National Westminster Bank Staff College - Main House

National Westminster Bank Staff College - Main House

A country house main range built around 1705 by Thomas Archer for Charles Talbot, first Duke of Shrewsbury. The building was gutted by fire in 1831 and subsequently restored and partly rebuilt in 1871 by Alfred Waterhouse for Albert Brassey. It is constructed in limestone ashlar with Welsh-slate roofs and ashlar stacks, arranged on a double-courtyard plan which is partly infilled.

The building is designed in Baroque style with two storeys plus a concealed attic set above a semi-basement. The symmetrical entrance front displays a bay division of 2:2:3:2:2, with end sections breaking forward and the centre recessed behind a projecting portico. A grand order of Corinthian pilasters and columns rises from a rusticated basement, supporting a deep entablature incorporating consoles on the projecting sections and modillions on the recessed bays. The roof features a high balustraded parapet. Windows are detailed with elaborate eared and shouldered stone architraves; at ground-floor level these have straight entablatures, while at first-floor level they feature large double-stepped keyblocks. The return walls of the central recess contain architraved niches at both floors. The central doorway displays a fine perspective doorcase with a concave entablature carried on scrolls and supporting a large stone trophy of arms. Carved panels within the first-floor windows represent the only 19th-century alteration to this front. Broad steps to the portico are flanked by walls terminating in panelled pedestals carrying large 19th-century iron lamp standards.

The garden front shows similar two-bay projections flanking a nine-bay central section, which is unornamented except for horizontal rustication and a Doric doorcase. The basement of the central section is rendered in plain ashlar but features architraved windows with scrolled pediments. A balustraded double stair rises over an arched recess with vermiculated voussoirs. The nine-window return fronts break forward in the middle five bays between rusticated quoin strips and have architraved windows; at first-floor level these feature keyblocks. The north front additionally displays horizontal and vertical bands between the windows, with the central window having an inverted pediment on tapering pilasters.

The interior contains a 19th-century arcaded two-storey hall in Baroque style with a large fireplace and clerestory windows featuring figures of Faith, Hope and Charity by Morris and Company. The stone staircase rises behind the lower arcade. The Principal's Lounge and Charlbury Room are fitted with heavy 19th-century panelling, fireplaces and coffered ceilings, with doors featuring ebony mouldings on mahogany and walnut. The Wedgwood Room has an Adam-style ceiling and a white marble fireplace inset with five classical Wedgwood panels and Oriental porcelain panels in the splays. The Bar contains a marble fireplace with Tuscan columns and a central relief of a child leading a lion. The Heythrop Room features a vaulted ceiling and a small fireplace inlaid with coloured marble.

The original design may have been influenced by a scheme by Paolo Falconieri and includes details derived from Italian sources. The building was executed by Francis Smith of Warwick. Heythrop represents Archer's most important country house.