Farringford Hotel

Farringford Hotel

Hotel, formerly house. A late 18th-century house in Gothick style built by John Rushworth, with extensions of circa 1840, 1871 and 20th century. In November 1853 the house was rented and in 1856 purchased by Alfred Lord Tennyson, who occupied it until his death in 1892. From 1869 onwards he also owned another house called Aldworth near Haslemere, to which he retreated to avoid summer visitors to the Isle of Wight.

The building is constructed of yellow brick with a concealed slate roof and brick chimneys. It is two storeys with attics. The north or entrance front contains eight windows and two attic windows, with a parapet displaying elementary castellation. At the east end is a projection containing twin windows with four-centred heads on both floors, set jointly within a single four-centred arch. To the west of this is a shallow splayed porch with clustered wooden imitation bamboo columns and an enriched frieze, continuing westward as a verandah of five arches with depressed heads, keystones and a castellated parapet above. An entresol whose windows open onto the roof of this verandah is situated here. The first floor above is cantilevered out with a small bay containing two pointed windows and a cove beneath. Some windows are pointed; others are pointed only in outline with wooden spandrels. All feature Gothick glazing bars.

At the east end is a circa 1840 ground floor Drawing Room addition in matching materials, with a twin window of two four-centred heads set within a third four-centred head facing north and a false gable above. It has a castellated parapet and a bay window on its east front. The original south front of the house was L-shaped, with the projecting south-east wing containing two twin windows with four-centred heads and the recessed portion containing three smaller windows.

In 1871 Tennyson added a south-west wing, making the south front now half-H shaped. This wing contained a children's playroom or ballroom on the ground floor and his Library or Study above, which had previously occupied the south-west room on the second floor. The addition matches the original style with a bay window facing south, a hipped slate roof and an octagonal turret containing a spiral staircase at the south-east corner. A 20th-century ground floor hotel dining room now occupies the southern portion.

The Staircase Hall retains a late 18th-century staircase with two chamfered balusters to each tread, scrolled tread ends, mahogany handrail and a Gothick-style cornice with imitation machicolations. The Cocktail Lounge features a Gothick arched doorcase with quatrefoil emblem and glazed Gothick fanlight. The Morning Room has a late 18th-century cornice, and the Drawing Room contains a Gothick-style wooden fireplace with iron firegrate. The first floor of the 1871 extension includes Tennyson's Study, featuring an arched six-panelled door and a late 19th-century wooden mantelpiece with iron firegrate inscribed with the initials ALT, along with various Tennyson memorabilia. In this room Tennyson wrote "Balin and Balan" (the final Idyll of the King), "Locksley Hall Sixty Years After" and "Crossing the Bar". The turret staircase provided a useful escape route to the grounds when unwelcome visitors called.

Notable visitors to Farringford during Tennyson's residence included the Prince Consort, Benjamin Jowett, Algernon Swinburne, Coventry Patmore, Edward Lear, Sir John Millais, Holman Hunt, George Watts, Sir Arthur Sullivan and Garibaldi, who in 1864 planted in the grounds a Wellingtonia given to Tennyson by the Duchess of Sutherland. The building is listed Grade I for its historical interest as the home of Alfred Lord Tennyson.