Burnham Westgate Hall

Burnham Westgate Hall

Country house, now used as an old people's home. Built 1783–5. The house represents alterations and additions to an existing property inherited from his wife by Thomas Pitt, 1st Baron Camelford (1737–1793), himself an accomplished amateur architect, though no work from the earlier building survives. The design is attributed either to Sir John Soane or executed to his designs by the Norwich builder and sculptor John de Carle (1750–1828). The conservative character of both exterior and interiors, particularly by comparison with Soane's more idiosyncratic contemporary Norfolk commissions at Letton Hall (1783–9) and Saxlingham Rectory (1784–7), suggests the hand of de Carle and Lord Camelford rather than Soane.

The building is constructed in gault brick with stone dressings and slate roofs. The composition consists of a two-storey five-bay centre with a three-bay pediment, flanked by two-storey single-bay wings. The three central bays contain two ground-floor windows, three first-floor windows, and three second-floor windows, all sashes with glazing bars set under flat rubbed brick arches. The first-floor centre window has a stucco architrave with console brackets supporting a segmental pediment, while the outer windows have a simple stucco string course above. All windows sit beneath a stone balustrade recessed between two stone platbands running across the facade. The second-floor central window has a stucco rectangular architrave surround and a fixed sash within the pediment. The outer bays are slightly recessed, each containing one ground-floor, one first-floor, and one second-floor sash with glazing bars under flat rubbed brick arches. At second-floor level, the corners are further recessed above the outer wings. The five bays are unified by a ground-floor stone plinth, two first-floor platbands, a moulded brick modillion eaves cornice, and two massive tall brick stacks. The central ground-floor porch is a circa 1949 neo-Georgian replacement. The single-bay outer sections are brought forward to align with the pedimented centre, each featuring one ground-floor and one first-floor sash, both with glazing bars and flat rubbed brick arch heads; the first floor has a recessed balustrade base. These outer sections have a ground-floor plinth, two first-floor platbands, a modillion eaves cornice, and hipped roofs. Three-bay returns feature platbands and eaves cornice.

The interior at ground level to the north contains a two-bay dining room with somewhat retardataire plaster mouldings and a bolection-moulded fireplace. The south room has a reused bolection fireplace with rococo wooden carving. An impressive imperial staircase cantilevers from the wall with stone treads and simple cast iron balusters with curved bulbous bases. A central arched window and arched niches in the angles light the stairwell. The first floor is treated as the piano nobile. The central room above the entrance retains a moulded wooden dado and carved door architraves in a mid-18th-century pattern. Two rooms to the south feature wooden dados and egg-and-dart moulded plaster cornices. The south room was formerly decorated with circa 1800, possibly Italian, wall paper. A circa 1830 doorcase sits at the head of the landing. To the north, a three-bay one-and-a-half storey room has a tripartite ceiling with a central rose and north and south doors dating to circa 1830, though the fireplace is in circa 1790 style with an early 19th-century grate. A further room to the north has a deep coved cornice, another retardataire mid-18th-century feature.