Devitt House, Pangbourne College

Devitt House, now part of Pangbourne College, is a large house constructed between 1897 and 1898 by John Belcher, built in a free William and Mary style. The exterior is predominantly red brick with raised quoins and some Bath stone detailing. It features a wooden bracketed eaves cornice, a stone cornice in the centre, and a hipped slate roof with six chimney stacks. The house has hipped projecting wings in each pair of end bays, and eight flat-topped dormers, two flanking the central half-octagonal portion.

The south front has an irregular nine-bay arrangement with glazing bar sashes and louvred shutters in the outer bays. A central stone frontispiece incorporates a triangular pediment with a Venetian window in the tympanum, a carved cornice, and flanking pilaster strips. A wide first-floor window is flanked by pilaster strips with carved capitals, and narrower windows. Below, an open swan-necked pediment displays a carved coat of arms above central French casements, which are also flanked by pilaster strips with carved stops and narrow windows. Two-storey towers project from the end bays, with ashlar ground floors featuring arched openings on three faces, keystones, and flanking Ionic pilasters supporting a full entablature. The first floor of the towers has keyed circular windows, pilaster strips, and ogee copper caps.

A brick terrace is edged with stone coping. Central steps incorporate a scrolled parapet to a projecting bow, a central arch with keystone flanked by paired blocked pilasters supporting a half frieze and cornice, stone seats within, and flanking dog-leg flights of steps.

The entrance front is dominated by a large, four-storey Scottish Baronial tower built of red brick and stone. It has a central arched recess with a keystone and canopied niches on the third floor, flanking a plaque depicting an angel and a ship. A balustraded parapet tops the tower, with a gabled corner turret to the east. A porch below the entrance features arched access, channelled rustication, and a parapet with a heraldic device.

Internally, the domed porch leads to a hall featuring a Scottish Baronial hooded stone fireplace. The entrance front corridor has five smaller domes and columns with capitals carved to resemble ships in the windows. Neo-Rococo doors with onyx panels lead to staircases with foliated panel balustrades and foot volute scrolls. A library is panelled. The house was formerly known as Pangbourne Tower.