Norwood Hall

Norwood Hall is a large house, built between 1801 and 1802 by the renowned architect Sir John Soane for John Robins, a well-known auctioneer and upholsterer. The building was altered and extended around 1890. It is now used as a college. The exterior is largely roughcast over brick, with a gabled Welsh slate roof and roughcast brick stacks. The design of the two-storey front facade is based on a Triumphal Arch theme. The central arch features steps leading to a semi-circular arched doorway with a six-panelled door (four glazed) set within a segmental-arched moulded stone architrave. Above the doorway is a transomed window, also within a stone architrave. The arch is flanked by semi-circular arched niches and blind oculi, rising to the chimney stacks. Several late 19th-century windows were inserted into the facade, and a late 19th-century attic storey was added with an open balustrade to the parapet. The rear elevation is similarly arranged with stacks flanking a late 19th-century balustrade, interrupted by a 20th-century attic window, and has late 19th-century windows overall. A three-storey, three-window range on the left side wall has late 19th-century leaded windows set within early 19th-century moulded stone architraves on the ground floor. A two-storey extension to the right features irregular fenestration of stone mullioned and transomed windows, and a three-storey porch with half-glazed double doors to the rear.

Inside, cross vaults, designed by Soane, remain in the vestibule and staircase hall, as does a ball cornice in a room to the rear left. The cellar has a stone-flag floor, early 19th-century shutters and three early 19th-century six-panelled doors. On the first floor, a number of early 19th-century reeded six-panelled doors and reeded panelled shutters remain. One room on the right has an early 19th-century fireplace with a reeded architrave, while the room to the left features early 19th-century moulded wood architraves to the windows, two of which have panelled dados. Later 19th-century additions include an Elizabethan-style staircase with turned balusters and a French-style canopied fireplace in the hall. Ground-floor rooms to the left have panelling, including fluted columns flanking a rear fireplace, and a plaster frieze and fine fireplace on the left. Norwood Hall was originally commissioned by John Robins, a furniture supplier to Soane. The Triumphal Arch design theme was more emphatically used by Soane at other properties, including Aynho Park and Pitzhanger Manor.