Claremont House

Claremont House, now the Claremont-Fancourt school, is a country house built in 1770 for Lord Clive. It was designed by Henry Holland, with landscaping by Lancelot (Capability) Brown and interior contributions by John Soane. The house is constructed of yellow brick with a stone plinth and dressings, topped with hipped slate roofs and end stacks. It is rectangular, with nine bays across and seven bays deep, arranged around a central, top-lit staircase.

The main front features nine bays and an ashlar string course above the basement, topped by a modillion cornice with a stone balustrade. It has sash windows with glazing bars, set in stone surrounds, with projecting hoods and cills on scroll brackets to the first floor. The ground floor windows are topped with alternating triangular and segmental pediments, with balconies below. A central doorcase is topped by a segmental pediment, leading to double doors with oval tracery above a transome light. Behind this sits a giant portico of four Corinthian columns on a plinth, with an arched passage beneath, accessed by a flight of 22 steps. The pediment features a coat of arms in the tympanum and paterae in the frieze.

The return fronts have seven bays each, with central three-bay brick dormers projecting from the roof on stone brackets above the central three windows of the first floor. The central window of the first floor is in a pedimented surround, while the ground floor has a balconied window set within a half Ionic columned surround topped by a segmental pediment.

The rear elevation has four fluted giant pilasters to the central three bays, topped by a triangular pediment. A rusticated, triple-arched terrace is positioned at the centre of the ground floor, with curved flights of stairs to the ends and a wrought iron balustrade.

The interior includes a rectangular Entrance Hall with an inset oval ceiling, a triglyph frieze on eight red scagliola Doric columns, and an oval patterned stone floor. There are square, oblong, and oval relief panels above the doors and in niches, showcasing an oval relief of "The Forge of Vulcan" within the marble fireplace surround. The main doorcase is pedimented and features an anthemion frieze.

The Staircase Hall is square, with a double-arched screen on one side, and arched niches on the first floor. Doors are six-panelled, in moulded surrounds, and the first floor features a geometric frieze. The Drawing Room has gilt palmette door surrounds, niches on the left-hand wall, and a white and green stone fireplace flanked by Ionic three-quarter columns with a frieze above.

The White Room has dado panelling, plasterwork panels to the walls, and delicate low-relief ceiling plasterwork, with a central rose and garlanded urns. The Gold Room (Library) features a gilt anthemion frieze to the bookcases and ceiling, along with fine scroll plasterwork in the panelled ceiling and a white marble fireplace. The Blue Room has a coved ceiling decorated with fan and foliage plasterwork, while the Assembly Room (The Great Drawing Room) has a deep coved ceiling with a scroll frieze, divided into three sections with a central oval, and fielded panels to the walls. It retains its original fireplace with two end caryatids.