White House Hotel

The White House Hotel, formerly known as Dr. Steele-Perkins’s House, is a house dating from the early to mid-18th century, with later extensions in the 19th century and 1924, and internal alterations in the 20th century. The original building was likely of double depth, with two principal rooms at the front, a central entrance hall, and smaller rooms to the rear. In the 19th century, a large parallel range was added to the west, with a small single-story outshut behind. In 1924, a wing was extended to the left-hand south side, featuring a classical facade facing the garden.

The building is stuccoed, likely over stone rubble, with the 1924 extension constructed of stone rubble with concrete dressings. It has a double span slate roof with gable ends. The east front has two storeys and a 1:3 bay arrangement, with a symmetrical three-bay design to the right. The first floor features 19th-century 12-pane sashes, and a central casement with glazing bars within a moulded stucco architrave. Canted bays have been added to the ground floor, and a central doorway features a 19th-century six-panel door, a semi-circular fanlight with lead tracery, and a circa-1924 arched canopy supported by console brackets and topped with a shell. A 1924 wing projects on the left, featuring corner pilasters with moulded cornices and urns, a semi-circular headed ground floor window with glazing bars and a hoodmould, and a 12-pane window above. Two lead rainwater pipes, dated 1924, are also present.

The left-hand south return has a 2:2:2:1 bay arrangement, with projecting bays featuring stuccoed, moulded wooden pediments. The first floor has 12-pane casements with blind oval panels between, while the ground floor has French casements with hoodmoulds. A three-bay loggia with square columns supporting a slate lean-to canopy sits between the left and right-hand bays. The north-facing rear elevation has 19th-century sashes in moulded stucco architraves. The west rear elevation has the single-story outshut and late-19th-century sashes on the first floor.

Internally, the building has been significantly altered in 1924 and later in the 20th century, although some 19th-century joinery remains. The north rooms of the original house feature circa-1924 moulded plaster cornices, the left-hand room is now part of the entrance hall, and includes a 1924 Tudor-style chimneypiece, a 20th-century staircase, and a bar at the rear. The 1924 extension on the south side contains a drawing room, which has a moulded plaster laurel wreath ceiling, a dentilled cornice, and a Devon limestone (marble) bolection-moulded chimneypiece.