Broome Park Hotel

Broome Park Hotel

This mansion was built by Sir Basil Dixwell between 1635 and 1638 and belonged to the Dixwell family until 1750, when it passed to the Oxenden family. It was altered and enlarged by Sir Henry Oxenden in 1778. In 1911 it was sold by the Oxenden family to Field Marshal the Earl Kitchener, who owned it until his death in 1916. He made considerable alterations to the house, rejacobeanising some of the portions altered by Sir Henry Oxenden. The house is one of the finest mansions in England built during the reign of Charles I.

The building is originally H-shaped with three storeys and cellars, constructed in red brick with a tiled roof. The entrance front faces north-east and is still half H-shaped. The centre portion has five window bays, each flanked by pilasters rising through the ground and first floors, with a cornice above the first floor and pilasters continuing above this. Five shaped Dutch gables rise above, four of them small with triangular pediments and diamond-shaped openings, while the centre one is larger with a curved pediment. The window below the central gable has a broken pediment over it and a round-headed niche above. A central porch, added by Lord Kitchener in place of the Georgian one which had replaced the original, features a stone doorway accessed by four steps with engaged Corinthian columns, an elaborate keystone, a pediment and elaborate carved double doors of six panels with an elaborate knocker. The projecting wings are flanked by double pilasters on both their end and inner faces and have one window and one gable each. The end gables are flanked by scrolls, while the inner gables are surmounted by octagonal chimney stacks with elaborate tops. The gables are linked by a panelled parapet. Casement windows of three lights with stone mullions and transoms are used throughout, with first floor windows having two tiers of lights and ground floor windows three tiers of lights.

The south-east front has five windows, the centre window being very narrow. The facade and each window bay is flanked by pilasters. Three gables rise above, the centre one flanked by scrolls and surmounted by triangular pediments.

The south-west or main garden front has eleven windows. It was originally half E-shaped, but in 1778 Sir Henry Oxenden added a third projecting wing in Georgian style in the centre, which Lord Kitchener jacobeanised in 1911. The central projection is flanked by pilasters with a tall and elaborate Dutch gable over, flanked by scrolls. In front of this on the ground and first floors is a splayed bay of three windows added by Lord Kitchener in place of Sir Henry Oxenden's curved bay, with the centre side flanked by pilasters. At each end is a smaller similar gable with an oval opening and a smaller similar bay below. Between each of these bays and the central projection is one flush window flanked by pilasters with a triangular gable over, containing a diamond-shaped opening. The north-westernmost of these bays is a single window of four tiers of four lights rising through the ground and first floors, lighting the staircase. The north-west front is similar to that of the south-east, plus a central doorway in brick architrave surround with a pediment and an elaborate carved door.

The interior contains an Elizabethan staircase brought by Lord Kitchener from a house in Essex, a pseudo-Elizabethan hall with chimney pieces copied from Hatfield, and a Georgian drawing room in the wing added by Sir Henry Oxenden in 1778, which was probably designed by James Gandon.