Fanhams Hall With Buildings On Courtyard (The Building Societies Staff College)

Fanhams Hall is a country house and associated outbuildings, now used as a staff college. The core of the house dates back to around 1715, with substantial expansion and alteration occurring between 1898 and 1901 by W Wood Bethell for Richard Benyon Croft. It was later purchased by Westminster Bank in 1950, and then by the Building Societies Association in 1971.

The eastern wall of the original house, a three-storey brick structure, is visible within the interior courtyard – the top floor is from around 1800. The original facade presented three windows with flat arches and aprons, along with moulded floor bands. This was subsequently incorporated into a much larger, irregular, three-storey Jacobean-style mansion. The exterior is roughcast, with stone dressings and mullioned and transomed windows, including projecting bays. Steep red tile roofs are concealed behind a parapet. A projecting, double-height hall-range with a long gallery above is on the north side.

The east entrance front features an eight-bay, three-storey central porch. The west garden front has a three-bay, three-storey section, and a two-storey, two-bay hall-wing projecting forward five bays. The courtyard facade extends for fifteen bays and two storeys. The courtyard entrance is marked by a round arch with an ogee hood mould, flanked by twin two-storey towers with pyramid roofs. Single-storey cottages are built onto a retaining wall, and square towers are positioned at the courtyard angles. An exit from the courtyard is provided by an archway beneath a clock tower. An Old Coach House, dated to around 1715 and partly refaced, is attached. A circa 1965 bedroom wing in the outer yard (now a car park) is not considered to be of particular architectural interest.

The interior is of high quality, in an Arts and Crafts style, featuring plasterwork by L.A. Turner, stained glass by Morris and Co. in the library, oak panelling and beamed ceilings, carved stone chimney pieces, and walnut panelling in the lounge inlaid with mother-of-pearl. A fine 18th-century staircase has been preserved. Two carved Venetian stone wellheads are present: one near a service door, and one to the north of the main entrance.