Tapeley Park House

Tapeley Park House is a country house with 18th-century origins, significantly remodelled in the 1880s and again between 1898 and 1916 by John Belcher. The house is constructed of brick with ashlar dressings and has a hipped slate roof with brick stacks, much of which is concealed by a parapet. It is arranged around a four-sided rear courtyard, with a modern infilling. The main, symmetrical south front, which faces the garden, features a wide entrance hall with a staircase at the rear, and a single room on each side. An east wing, oriented north/south, adjoins the right-hand end and contains a dining room above a library, with service rooms to the north. The west side contains the principal ground floor room, and further service rooms enclose the courtyard to the north.

The design is of a classical style. The south facade is three storeys high and has seven bays, arranged symmetrically. Giant stone pilasters run down the facade; the lower parts are rusticated and the central ones have composite capitals. An entablature topped with a pediment projects over the three central bays, and an ornate cartouche and blind panels are incorporated into the parapet. A string course sits above the ground floor. A large ashlar portico, with an entablature that breaks forward slightly over two pairs of Tuscan columns in antis and corner piers, provides the main entrance. The frieze of the portico is decorated with wreaths and ribbons, and the balustrade above is also ornamented. Ground floor windows have keystones. The first two floors feature 12-paned sash windows with cambered, rubbed brick arches. The second floor has small, square, six-paned sash windows. A lower, two-storey, two-bay wing is set back slightly and has a stone entablature with a dentilled cornice. The first floor has 12-paned sash windows in moulded stone architraves, above a large stone square bay window with tripartite sashes and a balustrade above.

The west side of the house has a 1:1:1:4 bay arrangement, with flat pilasters and an entablature with a parapet adorned with urns. The second bay from the left projects forward, featuring a ground floor Venetian window and a tripartite window above. A colonnade of paired Tuscan columns extends to the right. The east side has a three-bay and four-bay arrangement, with the left-hand bays projecting. First floor windows have moulded architraves; the left-hand window is a niche. The ground floor is colonnaded with pairs of fluted columns. Right-hand windows to the first floor have broken pediments containing shields. Four dormers are positioned above these windows, each with a semi-circular pediment. A stone memorial is located at the right end, dedicated to John Belcher, who "restored and adorned the House of the Cleveland 1898 - 1916."

The interior retains a rich, late 19th-century decorative scheme, including six-panelled doors and doorcases, marble chimneypieces—most notably a massive chimneypiece in the principal room in the west wing with giant Ionic pilasters—and plasterwork ceilings in late 17th and 18th century styles to the principal ground floor rooms and bedrooms. The upper storey retains some 18th-century three-panelled doors and a dog-leg staircase with a moulded handrail, turned balusters, and acorn finials on the newels. Despite the later alterations, the house retains its original 18th-century layout.