Marlston House and surrounding terrace

Marlston House, now a school, was built between 1895 and 1899 by Edward Burgess in an Elizabethan style. The house is constructed of red brick with Bath stone dressings, featuring an eaves string course, a stone-coped parapet, and a graded stone slate roof. It has 17 stacks with clustered circular, octagonal, and twisted shafts, square bases and moulded caps. The building has a tower to the south-west, four stories high with gables on each face, and an irregular L-plan layout. Stone mullioned and transomed windows are present, with leaded lights, some exhibiting returned hoodmoulds.

The north front is characterised by a two-storey gabled porch off-centre to the right, topped with obelisks on the parapet corners. It features four-light attic and first-floor windows, a four-centred moulded archway displaying the Palmer Coat of Arms, a three-bay hall to the left with a tall canted bay window rising to the parapet, and a gabled wing projecting to the far left with a first-floor oriel window.

A two-storey wing projects to the right; the north-east front exhibits two gables, a central four-centred arched doorway with a canted ground-floor bay to the left, and a four-centred carriage archway to the right, leading to a two-storey bay to the left and a first-floor mullioned window with arched heads above.

The south front features three asymmetrically placed two-storey canted bays, four gables, a central moulded round-arched doorway, a boarded door to the left with a carved lintel, and a sundial to the right. A tower is set back to the left, incorporating a two-bay round-arched loggia on the ground floor. A one-storey kitchen block is situated to the far left, with a battlemented parapet and a timber skylight with an ogee lead cap.

Inside, a large Hall is panelled, featuring a screen passage and a gallery above, supported by squat columns leading to a large fireplace. The fireplace has an overmantel with four pilasters and caryatids. A three-flight square-well staircase has square balusters and carved newels. There is also an octagonal stone-vaulted inner porch with panelling, and an outer stone-vaulted porch. Additional notable rooms include the dining room, library, and drawing room. Stained glass is present throughout the house; examples of “Art Noveau” style are also noted. A terrace extends to the north, south, and east of the house, constructed with arched stone balustrading, square piers, and two flights of steps lead to a lawn on the south front, featuring a depressed arched niche and seat.