. An internal angle to the right has been infilled by a lean-to garage with a matching first-floor sash. An eaves cornice forms the gutter. The hipped roof features a rebuilt, quoined stack to the front slope and hipped-roof dormers on the side slopes.

The rear elevation is arranged in 1:3:1 bays. The central bays break forward and rise three storeys, with a pediment and first- and second-floor quoin-strips and cornices; the first-floor cornice continues across the outer bays. The ground floor contains 16-pane sashes in architraves beneath a continuous dripmould, with the central surround rusticated. The first floor has sashes with glazing bars in architraves with double lintels and small keyblocks; the central architrave is eared and deeper (like a doorway) with a segmental pediment above. The second floor has three horizontally-sliding sashes in architraves. The pediment is corniced with an oeil-de-boeuf in the tympanum.

The left return comprises five bays. A central 6-panel door at mid-floor height has an eared architrave with external steps. Small sashes with glazing bars occupy the ground floor, while five large sashes in cavetto-moulded surrounds line the first floor (the window in bay two is blind). Three roof dormers are present.

The outbuilding facade, set back to the left of the house's rear, has two doorways in bonded surrounds. A central door is flanked by large flat-arched windows; the right window contains a horizontally-sliding sash. Two similar first-floor windows have lintels tooled as voussoirs. The outbuilding has a hipped roof with a truncated ridge stack to the right.

The interior contains an excellent late 17th-century staircase with alternate barley-sugar and turned balusters. A separate staircase to the attics features splat balusters (the attics were not inspected). The kitchen retains a large elliptically-arched fireplace with imposts and keystone; the opening has been infilled with a good 19th-century cast-iron range. Some 17th-century wall-cupboards and panelled doors remain. A keyed round-arched doorhead appears in the passage near the attic stairs.

On the first floor, a pedimented doorway at the head of the stairs features a bolection-moulded architrave. The central rear room has a marble fireplace and plaster frieze. The front right room has a bolection-moulded fireplace and canvas-panelled walls. Other good features of later date are also present.