Headington Hill Hall and attached forecourt wall

Headington Hill Hall and attached forecourt wall

A country mansion built circa 1856–1858 by the sculptor and architect John Thomas for James Morrell, a local brewer, with the construction carried out by Joseph Castle. In 1872, the interior was extensively remodelled for G.H. Morrell by local architect William Wilkinson. The building is constructed in pale yellow brick with stone dressings, with ashlar forming the central bay to the entrance front and ashlar with stone dressings to other facades. It has a tiled mansard roof with segmental arched dormers topped with finials and tall ashlar chimney stacks. The architectural style combines Italianate and Louis XIII elements.

The entrance front comprises three symmetrical bays rising through two storeys, an attic and cellar, with a recessed and lower two-storey service wing attached to the right. This wing has a projecting end bay with a hipped roof, bracketed eaves, and tall ashlar and brick chimney stacks. The main block bays are defined by chanelled pilasters to each floor and angles, paired at the central first floor bay. A first floor band runs across the facade. The centrepiece is a porte-cochere of chanelled stone with round-arched openings, keystones, and a recessed window with margin glazing and a small roundel above. Banded pilasters and columns at the angles support a Doric entablature with a parapet featuring rectangular banded ball finials. A subsidiary entrance exists at the left angle. The windows are architraved sashes—those on the ground floor shouldered, those on the first floor eared and shouldered—all with margin glazing and shaped blind boxes. An entablature with cornice supports a parapet with sections of pierced shaped openings to the centre and in front of the dormers.

The rear garden facade features a Doric colonnade carrying a parapet with pierced, shaped openings. This fronts French windows and margin glazed sashes arranged across a five-bay ground floor. The colonnade is approached by two flights of stone steps, lined with six urns on dies. First floor bays are defined by chanelled pilasters, paired at the angles, with brackets supporting a pierced roundel balustrade. Windows have eared and shouldered architraves with margin glazing and shaped blind boxes. The dormers match those of the front facade. The colonnade continues around the returns, breaking forward around canted ground floor bays with margin glazed sashes. The southern section is approached by two flights of steps with three urns and two lead statues of Greek putti—one playing an aulos and the other dancing with a bowed scarf. First floor windows are tripartite with pilasters, cornices and shaped blind boxes. The dormers are mostly tripartite. An attached stone forecourt wall, mostly of coursed stone, flanks the entrance with sections of roundel balustrading. The entrance piers are fitted with good cast iron lanterns.

The interior contains a large, rectangular, two-storey hall that is galleried and top-lit. It features pillars and pilasters supporting depressed arches with keystones and enriched plaster work spandrels. Moulded panelling covers the ceiling and walls, which have round-arched openings and niches. Above the arcaded entrance with sidelights is an inset compass, with an inset clock on the left wall. Opposite the entrance stands a pilastered statue niche with a segmental pediment containing a high relief cartouche depicting the goddess Diana flanked by dogs with foliage and flora, surmounted by doves.

In a compartment to the right is an imperial staircase with gilded balusters featuring roundels, leading to a gallery with matching balustrading. At the landing of the first flight, the newels have candelabra lamps. Lighting the stair is a late 20th-century stained glass window by Nehemia Azaz depicting Samson at the Gates of Gaza. The gallery is arcaded toward the stair, with the arcading continuing as niches or entrances to rooms. The ceiling is coved and coffered with a rectangular light featuring scrolled pendants and geometric patterned glazing.

The ground floor library and drawing room are divided by a narrow passage with panelled sliding doors and enriched round-arched entrances. Both rooms and the passage feature elaborate plasterwork ceilings. The drawing room chimneypiece is carved marble with doves and flora, topped by an overmantle with mirror and giltwork. The library chimneypiece is also carved marble, decorated with herms and foliage and dating to circa 1800; it is reputedly from Fitzroy Square, London.

The dining room has a coffered plasterwork ceiling of octagons and rectangles with a deep bracketed cornice, and a carved marble chimneypiece with dove and flora plus a mirror overmantle with painted wooden frame. A small first floor room displays elaborate gilded enrichment to the arcading, with acanthus leaf capitals forming niches, overmantle, windows and entrance. Similar gilded enrichment appears on the coved cornices and coved portion of the ceiling above the entrance, featuring an interlocking design. The chimneypiece is carved marble with foliage. Other rooms throughout the house retain cornices and marble chimneypieces.

James Morrell was a brewer who played a prominent part in the life of Oxford. The architect, John Thomas, was better known as a sculptor; he supervised the carving at the Palace of Westminster.