Cleveland House

Cleveland House

An office building on Old Station Road in Newmarket, originally a house of circa 1730 that was substantially remodelled and extended around 1820. The house was built for Lord Darlington, later Duke of Cleveland, and other racehorse owners, who jointly presented it to the racehorse jockey Samuel Chiffney junior as a mark of appreciation for his success riding their horses. It was again enlarged in the 20th century for the sixth Earl of Rosebery, with other minor alterations made in the same period.

The exterior is of brick, stuccoed with scribed masonry joints and stone details, beneath hipped felted roofs with stacks removed. The building is arranged as a wide, double-depth block with the service wing recessed to the right and a 20th-century wing added to the rear left. The front elevation presents an imposing, symmetrical composition of three wide bays, two to three storeys high with a deep cellar beneath. Each bay contains three 6-over-6 sash windows in moulded architraves. The windows in the central bay at first-floor level are set lower than those in the flanking bays. Four giant order strip pilasters rise above an offset plinth and support a moulded crowning cornice and coped parapet, with a moulded wreath applied to each pilaster and a deep anthemion frieze across the central bay.

A single-storey entrance portico with Roman Ionic columns and entablature is positioned across the central bay, surmounted by a balcony with decorative wrought-iron railing of circa 1820. The large central entrance doorway contains an eight-panel door, with a 6-over-6 sash to either side. The main parapet is crowned by a higher rectangular panel with a central relief wreath and acroteria. The parapet is pierced by plain arcading to each side with relief scrolls above. Above each giant pilaster and between them in the outer bays are rectangular panels with moulded relief wreaths flanked by lower side panels.

The north-east end wall of the main block displays a two-window range of blind windows framed by pilasters and a crowning cornice, with moulded stone architraves matching those of the front facade. The rear elevation has irregular fenestration including three 20th-century French doors and various sashes.

The interior retains substantial features from the original house of circa 1730. The central entrance hall on the ground floor contains an open well staircase of stripped pine with hardwood handrail, featuring a curtail step, open string with richly carved foliate tread-end brackets, fluted Ionic column newels, two column-on-vase balusters to each tread, and ramped handrail wreathed over the curtail step with a narrow mahogany strip laid into the top. Plain dado panels to the stairs and landing gallery are framed by Ionic pilasters and a moulded rail. The hall floor is of stone slabs and the ceilings to the gallery and stair well feature modillion cornices.

To the left of the hall lies a large board room, formerly the drawing room, fully panelled in pine with very richly moulded and carved features in the style of William Kent. Details include moulded skirting, plain dado capped by a chair rail with Greek key moulding, full-height fielded panels with carved moulding, and modillion cornice. The chimney-piece has a white marble surround framed by eared architraves and entablature, with an overmantel featuring an acanthus frieze below a blank panel framed by eared architraves and flanking scrolls. The entablature is crowned by a broken pediment enclosing a scallop shell supported by acanthus scrolls. Each doorcase has richly moulded architraves, an entablature with foliated frieze, and a pediment. The Pompeian-style ceiling is painted on paper and is said to be of the later 19th century.

Other principal rooms on the ground floor have moulded joinery and moulded plaster cornices, with central foliated ceiling roses and Italian marble chimney-pieces in the larger rooms, all of circa 1820. In a 20th-century single-storey wing to the rear is a large room with an Adam-style chimney-piece, probably of the late 18th century and re-used. On the first floor, the room above the board room retains moulded skirting, chair rail and cornice of circa 1730; other first-floor rooms contain details of circa 1820.

In the cellar below the hall is a room of circa 1730, later subdivided, with a quadripartite groined vault supported on wall piers. Below the board room is a room with two chamfered timber ceiling beams, each supported at either end by inserted brick piers. A large fireplace contains a mid-19th-century cast-iron kitchen range. To the left is a sash window, and in the end wall are two sashes, all set behind closed shutters; the sash inspected retains some original bottle glass panes. The doorways to this room and another rear room have 18th-century doors with vent slots in the top half and wrought-iron strap hinges.

Samuel Chiffney junior occupied the house until 1851. He was the son of Samuel Chiffney senior and brother of William Chiffney, both highly successful racehorse jockeys. The house is indicated on John Chapman's map of Newmarket, dated 1787. Parts of the original house of circa 1730, including certain rooms and the staircase, were retained when the building was substantially remodelled around 1820.