Oriel House With Forecourt And Garden Walls Attached

Oriel House, with its forecourt and attached garden walls, is a mid-18th century house located in Rochester. It is built from plum-colored brick in Flemish bond and features hipped roofs covered with Kent tiles. This house is designed in the late English Baroque style, specifically reflecting the 'Board of Ordnance' style. The building has a double-depth plan with a central open-well staircase and stands three storeys high, with a basement at the rear.

The front of the house is almost symmetrical, consisting of three bays arranged in a 1:1:1 pattern, with the central bay projecting beneath a pediment. A tall parapet with a cornice band crowns the structure. The central bay features a Diocletian window on the second floor, which has a six-pane sash, while the first floor displays a tripartite arrangement with a central round-headed sash window (10 panes above, 6 below) flanked by lower flat-arched blocked windows, resembling a variant of a Venetian window, complete with a plaster sill band. The ground floor mirrors this arrangement, but the side windows are glazed. The side bays contain 9-pane and 12-pane sash windows on the second and first floors, respectively, while the ground floor has flanking brick aedicules with pilasters under two concentric semi-circular brick arches and moulded wooden cornices, featuring a 15-pane sash window on the left and a six-panel fielded door with a fanlight on the right. The building also has a plinth and first-floor plat bands, thick glazing bars, hornless sashes, and rubbed brick window arches throughout. Central ridge stacks and one external lateral stack are present on each side elevation, with cornice and plat bands returning and sash windows on each floor.

At the rear, the house has four bays with hornless sash windows and external shutters on the ground and first floors, while the basement features later two-light casements. Flanking the main range are two hipped roof wings, one covered with Welsh slates, which contain 12-pane sashes, with one window converted to a glazed door. Rubbed brick arches are present throughout, along with a returned cornice and plat band.

Inside, there is a central staircase with turned balusters and a wreathed rail, along with several contemporary panelled doors featuring hardware such as H-hinges and brass locks, and a few contemporary fire surrounds. The two canted brick walls of the forecourt attached at the front are included in this listing.