Addington Palace

Addington Palace

Large country house on Gravel Hill, originally built in 1772 by architect Robert Mylne for Alderman Barlow Trecothick. The original structure comprised a two-storey central block with single-storey wings linking to end pavilions.

In 1807 the estate was purchased as a palace by the Archbishop of Canterbury. Between 1828 and 1833 Henry Harrison added a chapel and library to the ground floor front and heightened the wings by one storey. In 1896 Archbishop Temple sold the estate to Frederick Alexander English, a South African diamond millionaire. R Norman Shaw then restructured the house, adding a second floor to the main block, reconstructing the main staircase, building the Great Hall, creating an impressive entrance hall with porch, and converting the north pavilion into a Winter Garden.

The building is Palladian in style, constructed of Portland stone with a hipped slate roof and tall stone chimneys. The windows are 12-pane sashes throughout, except for the ground floor which has 18-pane sashes.

The central block rises three storeys with a 1-3-3-3-1 sash window arrangement, with the centre and ends slightly projecting. It features a balustraded parapet, cornice, sill bands and blocking course. The central two-storey porch by Shaw has a triple window to the first floor and a ground floor pedimented porch with Ionic columns and piers in antis, with a two-leafed panelled door behind. The wings comprise circa 1830 projecting single-storey sections of four windows with balustraded parapets, and set-back two-storey sections of three windows. The wings terminate in north and south pavilions of one storey with pedimented gables, balustrading and two sashes set in round-headed arched recesses.

The garden front is two storeys tall on a rusticated basement with round-headed windows, the central three windows projecting under a central pediment. It features a balustrade and late 19th-century tall leaded mansard roof. Set-back side wings have five windows each. Cornice and blocking course run throughout. The outer attached pavilions are single storey with basements, each containing three tall round-headed windows, cornice and pediment. The north pavilion was converted into a Winter Garden in the late 19th century and later into a chapel in the mid 20th century, featuring a projecting canted bay to the side. Attached to the house on both north and south sides are early 19th-century brick walls approximately 20 feet high. The north side has a cambered entrance, while the south side incorporates an octagonal cement-rendered summerhouse with slate roof, round-headed windows and double door.

The interior displays architectural features by Mylne, Harrison and Shaw. The Adam Drawing Room is part of the original Mylne structure but was redecorated by Shaw. The original fireplace is marble with attached columns and a panel depicting a goat sacrifice. Mouldings of musical instruments over the doors are of hollow carved wood. Six panelled doors and some false doors were added to give the room symmetry. The ceiling is Adamesque with Wedgwood-type panels and octagonal roundels. The adjoining Chinese Drawing Room has a marble fireplace with eared architraves, pilasters and basket grate. Its Adam-style ceiling features paterae and four roundels with Cupids.

The Morning Room contains an elaborate green and white marble fireplace with carved architraves, leaf-moulded cornice and deep fielded panels, probably by Shaw. An impressive well staircase features a mahogany handrail and cast iron panels of shields and balustrades with a crown. The Great Hall by Shaw contains an enormous Jacobean-style marble fireplace with red marble and alabaster strapwork overmantel and green marble surround. The fireplace has black and white marble rusticated pilasters to the lower tier and red marble engaged Ionic columns above, with deep fielded wooden panelling, a balconette with elaborate cast iron surround and moulded ceilings. A Drawing Room also by Shaw features a stone baronial fireplace with green marble panels and bell-shape above with attached columns, dado panelling with strapwork design and a plaster ceiling with quatrefoils and square panels with blank shields. The former chapel, now the Dining Hall, has a curved ceiling with reel and bead ornament.

The Winter Garden, now a chapel, has an intersecting ceiling and round-headed windows dating to 1954. It contains a memorial to Sydney Hugo Nicholson (1875–1947), Founder of the Royal School of Church Music. The first-floor Empire Room is decorated in Edwardian Louis XVI style with two painted overmantels depicting nymphs and cupids, double doors with flaming torch and arrow decorations, and a marble fireplace with gilt inlay, pilasters and basket grate.