Hinton Admiral House

Hinton Admiral House is a medium-sized country house, originally built in the 1720s for Sir P Mews. The house was damaged by fire in 1777 and subsequently remodelled and enlarged in 1905 by H E Peto. It is constructed of brick with stone dressings and ashlar to the central three bays, with a plain tile roof.

The house has a two-story layout with a raised basement. Its main block comprises seven bays, with slightly lower, set-back three-bay wings at each end. From the corners of the entrance facade, quadrant colonnades lead to two-story, thirteen-bay pavilion wings set at right angles, each creating a courtyard behind – one of brick walls and the other of low service buildings.

The entrance front features a wide flight of eight steps leading to the central three bays. The basement has six-pane windows in the end two bays. The central three bays are ashlar-faced and feature giant Composite pilasters and a pediment. A large six-panel double door sits under a fanlight within an architrave, and there are arched-head sashes with architraves flanking the entrance. The end two bays have twelve-pane sashes in architraves. The first floor has a continuous band, and a moulded cornice and parapet flanks the pediment, rising behind a tall hipped roof with stacks on either side. The added bays contain a full-height arched recess to the centre bay, housing a large tripartite stone window above a six-pane sash, and other bays contain first-floor six-pane sashes. The cornice and parapet are broken in the centre by a balustrade. Seven arched quadrant colonnades face the front, the one on the left being free-standing, while the one on the right incorporates a passage behind it featuring French windows within arches, running from the corner of the original house to the corner of the pavilion wings. The wings exhibit an arcaded ground floor, over nine-pane sashes, and a low parapet in front of a hipped roof.

Behind the left wing lies a 18th and 20th-century service courtyard with associated outbuildings, beyond which are walled gardens. Behind the right wing is a laundry courtyard with brick walls, one dating from the 17th century, stone piers, wrought-iron gates, and a top-lit billiard room projection from the end of the wing. The end of the main house was altered in the 20th century when the ground floor became a ballroom; a shallow bow was added with stone perron staircases leading up to it.

The interior is largely of the late 18th century, although it was significantly remodelled by H E Peto in an early 20th-century style.