Terling Place

Terling Place

Mansion built 1772–73 by John Johnson for John Strutt, M.P., and altered 1818–24, probably by Thomas Hopper, for Colonel Joseph Strutt. The building is constructed of grey brick in Flemish bond with limestone dressings, roofed with slate.

The original structure was of double pile plan, three storeys tall, facing southeast with two internal stacks symmetrically arranged. Between 1818 and 1824, two-storey extensions were added to the southwest elevation, enclosing a recessed porch and converting this to the entrance elevation. Long wings of one storey with attics extend obliquely forwards to the north-northeast and west-southwest.

The northwest elevation features a four-window range of early 19th-century sash windows of 12 lights with crown glass, and on the second floor seven sashes of six lights. The recessed porch contains double half-glazed doors with a niche to each side, flanked by two Tuscan columns with entablature. The entrance wings have a moulded cornice and plain parapet, while the main block has a modillioned cornice and plain parapet. A low-pitched hipped roof is concealed by the parapet.

The southeast (garden) elevation displays a 2:3:2 range of sashes of 12 lights with crown glass, and on the second floor seven sashes of six lights, all with flat arches of gauged brick. The central part projects slightly forward. The original central door has been altered to a window, above which are three round arches with moulded keystones. On the first floor are four Ionic attached columns, added during the 1818–24 alterations. A stone band runs below the sills of the first floor windows. The elevation is finished with a modillioned pediment and cornice and plain parapet. A mid-19th-century conservatory with glazed margins, which had connected the formerly freestanding west wing to the main house, was demolished in 2015. The side elevations have five-window ranges of sashes of 12 lights with crown glass, and on the second floor five sashes of six lights, with similar band, cornice and parapet.

The interior contains a central staircase hall that was altered around 1818–24 to form a two-storey neo-Greek saloon with a gallery running all round, fitted with a bowed wrought iron balustrade. Below the balustrade is a frieze of plaster casts of the Elgin Marbles by Westmacott. Mahogany-panelled doors have consoled doorcases, which were marbled by W.M. Leake around 1845. The gallery is supported by wooden Ionic columns and one cast iron column (forming a flue), also marbled. The ceiling is dished and moulded, with panelled ceilings around the gallery. A simple dog-leg stair outside the saloon replaces the original E-plan stair, re-using Johnson's wrought iron scrolled and foliated balusters with honeysuckle terminals. White marble fireplaces are decorated with low-relief plasterwork featuring husk garlands, honeysuckle and paterae, with dentilled cornices and folding shutters.

This was Johnson's first known domestic building. The first brick was laid on 30 March 1772, and the house was occupied by 26 November 1773. The third Lord Rayleigh later established a laboratory in the west wing, where he first identified argon in 1894, work for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Science in 1904. The west wing was subsequently gutted by fire.