Babraham Hall The Institute Of Animal Physiology

Babraham Hall is a country house, largely dating from 1832-33, designed by Philip Hardwick for H.J. Adeane. It is built in a Jacobean revival style, with significant additions and alterations made in 1864 and around 1900. The building is constructed of red brick with limestone dressings, featuring slate roofs and metal coverings on the tower and corner turret. It is three storeys high with a basement, and has a two-storey, attic north-west range.

The original symmetrical facade, with its three gables, appears to incorporate elements of a circa 1770 building. Extensions were added to the south-east by one bay and to the north-west, beyond the north tower, including a billiard room. The garden facade presents a unified appearance with a loggia raised above the semi-basement. A north-west service wing, dating from around 1900, was replaced by offices and laboratories between 1952 and 1953.

The north-east facing entrance facade has rusticated limestone quoins and moulded bands between floors, topped with copings to the parapets and gables. Windows are mullioned, with transoms at ground and first floor levels, and feature limestone dressings. Chimney stacks are topped with short octagonal shafts. A mid-19th century porch, consisting of three bays, features pilasters, a blind balustrade, an entablature topped with ball finials, a round arched doorway with side lights, recessed double panelled doors and a fanlight with glazing bars. Projecting three-storey bays flank the central section, each with a shaped parapet gable displaying the crests of Adeane and Adeane impaling Stanley. A side stack bears the crest of Adeane impaling Yorke. A square north tower rises to a shaped pyramidal roof, terminating in a ball finial, mirroring the appearance of the south corner turret. The garden facade incorporates a loggia with fourteen bays, supported by square piers and a balustrade over a segmental arcaded terrace. Rainwater heads are inscribed with the initials H.I.A. and the date 1833.

The interior ground floor rooms have plastered ceilings with raised ribs forming geometric patterns and pendants in a Jacobean style. The former drawing room retains two fireplaces flanked by shaped and enriched pilasters with mirrors above, while the former dining room has bolection moulded panelling. The staircase displays flat, shaped and pierced balusters.

The site previously housed Babraham Place, circa 1580, which was demolished in 1766 and rebuilt by Robert Jones, an East India Company director. The house was acquired by the Agricultural Research Council in 1948 after being sold by Col. Sir Robert Philip Wyndham Adeane. A folly and the gardens were laid out in 1864 according to a 16th-century plan.