Wherstead Park

Wherstead Park is a house, now serving as the headquarters of Eastern Electricity, with a foundation stone laid in 1792 on the site of an earlier house. It was built for Sir Robert Harland, Baronet, and features grey brick with ashlar dressings and a Welsh slate roof. The building is two storeys high and consists of seven by five bays, with a service wing to the right that has been raised and incorporated into later additions.

The entrance front has seven bays and includes a later central square porch with a round-arched entrance that contains a 20th-century glazed door with jamb lights and a fanlight. To the left of the porch, a horizontal foundation stone bears the inscription 'The first stone of this house laid by Sir Robert Harland Bt. July 29th 1792'. Round-arched recesses contain 12-pane sash windows under flat gauged brick arches, with oculi above. To the right of the porch, these windows have been replaced by large pivoting windows with glazing bars. On the first floor, there are unequal 9-pane sashes under flat gauged brick arches on a cill band, topped with a cornice and blocking course. The hipped roofs surround a central staircase well, which features a shallow dome and cupola.

The east return front has five bays, with three segment-arched recesses containing replaced tripartite sashes and round-arched niches between them on cill bands. Inside, the entrance hall has a coved ceiling and ornamental cornice, with a screen of Doric columns in antis leading to an impressive staircase hall. The imperial staircase returns in two flights and has an iron balustrade. Galleries feature paired cast iron Ionic columns with an imitation marble finish, and there is a shallow dome with a central oculus and plasterwork ornamentations. The balcony room on the first floor is circular in plan, with a shallow domed ceiling and segmental wall recesses.