Polesden Lacey

Polesden Lacey is a country house now owned and operated by the National Trust. The building began as a Neo-Classical house built between 1821 and 1824 by Thomas Cubitt for Joseph Bonsor. It was substantially extended between 1902 and 1906 by Sir Ambrose Poynter in matching style for Scottish financier William McEwan. The house was further enlarged between 1906 and 1909 for Ronald Greville, McEwan's son-in-law, by the architects Mewes and Davis, who also undertook comprehensive internal refurbishment.

The house is constructed of stucco on brick with slate roofs and stuccoed chimneys. It is arranged on a rectangular plan composed of single-depth ranges around a large central courtyard, with projecting wings added to the east front and another at the north-west corner. The building is two storeys with a prominent cornice carried around. Windows are mainly 12-pane sashes.

The symmetrical east front is E-plan in shape, largely designed by Poynter but with additions by Mewes and Davis including an extension to the left wing and a semi-circular bow front to the right-hand wing. The central section comprises three bays on each side of a projecting pedimented centre, which features double doors framed by Ionic columns carrying a segmental canopy. Above the doors is a tripartite sashed window, and a mutule pediment containing a Diocletian window. Ground-floor windows are 15-pane sashes, those above are 12-pane sashes; those flanking the door have radiant tympani while others feature decorated friezes and simple cornices. Each side of the pediment is topped by a parapet with infilling of semi-circular tiles. In the centre of the roof stands a tall octagonal two-stage cupola with windows in its lower stage and clock-faces in the upper, a prominent cornice, and a domed roof with finial. At each end of the main facade is a one-bay link with tripartite openings. The wing re-entrants, of three and four bays respectively, have blind windows at ground floor except at the centre of the left wing, which has a glazed door with overlight, and 12-pane sashes above; all these openings have louvred shutters. Each wing has a central bow: the left-hand bow features a French window and 18-pane sashes at ground floor, while the right-hand bow has blind windows at ground floor; both wings feature curved 12-pane sashes above. Both wings have prominent cornices, low blocking courses, and hipped roofs. Various tall chimneys are positioned including one at the outer corner of each wing.

The south front incorporates six bays of the original Cubitt house, which originally comprised one bay, then four bays, then one bay. It was extended by two bays at each end and a pediment added over the central four bays by Poynter, with two additional end bays to the right added by Mewes and Davis, resulting in a composition of two bays, four bays, then four bays. The centre breaks forward slightly and features an Ionic octostyle loggia protecting three large French windows with overlights at ground floor. Above this is a square-headed niche in the centre, and a panelled parapet with a small open pediment in the centre containing male and female masks. The windows are 18-pane sashes at ground floor and 12-pane sashes above; those flanking the colonnade are set in round-headed recesses, and all have louvred shutters. The left return wall of this range has a recessed loggia surrounded on three sides by Venetian-style screens with Ionic columns. Further to the rear, beyond a one-bay link with tripartite openings, is a symmetrical west range of two bays, three bays, then two bays, featuring a projecting pedimented centre with a French window in the centre, a coved niche above, and an oculus in the pediment. Sashed windows are 18 panes at ground floor and 12 panes above, all with blind-hoods. At the north-west corner is a projecting wing of three bays by three bays, with an Ionic colonnade on its south side and an oriel on its west side.

The service wing forming the north range includes a recessed three-storey centre under a shallow pediment, sashed windows at ground floor, and large casements above.

Internally, the Entrance Hall, designed by Poynter, contains an oak staircase and a fine oak reredos dated 1682 to 1685 by Edward Pierce, originally from the former church of St Matthew in the City of London, which was built by Wren in 1665 and demolished around 1883. The Picture Corridor was adapted by Poynter, though Davis provided a barrel-vaulted ceiling with strapwork plaster decoration copied from the Long Gallery of Chastleton House in Oxfordshire, and contains reused Jacobean panelling.

The Dining Room was designed by Poynter but features a late 18th-century white marble chimneypiece with a panel of cupids, probably installed by Mrs Greville. The Library was decorated by Mewes and Davis with built-in bookshelves featuring Ionic pilasters and contains a brought-in English chimneypiece of around 1765, the central panel of which depicts Winter. The Study features similar panelling to the Library and a marble fireplace with bolection moulding; it was designed by Mewes and Davis. The Saloon, fitted by Mewes and Davis, comprises a circa 1700 "salone" moved from an Italian palazzo complete with painted canvases on the ceiling, two marble fireplaces in French style of around 1730, and a herringbone parquet floor. The Tea Room was designed by Mewes and Davis between 1906 and 1909 in Louis XVI style with panelling incorporating eight late 18th-century style pastoral landscapes based on Fragonard and Boucher, and a marble fireplace. The Billiard Room was designed by Poynter but features a marble fireplace of around 1800 with ram's heads, urns and paterae. The Smoking Room contains an 18th-century fireplace of green and white marble with a lion's head panel and paterae. The Gun Room has a glazed screen leading to the Bachelor Stairs. The first floor includes a room with a marble fireplace, four bathrooms with Edwardian fittings—one with a green tessellated floor—and an end room to the south-east with a marble fireplace featuring paterae and brackets and built-in cupboards, where George VI and Queen Elizabeth spent part of their honeymoon in 1923.

The estate, on which a house had stood since the early 17th century, was owned and occupied by Richard Brinsley Sheridan, the dramatist and politician, from 1797 to 1816. William McEwan, for whom the Cubitt house of 1821 to 1824 was extended between 1902 and 1906 by Poynter, assembled an important collection of Dutch Old Masters and other paintings. His daughter, Mrs Greville, extended the collection with purchases of Italian majolica, English, European and Chinese porcelain, silver, bronzes and furniture. The house became the centre of lavish entertaining during the Edwardian period and later, including visits from royalty. Mrs Greville bequeathed the house to the National Trust in 1942.