Northgate House

Northgate House

House. 16th century and early 18th century. Encased in red brick laid in English Bond with stone rusticated quoins. Timber-framed core; slate roof of mansard form following 18th-century alterations.

The front facing Northgate Street has two balanced 2-storey wings with a 3-storey recessed and gabled centre containing the entrance. This centre features a fine stone-dressed small-paned Venetian window with Ionic pilasters to the first storey and a central round-headed window on stub brackets to the second storey (a 12-pane sash in a plain architrave with keystone). A stone band runs between the first and second storeys. A central 6-panel door with stone pilasters and cornice is flanked by 12-pane sash windows with heavy ovolo-moulded glazing bars and moulded sills. The door and windows are recessed in a deep entrance porch with clustered pilasters, a triglyph frieze with enriched metopes, and a cornice which breaks forward centrally and above the side pilasters. The doorway is approached by a flight of steps and is protected by an 18th-century iron ornamental gate with gateposts and railings on low side walls.

The side wings have brick parapets, stone cornices, chamfered stone quoins, and moulded stone plinths. Each wing has three 12-pane sash windows in plain reveals with gauged brick arches and stone keystones. A later 2-storey extension at the south end has a brick parapet with moulded stone cornice and two 12-pane sash windows in plain reveals to each storey.

The imposing west frontage facing the garden is 2 storeys with a brick parapet, stone band, and moulded stone plinth. It displays an 11-window range arranged 4:3:4, with the centre breaking forward slightly: 12-pane sashes in flush cased frames with segmental gauged brick arches and ornate keystones to the four outer windows on each side. The centre rises to 3 storeys with a moulded brick open pediment on short pilasters above a moulded brick cornice. The second storey has a central round-headed window. An original lead water-head is dated 1713.

Interior: Very extensive cellars with original worn stone steps; front walls apparently of painted clunch; several stone cross walls and much stone in the outer walling; vaulted brick ceilings; various niches. The interior contains many fine early 18th-century fittings. The large panelled entrance hall has raised fielded panels and dado surrounding an inner porch with a 6-panel door and decorated cornice. The floor is paved with limestone flags. A fireplace in white figured marble has a Baroque eared architrave with egg-and-dart and bay leaf ornament. The main geometric stair and balustrade have unusually complex balusters combining vase-on-reel and barley-sugar twist ornament, with a moulded ramped and wreathed handrail and open bracketed strings. The back stairs, rising to the attics, have simpler vase-on-reel balusters.

To the left of the entry, the former kitchen has one bay of exposed timber ceiling with plain closely-set joists and evidence of an underbuilt jetty. A small back room contains one wall with reset Jacobean panelling. To the right of the entry, a small panelled ante-room has a carved architrave to a corner fireplace; beyond it a large room with dado and ornate eared architrave with egg-and-dart ornament and central festoon to the fireplace. A main ceiling beam exposed during repairs has 16th-century double ogee moulding and was formerly jettied. The large rear room has Edwardian remodelling with a heavily moulded ceiling in Jacobean style. Fully panelled rooms on the first storey, several with good original fireplaces, two with panelled and pilastered surrounds; the most ornate has reeded Corinthian pilasters.

The roof over the north end of the house has three 17th-century parallel gabled ranges and a rear range at right-angles to them, all with clasped purlins, but concealed beneath the present mansard roof. The roof over the south end is much altered and repaired. Surviving Victorian fittings include a complete row of bells in the service corridor.