Radley Hall

SU59NW 9/111

RADLEY ST. PETER'S COLLEGE Radley Hall

(Formerly listed as Radley Hall, part of St. Peter's College)

09/02/66

GV II* Country house, now part of St. Peter's College. Built 1721-7 by William Townsend and Bartholomew Peisley for Sir John Stonhouse. Flemish bond red brick set on limestone ashlar plinth: limestone ashlar storey bands, quoins and dressings. Shallow-pitched lead roof; brick internal stacks.

Double-depth plan. Early Georgian style. Three storeys; nine-window range of 2:5:2 fenestration. Projecting outer bays have restored pilaster quoins with chamfered edges. C20 double-leaf doors with late C18 Neo-classical fanlight: keyed round-arched doorway has Doric entablature and base (without shaft) sunk into rusticated surround with triglyph-frieze: segmental-arched sash above has engaged brick columns and curved shoulders. Gauged brick ground-floor round arches and flat arches (above) over six-pane sashes and shorter attic sashes. Plain stone string courses; console-brackets to deep moulded cornice.

Rear: in similar style except 3:3:3 fenestration has central projecting bays: central sash window with eared stone architrave set above simpler doorcase with brackets to entablature. Five-bay side walls in similar style have similar pilaster quoins flanking central bay. C18 lead rainwater heads. Cloister walks (q.v.) attached to right.

Interior: some early C19 detailing and late C19 alteration. Hall: C18 panelled dado, late C19 fireplace, early C19 cornice, and early C18 round-arched entries with panelled reveals to staircases which flank hall. Very fine dog-leg with landing staircases, with alternating fluted and turned balusters on open string and to landing balconies: staircase to right is more finely detailed: panelled dado: landings have tall round-arched entries to rooms and Corinthian-modillioned cornice. First-floor room to left has early C19 cornice and fireplace with Doric columns. Ground-floor rear room was opened out in late C19: has late C17 panelling from Merton College, and early C17 panelling and carved woodwork from Exeter College chapel similar to that of Wick Hall, Radley (q.v.). Room to front right has early C19 three-bay Ionic screen of the Order of Bassae. Peisley and Townesend (who had worked for Vanbrugh) were involved in the building of many Oxford colleges in the early C18; the unusual Doric doorcase is repeated at Kingston House, Kingston Bagpuize, also by Townesend. Radley Hall was let out in the early C19 as a Non-Conformist school and became St. Peter's College in 1847: the exterior stonework was restored after this date.

(Buildings of England: Berkshire, pp.196-7; VCH: Berkshire, Vol. IV, p.410; H.M. Colvin, A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects, 1600-1840, 1978, pp.630, 835; V. Hope, "The Architect of Radley Hall", Country Life, Vol.108, 1950, p.237; Berkshire Record Office, P/EPL/L2/1,2 for original building contract).

Listing NGR: SU5178299546