Merley House

Merley House is a country house, now museum and flats, located at Merley Park Lane in Poole. Built between 1752 and 1760 for Ralph Willett, a prominent book collector, the house was enlarged with wings in 1772 and subsequently altered around 1805 for his heir John Willett Adye. The wings were demolished circa 1813. The building has undergone various 20th-century alterations and is now Grade I listed.

The house is constructed of red brick in Flemish bond with Portland stone dressings. The sides and garden front are rendered. It has hipped slate roofs and rendered ridge stacks. The building follows a modified double-pile plan with a basement, two principal storeys, and an attic storey. The main front elevation displays a 7-window range with a slightly projecting 3-bay centre of Portland stone facing, containing only two principal storeys.

The entrance features a double-leaf, 6-panel door approached by six stone steps with a fanlight. It is recessed within a smooth rusticated projecting stone surround with a round-arched, key-blocked head, moulded cornice and blocking cornice. The door is flanked by 15-pane sash windows with Gibbs surrounds and moulded cornices. The first floor incorporates an attached portico of three-quarter Ionic columns and full-length sash windows with moulded, round-arched heads, key blocks and curved iron balconies. Swagged ornament appears above the central first-floor windows. Plaques with 'feet' are positioned above windows on either side. The columns carry an entablature with pulvinated frieze and pediment. Ground-floor windows in the outer bays have 15-pane sashes with moulded stone surrounds. The attic storey features 6-pane windows with similar surrounds. The rusticated stone basement has pairs of windows flanking the centre, which possess key blocks; the far-left window was altered in the 19th century to tripartite form. Rusticated quoins, a stone storey band at first-floor level and moulded stone cornice articulate the elevation. Stone-coped parapets with sections of balustrade above windows are punctuated by stone pedestals at the outer ends and centre of each section. Lead rainwater and downpipes positioned between the outer windows are inscribed with the initials RW above the date 1756.

The garden front comprises five bays with a slightly recessed 3-bay centre. Central glazed garden doors are approached by four stone steps and have a moulded stone surround with a segmental pediment on console brackets. Ground-floor windows have 15-pane sashes with moulded stone surrounds featuring pulvinated friezes and pediments. The first floor displays 12-pane sashes and the attic storey 6-pane sashes, all with moulded stone surrounds. The rusticated basement contains four windows with key blocks. End bays are defined by rusticated quoins. A first-floor stone storey band, moulded stone cornice and rendered stone-coped parapet with sections of balustrade above windows and stone pedestals articulate this elevation. The 3-bay side elevation receives similar treatment. A 19th-century rendered porch was added to the left side elevation.

The interior is notable for its enriched plaster decoration and fine chimneypieces. The hall features a stone-paved floor and a stone bolection-moulded chimneypiece. A niche opposite the front door, flanked by Roman Doric pilasters, once held a statue of Ralph Willett's uncle John Willett by Rysbrack, now in the Musée Royale des Beaux Arts in Brussels. The walls display enriched plaster panel mouldings and a Doric plaster frieze with metopes and triglyphs. A compartmented Palladian-style enriched plaster ceiling crowns the space. The staircase hall contains a stair with column newels bearing pendant acorns beneath upper newels and balusters of columns mounted on spiral fluted urns. Two balusters appear per tread, with scrolled tread ends and a ramped wreathed handrail veneered in lignum vitae. The walls carry enriched plaster panel mouldings with drops of fruit and flowers. A band of Greek key ornament marks the first-floor level, and an enriched rococo plaster ceiling completes the space.

The morning room in the south-east corner has an eaved wood surround to its fireplace, decorated with a swag of fruit and flowers on the tablet. The ceiling is enriched with papier-mâché rococo ornament and a frieze with alternating palmettes and anthemion.

The Old Library or Saloon, positioned at the middle of the south front, features a late 18th-century statuary marble chimneypiece with verde antico slips. Its large tablet depicts Apollo attended by the three Graces and Muses. The ceiling is enriched with a sunburst and clouds to the centre, enclosed by linked garlands of fruit and flowers, with attributes of the Arts in cartouches at each corner.

The Drawing Room possesses a similar chimneypiece with playing cherubs on its tablet. Its ceiling is particularly notable, featuring the Judgement of Paris in a large central oval panel in low relief, surrounded by a scrolled border with allegorical figures in cartouches at each cornice. A bracketed cornice and enriched frieze with a continuous floral garland, upheld at intervals by alternating masks, cherubs and seated lions, complete the decoration.

The Dining Parlour contains a painted wood Georgian-style chimneypiece and enriched panel mouldings to the walls. The panel above the fireplace has a cartouche framing a prancing horse. A door connecting this room to the hall is a later insertion, breaking the panel moulding at this point. The fine enriched plaster ceiling depicts Ceres pouring wine for Bacchus in a large central oval panel in low relief. Cartouches in each corner contain profile heads representing the Seasons with appropriate attributes and signs of the Zodiac. Swags of fruit and flowers to the frieze are upheld alternately by baskets and urns. Cartouches to the middle of each wall in the frieze display symbols of the four Elements: a dolphin for Water, an eagle for Air, an ox for Earth and the Phoenix for Fire.

A large first-floor room above the hall rises into the attic storey and affords fine views toward Wimborne Minster. It possesses a painted wood chimneypiece with an eaved surround flanked by consoles, a convex frieze decorated with acanthus leaves and a tablet with a swag of fruit and flowers. An enriched rococo plaster ceiling and bracketed cornice complete the space.

The basement is brick-vaulted. Ralph Willett's celebrated library was originally housed in the Saloon and later in one of the demolished wings added around 1772. The original marble chimneypieces in the principal rooms were probably sold at the same time as the Rysbrack statue in 1878. The present marble chimneypieces are replacements, likely from the late 18th century, with the Dining Parlour example almost certainly of 20th-century date. Ground level has been raised to partly conceal the basement, probably coinciding with alterations to the front door, possibly by John Nash. The ground floor now accommodates a model museum, whilst the upper floors have been converted into flats except for the large room above the hall.