Feltham House

Feltham House

A house built about 1770 with alterations made around 1800 and subsequently, which has served as an officers' mess since 1923 and is currently vacant. The building shows clear evidence of multiple phases of alteration and rebuilding.

The main structure is constructed of red-brown brick with flat rubbed red brick arches. The later wings are built of yellow brick, as is the third floor on the north and west elevations, though this includes some rebuilding in Fletton bricks. On the south and east elevations, the third floor is clad in mass-produced red clay tiles.

The building originally faced north and was designed with two storeys over a lower-ground floor, with principal rooms arranged on a raised ground floor or piano nobile. The later wings, added possibly at the same time as the third storey was introduced, follow a similar arrangement. The lower-ground floor contains the service areas, arranged as a series of rooms and stores accessed from a spinal corridor running east to west. The raised ground floor holds the principal rooms facing north, with an entrance hall and curved stair positioned to the south. The first floor has undergone greater alteration from the circa 1800 additions and subsequent provision of en-suite bathrooms to bedrooms. The later second floor follows a similar layout but is accessed via secondary stairs.

The south elevation displays a 2:3:2 window arrangement, with the central three windows set within a full-height canted bay. The central entrance door is reached by a straight flight of steps and is framed within a 19th-century timber porch featuring decorative pendanted barge-boards and trellis-work sides. The outer door is glazed with margin lights, opening into an inner vestibule with a half-glazed door and side screens. The windows are a mix of double-hung sliding sashes and side-hung casements of various dates. The full-height windows on the raised ground floor either side of the central bay include those to the west which have been converted to French windows, with late-20th-century steel balconies added. Window positioning above has also been altered.

The north elevation is five bays wide, with flanking wings, each displaying a Venetian window on the raised ground floor (the eastern example heavily remodelled) and two windows above. Both wings and the second floor show evidence of rebuilding. The dining room extension, added in the mid-1960s, is constructed of yellow brick with a predominantly glazed north elevation and a flat roof. The east and west elevations show evidence of earlier remodelling phases, with the east elevation also featuring several small, flat-roofed single-storey extensions.

The building is tightly bounded by trees to north and south. It is now accessed from the south via a small circular carriage drive on the east side.

The building's interior is currently inaccessible due to its condition. The following description is based on the original list entry of 1973 and photographs from recent years.

On the raised ground floor is a large double-width room facing north between the two later wings. This contains 19th-century plaster panelling and a modillion cornice, with two fine carved wood chimneypieces enriched with floral swags, positioned at each end. Corinthian pilasters and columns divide the two sections of the room. To the east, within one of the later wings, the decoration follows the Wyatt manner, featuring fine mahogany panelled doors and doorcases with architraves, ornamental friezes and cornices. A contemporary ceiling cornice and carved white marble mantelpiece with green marble stringing are present, above which is a round classical plaster figure relief with surrounding wreathing. The Venetian window here has panelled piers with applied enrichment. Similar doorcases appear in the room to the west. The staircase features a wrought-iron balustrade and mahogany handrail carried round an apse, with an ornamental band at floor level and an enriched soffit to the landing.