Hall Place

Large country house in parkland, now the Berkshire College of Agriculture. Built between 1728 and 1735 for William East on the site of a late 17th-century house, of which only a small part remains incorporated in the south wing. The house has been altered and extended in the mid to late 20th century.

The building is constructed of brick with stone dressings and slate hipped roofs of different heights. It is designed on a symmetrical plan with a nearly square centre section and balancing wings projecting forward on each side. The centre section rises to three storeys with a basement, while one-storey blocks with basements link the two-storey wings to the centre section.

On the east front, the centre section displays a stone string at ground floor level, a stone blocking course, frieze and moulded cornice forming a parapet on all four sides, which breaks out over pilasters at the angles. End chimneys punctuate the seven-bay front. Sash windows with glazing bars (shorter on the second floor) are set in reveals with stone cills and gauged arches with keystones. The entrance is approached by a flight of seven stone steps with stone base balustrade and coping on each side, and comprises large double-doors (now partly glazed) set in a door-case with panelled pilasters, leaf and scroll capitals, and a moulded cornice and pediment.

The linking blocks feature a stone string running through, aligned with that on the centre section, and a plain stone frieze below a panelled brick parapet. They display three bays with windows similar to those of the centre section. The wings have a stone string midway between ground and first floor, with six-bay return fronts to the linking blocks and similar tall sash windows at ground floor level. The right-hand wing has two bays on the west front with sash windows at first floor only, while the left-hand wing has four bays with one sash window on the first floor on the right and blind openings elsewhere.

The south front of the left-hand wing contains parts of the older building. It has a rendered ground floor with a stone string above and brick and parapet above that, arranged in five bays. The first floor features sash windows with glazing bars, gauged arches and keystones. At ground floor level are three semicircular arched openings forming a loggia, with semicircular-headed sash windows either side and thick glazing bars; the one on the right has been partly altered to form a door. Behind the loggia is a glazed garden double-door with bars in a door-case of panelled pilasters with leaf capitals and scrolls, moulded frieze and scrolled pediment. A raised stone terrace runs across the front, approached by a flight of seven stone steps with moulded piers at the foot.

The interior is distinguished by richly ornate stuccowork in the drawing room and ante-room on walls, ceilings and chimney pieces, and on the chimney pieces in the library and dining room. This work is thought to be by the Italians Artari and Vassali.

The entrance hall features an entablature with pulvinated frieze to the entrance doors, a large carved stone fireplace and a chequered marble floor.

The principal's office (formerly the morning room) retains pine panelling and fine door-cases with eared architraves, moulded cornices and six-panelled doors, along with a cornice bearing chevron ornament.

The reception (formerly the library) displays a boldly carved entablature with egg and dart ornament and enriched panelling, dado and window shutters. Two door-cases feature carved oak-leaf friezes. A Baroque chimney piece has a moulded marble fireplace with a richly ornate stucco overmantel bearing a central relief panel depicting the Sacrifice of Iphigenia.

The library (formerly the drawing room) contains three Palladian-style Corinthian door-cases and richly decorated stuccoed walls and ceiling. The end walls bear large panels with entwined dolphins, while the east wall has panels framing swags, cartouches and masks, with two larger panels with festooning ornament enclosing portrait busts. The fine ceiling features a cornice of shell and acanthus leaf ornament. The chimney piece has a marble fireplace with an overmantel topped by a canopy of drapery and Baroque scrolls, featuring a medallion bust of Queen Caroline.

The Salter Chalker room (formerly the ante-room) contains a single door-case of the Doric Order and a stuccoed ceiling with Doric entablature. The Palladian-style chimney piece has a pedimented marble fireplace with an overmantel featuring flat top and an eagle on each side.

The students' common room (formerly the dining room) has a painted ceiling with moulded and dentilled cornice and leaf-scroll ornament. The chimney piece displays a marble fireplace and overmantel with Baroque scrolls surmounted by lions flanking a phoenix on the pediment. In the centre is a large relief of Campaspe's portrait by Apelles. On each side of the fireplace, let into the wall, is a small panel of scagliola depicting groups of figures.

The house is approached on the east by a long avenue of lime trees. Of the four original avenues, two others remain on the north and south; all predate the house and are thought to have been planted by Sir Jacob Bancks, a native of Stockholm who came to live in England in 1681 and built an earlier house on the site.