Langley Park School

LANGLEY WITH HARDLEY LANGLEY PARK TG 30 SE 3/48 Langley Park School 25.9.51

GV I

Country house, now private school. c1740 by Matthew Brettingham with C19 remodelling by Anthony Salvin. Red brick with lead and slate roofs. Three storeys with four-storey corner towers, seven by five bays. Entrance front to south of seven bays, symmetrical, arranged 1:1:3:1:1, the outer bays set slightly advanced and rising to four storeys to form square corner towers with pyramidal roofs and weather vane finials. Sashes without glazing bars under flat gauged brick arches. Keystones to arches in outer bays and ground floor openings. Rusticated brick pilasters divide bays. Centre three bays are closely set under a pediment, early C19 Doric entrance porch with balustrade at first floor level. Moulded brick cornice between first and second floors. Coped eaves parapet with urn finials above pilasters. To the south-east and south-west, two storey side wings of 4x4 bays linked to main house by short quadrant link blocks; bays divided 1:2:1 by rusticated brick pilasters. Sashes with glazing bars. Moulded brick cornice and eaves parapet with ball-finials above pilasters. North facade of nine bays, symmetrical. Sashes with glazing bars removed on ground floor only. Centre three bays under a pediment. Central doorway with unfluted Ionic columns supporting a broken pediment against a rusticated brick surround. Flanking screen walls to side wings with pedimented niches containing figures. In the east and west walls, some blind sashes in the corner towers; on the west side a flat roofed stair block with a semi-circular headed window. Interior chiefly notable for its very fine C18 and C19 plasterwork: entrance hall with domed centrepiece to ceiling containing four allegorial figures and four roundels with heads in profile. Ballroom with very ornate C19 Baroque ceiling and cornice, white marble fire surround with figures in bas- relief and plaster panelled overmantle. In the saloon (now staffroom) very rich relief plasterwork with Greek mythological scenes in ornate panel surrounds; principal entrance door with pediment on consoles surmounted by two figures of children. Fine library plasterwork attributed to Charles Stanley; ceiling with tendril work around an oval relief of Diana and Actaeon. Venetian window in east wall, canted bay to north. First floor room above entrance hall has a painted ceiling by Clermont c1755. The dining room may be a re-erection by Salvin, being essentially an C18 interior with a screen of Ionic columns, but set in a C19 addition. Staircase with three twisted balusters per tread and wall decoration of large plaster mediallions with heads in profile.

Listing NGR: TG3512900661