Harlaxton Manor

Country house with adjoining outbuildings, now a university. Built 1832–1844. The owner, Gregory Gregory, acted largely as his own architect, in collaboration with Anthony Salvin from 1832 to 1838, and with William Burn and David Bryce from 1838 to 1854. Edward Blore was also consulted. The remarkable interior decoration, dating from around 1837 to 1854, incorporates many repositioned French and German architectural items, and important plasterwork probably by Bernasconi. Constructed of Ancaster stone and brick, with gabled and hipped slate roofs. Numerous ashlar chimneys with multiple coped square flues. Elizabethan Revival style. Plinth, sill bands, shaped coped gables with finials. Two storeys plus basement and attics: 11 by 5 bays. Combination of H-plan and E-plan. Windows are fixed lights and casements with stone surrounds, mullions and transoms, and leaded glazing.

The symmetrical west front has a projecting 5-bay central feature with a pierced lettered balustrade dated 1837. The central two-storey round oriel window is flanked by two-storey polygonal bay windows with square bases and topped with ogee-domed octagonal turrets. Round-arched doorway with faceted keystone and voussoirs, half-glazed double door and fanlight. Above and behind stands an arched square base carrying an octagonal turret with a clock dial, and topped with an ogee-domed octagonal cupola and weather vane. Double side bays have two windows on the main floors, the lower ones larger, round-arched through-eaves dormers, and three smaller windows to the basement. Gabled wings have canted three-storey bay windows with strapwork crests and octagonal angle turrets with ogee domes and finials.

To the left, a service wing of 1843 by Burn forms the north side of the forecourt and contains the former brewery. Central square two-storey tower with paired angle pilasters and strapwork balustrade with a central round-arched niche, set back between wings. At each corner, a square chimney. An 18-light double-transomed window, and below, a round-arched recess with shafts and voussoirs, containing a 12-light window. Recessed side bays have a blocked door to the right and a window to the left, with scrolled panels above. Beyond, three-bay ranges with a central triangular bay window and strapwork balustrades and two chimneys. The brewery, to the left, has a round corner turret with a domed cupola, and a gable chimney on corbels.

The south return, facing the garden, has a balanced asymmetrical facade of two storeys with domed polygonal corner turrets. To the left, a gabled bay with a canted two-storey bay window. To the right, a bay with a 6-light window on each floor, flanked to the left by a canted two-storey bay window with a round-arched arcade to the ground floor. To the right, a gabled bay with a square projection and a two-storey round bay window. All the bay windows have strapwork crests.

The conservatory, to the right, is single storey, 5 by 2 bays, with glazed roofs with central clerestorey, and wooden-framed glazing-bar windows flanked by pilasters. Pedimented centre flanked by single windows, then canted end bays with hipped roofs. The right return has a similar canted corner bay. The rear has a more elaborate pedimented centre with double doors and overlight, flanked by three windows.

The east elevation has a balanced facade. The full-height central block has three tall 12-light windows divided by buttresses, and through-eaves dormers above. To the left, an external chimney, then a three-storey polygonal bay window with buttresses in the return angle. To the right, a similar larger unbuttressed bay window with a single-bay link to the right wing. In the link, a window with strapwork crest and balcony, and below, a glazed door and overlight. The central block is set in a sunken court flanked by pierced balustrade walls. Beyond, gabled wings with two-storey canted bay windows and strapwork crests, and attic windows in the gables. To the right, an open loggia with panelled balustrade and 3-bay round-arched arcade. To the right again, plain gabled wing to service range.

The service courtyard (Pegasus Courtyard) to the north of the main building is in a much plainer style. The east side has to the left a square two-storey tower recessed between two-storey gabled wings of two windows. To the right, a set-back range with a facing gable and an external chimney, then a 4-bay block with irregular fenestration. The north range, formerly domestic stables, has a central external chimney flanked by three windows, all with mid-20th-century glazing. To the left, a square tower gatehouse with parapet and round corner turret, and a Tudor-arched carriage opening with double gates, leading to the main stable block. To the left of the arch, a door in the same style. To the right, a square crenellated two-storey tower set at an angle. The south side of the courtyard is formed by the service wing and former brewery, and has a projecting 3-bay centre with central tower and round-arched opening.

To the north east, a curved brick viaduct of three stages with buttresses and slate roof, containing a narrow-gauge railway for supplying the service courtyard.

The interior has a "prodigious display of decorative virtuosity unparalleled in 19th-century England" (Beard). The entrance vestibule has at the north end two 3-bay arcades with heavily rusticated round arches adorned with enormous ashlar trophies. Early 19th-century Classical marble fireplace with double Ionic columns. The open-well north west stair has a cast-iron foliage balustrade and a ceiling with strapwork star compartments and pendants.

The Great Hall on the east side is two storeys and has a low-pitched panelled cross-beam ceiling with shaped paired brackets and pendants carried on terms. Buttressed half-height wooden panelling incorporating seats. Massive chimneypiece with panelled and waisted square pilasters and overmantel with central crest flanked by round-arched niches. Screen with rusticated round-arched doorway flanked by columns, then by round-arched aedicules, all under a strapwork parapet. At the dais end, to the left, a bay window under a vault, with stained glass by Willement, 1837.

The state dining room, to the west, has round-arched wooden wall panelling, a frieze of shields, and an exceptionally rich strapwork ceiling. Large red and white marble chimneypiece with black marble columns. Moulded doorcases with sculptured, crested overdoors.

The ante room to the south has a scrolled plasterwork ceiling with recessed central panel, and heavily enriched Classical fireplace. The adjoining long gallery, to the south front, is in early 18th-century French style and has panelled walls and a sky ceiling with enriched borders. The canted east end has a mottled marble doorcase with columns, flanked by tall mirrors, then round-arched niches with mirrors above. The west end has a bay window. Two mottled marble fireplaces and in the centre of the long sides, double doors with elaborate surrounds.

The main stairwell has a white marble doorcase with open pediment containing putti and twist columns. The open-well Cedar Staircase, fully described by Pevsner, has Baroque decoration of outstanding complexity, culminating in a sky ceiling with concealed windows, below which are six balconies with figures.

The gold drawing room, to the east, has plaster-panelled walls and enriched frieze, coved ceiling and rounded corners, two of them with curved double doors. Marble fireplace with bracketed cornice and overmantel mirror.

The conservatory, to the south east, has two massive pedimented ashlar doorcases with marble columns, those to the north twisted. The open-well family staircase, to the north east, has scrolled bronze balustrade and ramped handrail. Attic-level corridors have Renaissance Revival style ornament, and doors with strapwork panels.