Hatchlands

Hatchlands is a country house built in 1756–7 for Admiral Edward Boscawen. The interior was designed by Robert Adam in 1759, marking his earliest dated work. The house underwent significant alterations: Joseph Bonomi added modifications to the west front and staircase in 1797 for the Sumner family; Halsey Ricardo transferred the main entrance, added a porch, and made other changes around 1890 for Lord Rendel; and Sir Reginald Blomfield added a music room to the north end of the west front in 1903.

The building is constructed of red brick on a stone plinth with low pitched, hipped slate roofs. The original house was half-H shaped with the entrance front facing west, but has since been extended to the north and given a new entrance to the east. The building rises to two storeys on the east and south fronts, two storeys with attics to the northern service wing and west front of the main house, and a single storey for the music room.

The east entrance front features a modillion eaves cornice with rear stacks to left and right. The main house has two-storey angle bays flanking a recessed, three-windowed centre range, all with 12-pane glazing bar sash windows. The projecting porch by Halsey Ricardo (1889) has concave sides containing arched niches, a flat front with rustication and pilaster-piers topped by stone spheres, and an arched traceried fanlight over double doors of six fielded panels. The service wing sits back to the right, with two storeys and attic, glazing bar sash fenestration of four windows per floor, and squat windows to the attics, with two stacks, one to the right end.

The south-facing return front has two storeys over seven bays, with a central bay angled and projecting, fitted with glazing bar sash fenestration. The rear, which was the original entrance front, has two storeys and attic with modillion eaves. The five-bay front features a central bay in a shallow break under a small pediment, with glazing bar sash windows arranged as seven windows across the first and attic floors and three to the central break. The front is rendered with paired Doric pilasters to the ground floor centre and an entablature over. Double doors occupy the centre in flanking lights beneath an arched traceried fanlight, with the lintel extending to form a string course between the pilasters.

The single-storey music room to the left has three bays with stone angle quoins and aprons below the windows, a stone balustrade over the eaves cornice with urns on square newels at the ends, and a stone coping to a shaped gable end. A central ridge lantern rises beneath a dome and sphere finial. Three 15-pane sash windows sit under gauged brick and stone keystoned heads, alternating with arched niches under cut and rubbed brick garlands.

Interior

The Library, formerly the drawing room, features a fine Adam panelled ceiling with a central circle of Neo-classical, Piranesi-type decoration with classical figures, gilding and painting of the Edwardian period, and fine overdoors.

The Drawing Room, formerly the State Dining Room, has an Adam ceiling with a central oval incorporating scroll and shell patterns, a fine gilt cornice with dolphins and further scrolls, and a fine large fireplace possibly by Rysbrack in white marble. Large caryatids support an overmantle with a central carved panel containing a chariot figure.

The Dining Room was created at the end of the 19th century. It features a gilt panelled and plasterwork ceiling, a white and coloured marble fireplace, modillioned eaves, and egg and dart door mouldings.

The Morning Room, formerly the Lesser Dining Room, has a scroll and dolphin frieze and modillion cornice.

The Garden Hall, the former main entrance, was designed by Joseph Bonomi in the Neo-classical style. It features a black and white marble floor with arched niches containing classical figures and a fine ceiling rose.

The Boscawen Room has a shallow gadrooned plasterwork ceiling.

The Staircase Hall contains plasterwork frames on the walls by Robert Adam, as is the panelled ceiling. Further plasterwork musical instruments and high relief foliage were added at the end of the 19th century.

The Music Room has a domed ceiling with a central garland-edged oculus. Two Ionic columns at each end of the room support the outer edge of the dome. The organ case, with putti and a swan neck pediment, was made by Aumonier, while the organ itself was made by J. S. Walker.