Former Bearwood College and terraces to south

Former Bearwood College and terraces to south

Large country house in parkland with lakes, set in Bearwood Road. Built 1865 to 1874 by Robert Kerr in the Jacobean style with French motifs, commissioned by John Walter, owner of The Times newspaper. The building was formerly Bearwood College, the Royal Merchant Navy School.

Architectural character

The house is constructed of red brick with Mansfield stone dressings and tiled roofs with coped and cross gables of varying heights. Towers and turrets rise on the north and south fronts. The principal part is rectangular with an inner atrium on the first and second floors that previously lit a picture gallery. An L-shaped service wing extends to the east with a large kitchen court on the north. The building is partly two storeys with attics, and partly three storeys with attics and cellars.

Stone plinths run at the base, with moulded stone strings at all floor levels. A moulded cornice and open balustraded parapet sit over bay windows and part of the north front at roof level. Many gable-ended dormers are irregularly spaced. Some large chimneys remain, though many originals have been removed. Fenestration is irregular throughout, with mullion and transome windows and sashes, all without glazing bars.

Entrance front

The right-hand end is symmetrical with a central tower and a gable on either side. Projecting in front of the tower is a deep porte-cochere with banded pillars, moulded cornice and open balustrade. The left-hand gable is cut into by a second, much larger staircase tower topped by a palisade of pinnacles, with window arrangement expressing the rising staircase. The right gable has a square projecting four-light bay over two floors with an open balustrade similar to that over the porte-cochere.

To the left, the facade is irregular except for one bay with a projecting gable containing a three-light window on three floors and a two-light window in the attic gable. In the angle between the main facade and the service wing projecting on the north is a round turret two floors high with a conical lead roof, its windows again expressing the rising stairs.

West front

The west front of the north wing is much plainer, with a three-stage tower on the left featuring an ogee lead roof and finial, with two and three-light windows. To the right are seven bays recessed up to the stair turret, with three dormers in the roof.

South front

The south front presents a similar style. The left half is symmetrical with three shaped gables with decorated relief terracotta between two turrets with ogee roofs. Two two-storey segmental bays flank a central garden porch with ornate stone tracery and two carved angels.

To the right of this section, the facade becomes irregular. One bay is recessed with an ornate iron balcony at first floor and open balustrade at second floor. Further right is a three-bay projecting stair tower. Beyond this is an eight-bay recessed portion with a large bay on the ground floor, a central gable with two dormers on either side, then a small hexagonal tower adjoining a large tall water tower in five stages. The top stage is formed in diaper brickwork with stone banded pilasters (three in each corner), a heavily dentilled and moulded cornice with open balustrade and three grouped pinnacles in each corner.

A gravelled terrace extends beyond this front with a swept flight of stone steps leading to a lower similar terrace with solid stone balustrades featuring a carved rose motif, plain stone handrails and dies. A red brick retaining wall between terraces has darker brick banding, brick buttresses and a stone balustrade matching that of the steps.

Interior

The vestibule contains a decorative inlaid ceramic floor, panelled dado and benches, with a wood dentilled cornice decorated with rosettes to the coffered wood ceiling. Door architraves are heavily moulded.

The entrance lobby features a similar dado. On the left is a panelled wood screen with four semi-circular arched openings and a pair of panelled doors with stained glass opening onto the hall.

The hall has a similar dado, cornice and ceiling, with carved pilasters either side of window reveals and similar design for window mullions. The wood floor features inlaid contrasting wood borders in an interwoven semi-circular pattern. Two walls are covered with Spanish leather with interwoven floral motifs above dado height. Three semi-circular arched recesses are present, with a similar arched opening on the right containing a pair of half-glazed panelled doors opening to the staircase hall.

The staircase hall contains a panelled dado and floor as before. A large and elaborate open well staircase rises through four flights to the first floor and three flights to the second floor, with semi-circular arched screens containing small-pane glazed doors either side of semi-circular niches on each landing. The grand staircase has carved strings, tapered and panelled balusters, and a heavy moulded handrail with broomstick rail over on turned brass supports. Large moulded and panelled newels are topped with pineapples. Over the top of the staircase is an elaborate cornice coved at the top to support a gallery with decorative wrought iron balustrade, a deeply coffered painted ceiling and stained glass slit windows in groups of five on each side with single lights at corners. All windows have raised panelling in reveals and stained glass on the first two flights.

The library is a large rectangular room divided by a pair of large sliding doors, moulded and panelled with very fine inlaid marquetry (the side facing the former music room depicts musical instruments). It features a panelled dado and wood floor as before, with moulded panelling and pilasters with Corinthian heads to the return faces of large bay windows. Large fireplaces in both parts of the room have heavily carved and moulded tapered columns in pairs supporting an ornately carved overmantel. Panelled and gilded chimney pieces contain large mirrors (the one in the music room is now missing). An elaborate moulded cornice leads to an ornate coffered ceiling with small rosettes at intersections.

The picture gallery has a similar wood floor and panelled dado with moulded architraves to panelled doors. A heavily moulded and dentilled frieze supports a ribbed coved ceiling with moulded cornice, above which sits a large opaque glazed skylight with painted motifs in glass rectangles at intersections. Carved marble fireplaces stand at each end.

Construction and documentation

The clay for the bricks was dug on the estate, and the joinery was made in workshops on the estate. The plans of the house appeared in Robert Kerr's book The English Gentleman's House, published in 1864.