Ripple Court And Outhouses In Rear Courtyard

Ripple Court is a house dating from 1796 to 1802, commissioned for Colonel John Baker Sladen, with later extensions in the late 19th century and around 1930. The house is constructed of white brick with ashlar and Coade stone dressings, and a slate roof, with roughcast to the rear wings. The main facade features a moulded plinth supporting four Corinthian pilasters with Coade stone capitals, a rendered frieze, and an ashlar dentil cornice to the attic storey. There are pilaster strips and a cornice to the parapet. A central section projects slightly, incorporating double stacks with an arcaded bridging piece. The fenestration is regular, with 3-light glazing bar sashes on the attic and first floors, and 2-light sashes on the ground floor, all with moulded architraves and pediments on scrolls. A central porch supports a half-glazed double door with a rectangular fanlight, accessed by a flight of four steps. Basement openings are present to the left and right. The left return elevation showcases scrolled architraves and pediments to the ground floor windows. On the right return, a tented verandah with valencing on clustered iron piers surrounds a ground floor bow, featuring a pilaster-moulded tripartite glazing bar sash and single glazing bar sashes on the two upper floors. Originally extending along the entire elevation, the verandah was replaced around 1930 by a single-storey drawing room with an elliptically bowed front, two glazing bar sashes, and central double French doors. A rear wing, dating to the late 19th century, served as a coachhouse with a nursery above, a prominent feature being an octagonal stair turret in the re-entrant angle with a leaded cupola. The rear courtyard includes a small bakehouse and stable block, alongside arched-headed doorways leading to a series of barrel-vaulted cellars extending to the east – a unique feature not found beneath any contemporary structure. The coachhouse/stable block retains original stable and gymnasium fittings, likely used by children from the nursery wing. Internally, the spaces are relatively simple, with tall round-arched openings to passages and corridors, and an elliptical staircase with a wreathed handrail. There are moulded neoclassical fire surrounds, plaster ceiling friezes, and cornices. The design and detailing of Ripple Court display similarities to the work of Sir John Soane, though a direct connection has not been established. Architectural influences are seen in the Simonds Brewery, Reading, Shotesham Hall, Norfolk, and the Bank of England. Soane designed Ringwould House nearby and worked at Walmer in 1812.