Babraham Hall The Institute Of Animal Physiology

TL 5050 BABRAHAM HIGH STREET (North-West Side)

8/45 Babraham Hall, The Institute of Animal Physiology

GV II

Country house. 1832-33 by Philip Hardwick (1792-1870), for H.J. Adeane, Jacobean revival style with additions and alterations in 1864 and c.1900. Red brick with limestone dressings; slate roofs and metal coverings to tower and corner turret. Three storeys and basement; two storey and attic north-west range. The original building with symmetrical three-gabled facade perhaps encases part of c.1770 building. Extended to south-east by one bay and to north-west beyond north tower by a range including a billiard room, and unified in the garden facade by a loggia-raised over the semi basement. (The north-west service winy c.1900 was replaced by offices and laboratories in 1952-3). Entrance facade facing north-east. Rusticated limestone quoins, moulded bands between floors and copings to parapets and gables. Limestone dressings to mullioned windows with transomes at ground and first floors. Chimney stacks with short octagonal shafts. Mid C19 single storey porch of three 'bays' divided by pilasters with blind balustrade and entablature surmounted by ball finials; round arched doorway with side lights; recessed double panelled doors and fanlight with glazing bars. Two projecting three storey 'bays' on either side with shaped parapet gables similar to central gable with crests of Adeane and Adeane impalling Stanley in gable heads. Side stack to left hand with crest of Adeane impalling Yorke. Square north tower with shaped pyrammidal roof terminating with ball finial similar to south corner turret. Loggia in garden facade of fourteen 'bays' with square piers and balustrade over an arcade of segmental headed arches. Rainwater heads with initials H.I.A. 1833. Interior: Ground floor rooms with plastered ceilings on raised ribs forming geometric patterns with pendants in Jacobean style. Former drawing room with two fireplaces flanked by elaborate shaped and enriched pilasters with mirrors above. Former dining room with bolection moulded panelling. Staircase with flat shaped and pierced balusters. An early house, Babraham Place c.1580 was owned by Sir Horatio Palavicino in 1589, it was demolished in 1766 and the materials sold (some seen by Wm. Cole, used to repair Chesterton sluice). Robert Jones, an East India Company director rebuilt the house on the same site. The present house was sold to the Agricultural Research Council by Col. Sir Robert Philip Wyndham Adeane in 1948. The gardens, including a folly, were laid out in 1864 according to a C16 plan.

V.C.H., Vol. VI, p22,26 R.C.H.M. Report 1951 Colvin, H. English Architects, p262 Pevsner. Buildings of England, p294 Palmer, M.W. The Neighbourhood of Hildersham, p31, 1924

Listing NGR: TL5105150555