Updown House And Attached Outbuildings

Updown House and its attached outbuildings are a house dating from the early 18th century, with a remodel around 1786. The building is rendered and features a slate roof. The main elevation has three storeys set on a plinth, with a cornice and parapet supported by pilaster quoins. There are chimneys at both ends of the building. The windows are regularly arranged, with three half-sized glazing bar sashes on the second floor, three full-sized on the first floor, and two on the ground floor, all equipped with louvred shutters. The central window is set in an elliptically arched recess, and there are segmental pediments above the first-floor windows on either side. A central Doric porch features coupled columns and a cast iron balcony, with half-glazed doors that have Chinoiserie style tracery.

To the right, there is a recessed wing that has two storeys and an attic, topped with a parapet and a mansard roof, along with a flat roof dormer. Each floor of this wing has one shuttered glazing bar sash in elliptically headed recesses, with the upper window having a pediment above it. The left return has a stair turret, which includes one glazing bar sash on both the ground and first floors, and a blank roundel above, all accented by a heavy cornice and frieze on giant pilaster quoins. The rear wing features a gable with a kneelered parapet.

Inside, there are moulded ceiling joists and inglenooks that date back to the early 18th century. The later 18th-century elements include a pillared staircase hall and plain bolection moulded marble fireplaces. The house was originally fitted as a gentleman's seat by Captain Thomas Fagg of Dover before 1748, later sold to and improved by Matthew Colet Esq. before 1777, and was largely given its current form by John Minet Fector of Dover around 1786, who also landscaped the surrounding land. The house has been used as a Dower House to Northbourne Court.