Marlborough House

Marlborough House is a small country house dating to around 1810, built for John Bull, a renowned Packet Captain. The house is constructed of stucco over rubble, with a scantle slate hipped roof featuring deep projecting eaves and a modillion cornice. Rendered paired end stacks are present, along with hipped wings having corner stacks. Decorative cast-iron ogee gutters incorporate lions' heads and cast-iron fleurs-de-lis along the eaves cornices of the wings. The building has a double-depth plan and originally comprised three storeys, though the two-storey wings were added slightly later in the 19th century. The symmetrical exterior features a 1:3:1 bay arrangement on both the entrance front and the garden front. Original or restored hornless sash windows with thin glazing bars are present, with those in the wings framed by moulded architraves. The entrance front displays an open gable/pediment featuring a relief depicting Bull’s ship, the Duke of Marlborough. A segmental-on-plan porch with a five-bay Ionic colonnade extends across the central three bays of the entrance front, featuring a fleur-de-lis cresting, key pattern soffit, and brackets to the cornice, which continues around the wings, fronted by niches containing Classical statues. The central doorway is round-arched with a spoked and decorated fanlight above a pair of glazed doors with margin panes. A casement window matching the glazing pattern sits above the doorway. The garden front has windows of diminishing height on each floor of the centre bays, and round-arched sashes with fanlight heads feature on the ground floor of the wings. The right-hand return includes a central bowed window bay, supported by Ionic pilasters to the ground floor. The interior is noted for its fine quality plasterwork and joinery, along with an exceptional cantilevered spiral staircase, elliptical in plan. This staircase has a scrolled wrought-iron balustrade and a mahogany handrail scrolled over the newels, culminating in a lantern above. Mahogany panelled doors and overlights are present, alongside some rare Flemish grisaille wallpaper. The house takes its name from John Bull’s ship, the Duke of Marlborough, which is believed to have seen extensive service.