Upcot

Upcot is a building constructed in 1886 by architect Richard Norman Shaw, with additions made by W G Newton in 1927-1928, using the same materials and similar style. The structure is made of red brick with some grey headers, and the first floor is adorned with fish-scale tiles. It features pitched tile roofs, with one half-hipped at the east end, and tall brick stacks. The building has two storeys and attics, with the first floor jettied on the garden (south) front. The entrance is located on the end (west) elevation.

A prominent feature of Upcot is the projecting end stack, which has diapered brickwork near the top and culminates in paired stacks. The entrance includes a battened and studded door set in a porch with a depressed brick barrel vault. The outer porch is made of wood and glass, supported by scrolled consoles that hold a moulded cornice. The first floor has one small casement window and one coved oriel window with a casement and moulded cornice. The attic features one small casement and a door leading to an iron fire escape that runs diagonally across the elevation.

The garden front includes two canted bays with casements, connected by a moulded wooden cornice on the ground floor. The first floor has two coved oriels with casements and moulded cornices, along with one tile-hung gabled attic dormer with casements. The east end of this elevation is timber-framed with roughcast nogging, featuring a continuously glazed ground floor with a moulded wooden cornice, a moulded bressumer on consoles, and a small casement on the first floor.

The dormitory wing has one segment-headed doorway with a fanlight, four segment-headed sash windows on the ground floor, and three sashes, including one tripartite window, on the first floor. An extension to the east has four sashes on the ground floor and one mullion-and-transom window with glazing bars on the first floor. The east elevation of this extension features three unusual hipped dormers above the first-floor windows.

Inside, the building showcases characteristically Shavian "early Georgian" fireplaces and panelling up to dado level. The staircase is of late 17th-century style, featuring a closed string, square newels, and slender vase-shaped balusters. Upcot was originally built by Shaw as a master's house, with a dormitory located behind it for Marlborough College.