Farringdon House Including Terrace Adjoining To North

Farringdon House, a substantial mansion with 18th-century origins, was modernised around 1800 and then thoroughly remodelled between 1897 and 1900. The earlier work consists of stucco over brick on red conglomerate stone footings, while the Victorian additions are built in exposed brick with some black brick diaper work and Hamstone dressings. Brick chimney stacks are mostly topped with 19th-century brickwork. The earlier parts have slate roofs; the Victorian sections have red tile roofs.

The house faces south-south-east and follows a basic plan of three rooms wide and four deep. A single-storey, one-room extension extends to the left (west) of the front. Around 1900, the lower left side was extended with a large entrance porch and new main staircase. From the new porch, a narrow two-storey gallery runs northwards, connecting the main house to a circa 1900 service and boilerhouse wing. Most rooms are heated. A terrace adjoins the northern side. The front (southern) range is three storeys high, the right (eastern) range is two storeys with attics, the rear (northern) range is two storeys with basement and attics, and the left (western) range is three storeys with attics.

The south front retains the most complete 18th-century appearance with a symmetrical 2:3:2-window composition. The central bay projects slightly forward. All windows are late 19th-century mullion-and-upper-transom casements. Those on the second floor contain glazing bars throughout, while most other windows have glazing bar patterns only in the top lights. The two ground-floor windows flanking the central door are 20th-century plate glass. A plain flat-roofed porch of circa 1900 features part-glazed double doors and a plain doorcase. The central bay has a plat band at first-floor level and a pediment at the top containing an oculus window. Deep eaves display a circa 1900 cornice with large shallow dentils. The roof is hipped at each end. The left-hand extension has two larger mullion-and-transom windows and is gable-ended. The right end of the front block is blind.

The east front is plastered with brick-coloured plaster painted with white lines to represent neat brickwork. It has a chamfered plinth and rubble footings, a plat band at first-floor level, and stucco quoins at the rear corner. Apart from a 20th-century service doorway and a large circa 1900 first-floor three-light window, the four ground-floor and five first-floor windows are probably 18th-century. Some towards the right are blind; the rest contain mullion-and-transom windows similar to those on the south front, except for one early 19th-century 12-pane sash on the ground floor. The attics have dormers of various sizes with segmental heads. Large modillion eaves and a moulded cornice run along the front, and the roof is gable-ended.

The left (west) front is largely late 19th-century work. Between the front extension and the late 19th-century porch, ground level drops to accommodate an extra storey. This section is two storeys high with soffit-moulded Hamstone coping and a flat roof back to the main block. It has a three-window front comprising two mullion-and-transom windows and, to the right, a tall flat-arched staircase window containing panels of translucent coloured leaded glass. Above the parapet, the main block has six 20th-century windows and three gabled dormers on the roof. The porch stands three storeys high with an embattled parapet over a band of decorative diaper brickwork. The ground-floor level is built in Hamstone ashlar and contains a flat-arched doorway with moulded surround and plain spandrels, flanked by sunken panels over low buttresses with moulded weatherings. A moulded cornice marks the first-floor level. A moulded dripcourse slightly above serves as the sill to a Palladian-style window with Doric mullions and dentil cornice. The second floor has a four-light mullion-and-transom window. A two-storey gallery with embattled parapet connects to the service block to the left (north). It has three mullion-and-transom windows over a now-blocked Hamstone ashlar arcade. The gable-ended service wing, at right angles, is built in the same style with a large central gabled bay window flanked by mullion-and-transom windows over another blocked four-bay arcade of flat arches.

The north front is 18th-century in origin but was adapted in the late 19th century. The main front is plastered brick-coloured and painted as brickwork, with a plat band at first-floor level and a moulded timber cornice. It has a 2:3:2-window composition, all late 19th and 20th-century work. The outer bays project very slightly and feature late 19th-century brick gables containing attic windows. The roof between contains a gabled dormer. The basement is hidden behind a terrace with a rock-faced sandstone retaining wall and a balustrade of concrete-turned balusters set between square-section posts. A central flight of steps descends to the lawn with the balustrade sweeping outwards on either side.

Several late 19th-century cast-iron decorated rainwater heads and drain pipes survive around the house. The rainwater head on the north side is particularly ornate, fashioned as a gargoyle-like griffin.

The interior contains a great deal of good-quality detail, though not all original. The 18th-century staircase was reset in the late 19th-century extension on the west side. It has a closed string, square newel posts, a moulded flat handrail, and twisted balusters. Rooms on the front ground floor display high-quality circa 1800 detailing. The left room features large field panelling with a dado enriched with Vitruvian scrollwork, an Adams-style moulded plaster frieze, and a marble chimneypiece. All doors opening from the entrance are panelled and enriched with carvings. The right room has good panelled oak wainscotting with a fretwork frieze under the dado, a cupboard recess flanked by fluted Ionic pilasters, an Adams-style marble chimneypiece, and an intersecting beam ceiling with moulded plaster florettes along the soffits and modillion cornices. Other rooms contain similar detail. The rear central room includes a panelled door with marquetry inlay and Japanese lacquer-work panels. The house is said to have been occupied by the RAF during the Second World War and to contain two notable murals depicting the local airport, aircraft, and airmen, though it is not known whether these survive.