Malling Place

Malling Place is a former large house, now a nursing home, dating from around 1560, with substantial alterations and additions in the 18th century and a late 19th-century street front.

The central part of the garden front is a timber-framed building of approximately 1560, refronted in brick with a tiled roof. It has two projecting gables to each side, each with a tripartite sash window and Jacobean pendants. The right side features a two-story canted bay with 17th-century mullioned and transomed casements and a stone plinth below. The left side has bays with sashes and a pedimented doorcase with engaged Tuscan columns and three 12-pane sashes. To the right is an 18th-century brick addition with flat-roofed dormers, two 12-pane sashes, and a pedimented doorcase with engaged Tuscan columns and a six-panelled door. To the left is an 18th-century wing of Flemish bond brickwork which incorporates a diaper pattern. This wing has two 12-pane sashes, a ground-floor canted bay, and a pedimental doorcase with Tuscan columns. A wooden modillion eaves cornice runs along the top. There are also two large roughcast dormers. The return front features a 19th-century oriel window to the second floor and a bay to the ground floor. The front elevation to St Leonard's Street presents a range of styles, with a late 19th-century Queen Anne-style section on the right, constructed of red brick with a hipped tiled roof, a massive pedimented dormer, and a wide wooden modillion eaves cornice. The first floor has four narrow 8-pane sashes with rubbed brick voussoirs, keystones above, and decorative aprons below. A brick modillion cornice incorporates the pediment of the doorcase. The ground floor has two 12-pane windows with top-opening sashes, keystones, and a pedimented doorcase with engaged Tuscan columns flanking a six-panelled door with a rectangular fanlight.

The interior includes a Manager's Office with panelling and an overmantel dated 1566, bearing the initials "SP." A late 16th-century four-centred arched stone fireplace is also present, along with a door surround with a pediment and pilasters. There is 17th-century panelling and sections of 16th-century timber-framing. An early 18th-century staircase is built around a mahogany Spanish ship's mast, with leather-lined doors. A circa 1720 cupboard has cock's head hinges, and there is a Victorian fireplace. In 1642, Malling Place was owned by Judge Twisden, who subsequently tried the regicides in 1660. In 1718, Admiral Charles Stewart, a nephew of the family, took ownership, and the Spanish mahogany ship's mast originates from a ship he had captured; the leather-lined doors date from his occupancy. In 1779, Admiral Forbes was the owner and is noted for having refused to sign the death warrant of Admiral Byng in 1756. In 1796, the house was purchased by Thomas Augustus Douce, who also owned the adjoining property.