Waverley Abbey House

WAVERLEY ABBEY HOUSE

Waverley Abbey House is a symmetrical composition of distinguished proportions standing on a wide terrace of probably much earlier date. It overlooks the abbey ruins to the south across a long artificial lake spanned by a plain stone bridge, positioned to be viewed at an angle from the principal rooms. The west side looks over a continuation of the terrace stretching for several hundred yards to walled kitchen gardens, planted with large trees arranged to create a series of glades. The park is a fine example of landscape tree planting of exceptional beauty.

The north front consists of a central three-storey block of five bays with two two-bay links connecting end blocks of two bays each. The end blocks are of greater height with pediments, while the links and end blocks are two storeys. The central block features six Ionic pilasters with carved bases and capitals resting on a stone string running across the front above the ground floor windows. These pilasters continue to a stone cornice with a blocking course above. Below the second-floor windows runs a string with guilloche ornament forming the base to balustrades over the links, with an attic storey of brick with recessed panels over the windows in the end blocks. The entire building is constructed of yellow stock brick on a stone plinth with all dressings and pilasters in stone and a slate roof. The centre of the north front features a recessed arch of three storeys. The second-floor window in this position has been altered, and a projecting porch of similar design has been added to the ground floor. The windows total five on the second floor, thirteen on the first floor and twelve on the ground floor. The central first-floor window, which lights the main hall and double stair, comprises three lights with a panel and swag ornament over the central light and roundels over the side lights.

The south front is generally similar in wall treatment and stone detail. The central block is divided into three parts by coupled Ionic pilasters flanking a three-bay central feature of Corinthian columns in the Tower of the Winds style from Athens, carried up to first-floor cill level and framing three large windows to the central room. This section has a wide stone terrace at first-floor level with a double stone stair descending to ground level. On each side of the central feature is one window with architrave surround and small cornice on the first floor. The frieze and cornice are carried across the main block with a small central coat of arms. The end blocks, which equal four bays on the north front, have wide angular projecting bay windows of the whole height. These end blocks were originally two storeys and feature roundel ornament and panels with swags over the windows. The terrace and garden stair have been altered at a later date but remain reasonably consistent with the rest of the design. The east end block has an additional storey of later date. Minor additions of late nineteenth-century date have been made to the east service court, including a clock tower with a small domed lantern. Within this court are walls of much older masonry, remains of a former house probably of the period following the dissolution of the monasteries.

The interior retains a fair amount of original plasterwork, including a very fine ceiling of Adam character in the large drawing room on the west side. All principal rooms are on the first floor. The stair hall appears to have been redecorated in the early nineteenth century and has a flat coffered ceiling with well-designed cast iron rails featuring acanthus detail to the stairs.

It appears possible that the house was designed by one of the Adam brothers for Sir Robert Rich, whose family owned Waverley during the eighteenth century until 1796 and who had work carried out in London by Adam in 1769. The angular bays are of similar design to the central windows in the Society of Arts building, John Street, Adelphi, though without some of the enrichment. The details of the swag and roundel ornament are exactly similar to those of Home House, Portman Square. There is no mention of any work by any of the Adam brothers at Waverley in Bolton's book, though Sir Robert Rich is mentioned among the list of clients in connection with work in London.