Ashtead Park House And Attached Balustrades

Ashtead Park House and Attached Balustrades

A large house, now a school, with attached balustrades. The building was completed in 1790 by Sir Thomas Wyatt to designs by Joseph Bonomi, commissioned by Richard Bagoti. It was subsequently enlarged and altered in or after 1880 by Sir Thomas Lucas.

The house is constructed of yellow stock brick in Flemish bond with Portland stone dressings. Later additions are faced in Portland stone ashlar, with a lead roof cladding. The building follows a rectangular plan on an east-west axis, with pavilions added at both ends and a service wing attached to the west end of the western pavilion. The style is Classical throughout.

The main block rises three storeys and comprises seven bays over a concealed basement. The elevation is symmetrical, featuring a string course, first-floor sill-band, dentilled cornice and balustraded parapet with corner urns. The wider central bay is occupied at ground floor by a prominent tetrastyle porte cochere of Tuscan columns and pilasters with triglyph and wreath entablature, an emphatic mutuled cornice and balustraded parapet with corner urns. The flanking bays have a loggia in matching style. A glazed screen with glazed double doors sits beneath the porte cochere. Above the entrance, the first floor centre features a tripartite sashed window under a large segmental pediment in swan-neck form, with a carved shield of arms in a blind window above, flanked by narrow windows. The remaining windows on successive floors are 15-, 12- and 6-pane sashes with moulded stone architraves and set-in wooden blind-hoods. The sunk basement is concealed by a Portland stone balustrade of vase balusters, some of which have been replaced in concrete. The roof displays four large rectangular chimneys with ashlar cornices.

The flanking single-storey three-bay pavilions have balustraded parapets but differ in detail. The left pavilion, formerly the billiard room, features swagged Ionic pilasters, a large tripartite window at its centre and panels in the outer bays. The right pavilion, formerly the conservatory, has swagged Ionic semi-columns and tall round-headed windows. Its seven-bay side wall incorporates projected pedimented outer bays and glazed double doors at the centre.

The service wing comprises two low storeys arranged in seven bays. Windows are 12- and 6-pane sashes with architraves matching those of the main block. The wing has a hipped roof with six tall chimneys. At the west end is a bellcote with round-headed openings, a segmental pediment and domed cap. The design also includes balustrades protecting the basement areas to front and rear.

The rear elevation of the main block features a tetrastyle porch matching the style of the front porte cochere, with fenestration likewise matching the front. The pavilions display channelled rustication with centres that break forwards and have panels over the windows carved with lions' masks and swags. The outer bays contain coved niches. Fire escapes are attached to both pavilions.

The interior includes an entrance hall, altered in Jacobean style in the late nineteenth century, leading to a circular saloon of around 1790. This saloon features scagliola columns with Ionic caps and a continuous plaster frieze incorporating lyres and anthemions, with an Adam-style ceiling. Double doors open in the cardinal sides with coved niches in the others. On the east side is a drawing room with fine Palladian-style decoration including fluted Ionic pilasters at each end, large picture panels with trophies of musical instruments, egg-and-dart surrounds and elaborate foliated cresting, and a coved oval ceiling with similar decoration. A doglegged principal staircase features an Adam-style bronze balustrade and moulded plaster decoration. A secondary staircase has a scrolled balustrade. Other principal rooms were redecorated in the late nineteenth century in heavy Jacobean style.