Sezincote House

SP 13 SE, 4/108

SEZINCOTE, SEZINCOTE PARK, Sezincote House

25.08.60

GV

I

Country house. 1800-1805; by Samuel Pepys Cockerell, Thomas Daniell and Humphry Repton for Sir Charles Cockerell. Orange ashlar limestone, slate roof with copper dome. Mixture of Mogul and Hindu elements of architecture. Inverted T-shaped plan with canted 2-storey bay window/subsidiary entrance left and orangery (q.v.) attached to rear of main body curving away left. Wall curving away to right from opposite corner of main body to tent room (q.v.). Main body 2 storeys. Symmetrical facade with central 4-centred arch to full height of facade, engaged square columns with sunken panelled decoration to either side. Engaged octagonal corner turrets. 3:1:3:1:3-windowed; 12-pane sashes to first floor with moulded reveals and curved hoods with engaged pineapple-shaped finials and foliate decoration with pendant engaged pineapple finials below sills. Reeded quarter columns with inset and cusped shell-like hoods flank windows to either side of central arch. Ground-floor windows; plate-glass sashes. Central double door flanked by engaged columns with single lights on either side. Balcony above with cast-iron railing. Central sash window/door onto balcony flanked by 4-pane sashes. Roof of main body: central dome with finial set back in centre of low rectangular tower. Single stacks with moulded caps at each corner of tower linked by cast-iron railings. Pointed-arched blind arcading below railing. Cast-iron railing on roof feature left of tower. Parapet at eaves decorated with arcading in reversed relief with chaja (projecting cornice with deep brackets below). Small octagonal and square windows and lozenge decorations in relief between brackets. 4 open-sided minarets at corners of main body with copper domes and finials.

INTERIOR: C18 classical style interior. Decorated cast-iron girders support staircase representing an early example of this type of construction in a domestic context. Subsidiary features: decorative cast-iron railing comprising trellis of semicircles in front of house; 2 cast-iron mounting blocks either side of entrance matching railing; ashlar retaining wall surmounted by similar cast-iron railing with intervening ashlar piers with stepped caps and moulded copper finials curves away from rear left corner of house to tent room. Wall and railing about 6m in height.

(David Verey: The Buildings of England: The Cotswolds (1979); and C. Hussey: English Country Houses: Late Georgian , 1800-1840 (1958))

Listing NGR: SP1716731080