Keele Hall

Keele Hall

Former country house, now part of Keele University. The building represents a total rebuilding by architect Anthony Salvin between 1856 and 1861 for Ralph Sneyd, who reconstructed an earlier house dating from around 1580. An inscription on the cornice records this work: "These buildings, constructed by his ancestor Ralph Sneyd in the year of the Lord 1580, were restored by Ralph Sneyd A.D. 1860." Additions were made around 1880. The hall is constructed of red and yellow sandstone ashlar with chamfered rusticated quoins, plain tile roofs with fish-scale bands, and prominent ashlar chimney stacks with moulded capping.

The building is designed in Jacobean style and roughly L-shaped in plan, with three storeys over cellars and attics. The front elevation presents two distinct wings. The left-hand wing has the character of a service range, with a projecting shaped gable to the left topped by a small pediment. To its right stands the main section of the wing with a corbelled half-dormer to the centre and a higher section containing two shaped full-dormers with a connecting balustrade over a moulded cornice. Windows throughout are mullioned and transomed. In the angle between the two gables sits a single-storey entrance porch of circa 1950, surmounted by the arms of Keele University. A smaller round-arched doorway to the right bears the motto "Thank God for All" above it. The dominating feature is a rectangular staircase tower projecting in the angle between the two wings, lit by tall mullioned and transomed windows. Its upper storey or lantern, added by Sneyd as an afterthought, is surmounted by an openwork balustrade with four heraldic lions at the corners.

The right-hand wing contains the original entrance front. Two 12-light mullioned and transomed windows light the Great Hall to the left of a roughly central full-height porch, approached by a short flight of steps. The porch has a classical doorway with pediment and Doric columns, but is topped by an upper oriel and shaped gable. To the right is a full-height canted bay terminating in a shaped half-dormer that pierces the openwork balustrade. At the right-hand end of this range is a lower attachment of circa 1880, carried round to the back, also featuring shaped gables and openwork balustrade, with round-arched windows to the rear.

The south or garden front is symmetrical except for an upper canted bay window in the left-hand bay. Polygonal corner turrets capped by lead cupolas flank the elevation. The fenestration follows a 1:1:3:1:1 pattern of mullioned and transomed windows with projecting shaped gabled breaks to left and right; a slightly recessed central section contains a three-bay round-arched open arcade at ground floor level. Renaissance-style decorative motifs appear throughout.

The east front is also treated as a display elevation, with polygonal corner turrets (one shared with the south front). Fenestration is irregular, comprising mainly mullioned and transomed windows with four half-dormers with shaped gables piercing the openwork balustrade. The most prominent feature is a lavishly ornamented two-storey canted bay window to the left with three windows, terminating in a shaped and pointed gable.

The principal rooms occupy the main floor. The Great Hall, which dominates the interior, is designed in late medieval and early Renaissance style with a three-bay arcade at each end and gallery above. The arcades employ an applied Ionic order with carved heads as keystones to the round-headed arches. The most striking feature is a magnificent fireplace on the south wall, lavishly decorated with a heraldic device containing 42 quarterings beneath a broken pediment, flanked by twisted marble columns. Behind the hall to the south is the library, designed with a richly ornamented ceiling, gallery, and fireplace all by Salvin.

The other main rooms are located on the east and now form the Senior Common Room. The Dining Room, located to the north, is finished in Tudor style and contains tapestries recorded in a 19th-century inventory as being made by Aubusson "specially for the room", along with carvings by Rogers in the style of Grindling Gibbons. It also features a plaster ceiling and inlaid floor surround by Messrs. Arrowsmith of New Bond Street. This connects to the Breakfast Room, a relatively small link room that shares design motifs with both the Dining Room and the Drawing Room. The Drawing Room is executed in early 18th-century style showing the influence of William Kent, and features a coffered ceiling by Rogers with largely original paintwork, pedimented door surrounds, and two good fireplaces. An unusual feature is a sliding mirror to the south window, designed to create the optical illusion of doubled room dimensions. The staircase to the north of the Great Hall is notable, executed in 17th-century style with vase-shaped balusters, newels with pointed finials and fleur-de-lys symbols.