Saffron Walden Museum

Saffron Walden Museum

A large building designed as an assembly room and museum in Tudor style, built in 1833–4 by Lord Braybrooke in the grounds of Walden Castle.

The structure is constructed of red brick in irregular Flemish bond with low pitched slate roofs. The plan comprises two abutting rectangular units. The eastern unit was added later but built in a matching style. The western unit was originally rectangular, then extended to L-shaped form, but the internal angle has since been infilled to create a larger rectangle.

The south front elevation shows a two-storey symmetrical design of three bays. A parapet with moulded basal string course crowns the composition. A central full-height two-storey porch with diagonal buttresses projects from the centre. All windows are rectangular and recessed with chamfered brickwork. Major mullions and transoms feature hollow chamfer moulding and contain sash windows with glazing bars. Originally, all principal windows and the porch doorway had brick labels; the marks of these remain following their twentieth-century removal.

On the ground floor, windows flank the porch on each side, each containing two mullions and a high transom with 6 by 5 panes. The porch has a rectangular chamfered doorway with a rectangular over-light of two panes. The door comprises two boarded and battened leaves with iron studs. A second doorway has been cut through the east side in the twentieth century, with a plain boarded door. The first floor porch window has simple cross-form with 4 by 6 panes, with an inserted plaque below. Flanking windows match the ground floor pattern but contain 6 by 6 panes. To the west, the edge of a projecting two-storey bay window is visible on the west side, similar to the porch design with single cross windows on both floors (ground floor 4 by 5 panes, first floor 4 by 6 panes).

The eastern block is slightly later and set forward, slightly overlapping the western section. It forms a tall single-storey unit of five bays. The central bay breaks forward as a full-height bay window without buttressing. This bay window has three mullions and two transoms with 8 by 9 panes. Pairs of windows on each side have two mullions and two transoms with 6 by 9 panes.

The west side elevation comprises two units. The north end is slightly set back and of the second phase. The south end has a plain end wall but carries a large two-storey diagonally buttressed bay window. The ground floor window has elongated cross-form with 6 by 5 panes; the lowest panes now contain recessed wooden panels. The first floor window is of similar form with 12 by 6 panes, fully glazed. The north end has two bays: ground floor windows with two mullions and upper transom (6 by 5 panes), and first floor windows similar in pattern (6 by 6 panes).

The east end elevation has a blank gable with parapet at the south end, a plain twentieth-century gallery fire escape door, and iron stair.

The north (rear) elevation is irregular due to successive additions. The west end comprises a three-bayed block set high on ground sloping downward northward, with the roof obscured by parapet. The first floor retains three original blind chamfered window recesses. The ground floor has a nineteenth-century segment-headed sash window with glazing bars (3 by 4 panes). To the east, an addition (marked by straight joint) has slate gables aligned east–west. The ground floor contains a nineteenth-century segment-headed sash window with 2 by 4 panes and a return east face of two storeys with attic windows. The ground floor casement has 4 by 4 panes; the first floor casement of two sections contains 3 by 5 panes total. Attic sliding sashes measure 4 by 3 panes. Adjacent to the south, the most recent infilling has a first floor sash window with glazing bars (4 by 5 panes). The rear north elevation's eastern end addition matches the south front's east addition, with low pitched slate roof and three chamfered windows with good voussoirs. Two are now boarded-in; one at the east end has two mullions with three fixed glass panes. Below in the centre is a simple twentieth-century door.

Interior: An original oak dogleg staircase aligned with the porch features stick balusters, a shaped and scrolled handrail, and octagonal tapered newel posts. Two original fireplaces survive in the earliest block: one of variegated grey marble with panels of polished septaria stone, and another of Adamesque design now boarded over. A third fireplace, reset from the east block, is of variegated grey marble with simple pilasters and stepped Ionic-style architrave. The upper floors of the earliest block have been repartitioned, though cornices defining original rooms largely survive.