Park House

CHATHAM ROAD 1. 5278 (East Side) Park House TQ 75 NE 9/125 II*

1. A square house built in 1792. 2 storeys and attics ashlar with stone galleting. Mansarded slate roof. Cornice and parapet with balustraded panels inserted in front of the dormer windows. 4 pedimented dormers. Long and short stone quoins. 5 sashes on 3 fronts. Glazing bars intact on the 1st floor only. On the west front is a curved bay in the centre. this has 3 windows on the 1st floor and on the ground floor 2 windows, between them a bulging semi-circular porch projecting beyond the bay, with engaged Doric columns, triglyph frieze, but modern door. 5 stone steps to street. The south front has an addition of 2 storeys of lower elevation. 3 sashes, but 2 round-headed sashes on ground floor, Stringcourse.

The interior contains a fine circular staircase with scrolled tread ends and plain column newel post. Good moulded cornices and C18 Adamesque fireplaces. From 1875-1893 the house was occupied by Edmund Lew Lushington, the Greek scholar and Egyptologist, who married Tennyson's sister Cecilia. It is described in the Prologue of ¨The Princess", Tennyson used frequently to stay there, and also other well-known figures of the day.

Listing NGR: TQ7561457132