Painswick House

Painswick House is a country house built in 1737, probably by John Strahan for Charles Hyett. It was extended in 1837 by George Baseri for his brother-in-law, W H Hyett. The house is constructed of fine limestone ashlar with a hipped slate roof and central lead flat.

The original building, the corps-de-logis, is accompanied by two wings at lower level. The plan at main level features a lofty hall set off-centre within the corps-de-logis. A substantial new entrance hall with portico was added at one end, and a new dining room at the far end, behind which and to its north is an extensive service and kitchen wing attached outside the principal block. Due to the fall in ground levels, the main front presents two storeys and attics, whilst the back elevation corresponds with four storeys.

The principal front displays 2 + 5 + 2 windows, all with glazing-bar sashes. At ground floor, the windows have Gibbs surrounds and pediments over five bold keystones. To the left and right of the central door, which is set in a small Ionic porch across the bottom half of the window, the pediments are segmental. The first floor has five square sashes in shouldered architraves with central keystone and consoles to cills. The ground floor sashes are deep 15-pane; however, there are two 24-pane sashes to the left of the porch and two 18-pane in the right-hand wing. An inner floor level cuts across the top two levels of these windows. The building is finished with a moulded cornice and parapets, with sunk panelling to the wings only. Various square ashlar stacks with cappings are distributed across the roof.

The right return now serves as the main entrance and features a bold flat-roofed Corinthian four-columned portico with responds in front of a two-storey block with central pediment. The unit is brought forward slightly and has a small stack at its centre. Double five-panel doors are flanked by lights. The ground floor has 12-pane sashes to a cill band with shouldered architraves and keystones; the first floor has sashes without keystones. The front is framed in broad flat pilasters. The right-hand wall is carried across as a false front beyond the main body and is flanked by an ashlar wall running approximately 16 metres to the right with panelled pier terminations, partly concealing buildings in the back courtyard.

The back elevation displays four floors with severe plain openings to various sashes, including a larger central triple-light window with central arch in a brought-forward section off the staircase. At basement level to the left is a three-bay pentice with basket-handle arches with keystones on octagonal stone piers. To the left is a two-storey unit with stone slate roof and two-light arched windows and a peaked-head doorway. Attached to this is a one-storey pavilion with pyramidal roof and one similar window to the west and north fronts, and a similar door. To the right of the courtyard is a large gabled unit with slate roof and a very lofty eaves stack and bell-cote to the kitchen. Much of this appears to be 19th century, though it probably incorporates part of a 17th-century farm that preceded the present house. It includes three 9-pane over three 12-pane sashes on the north side. Attached to this is a small square brew house of the 19th century with ventilator to a stone-slated pyramidal roof and two-light arched-light casements to the east and north fronts, as in the smoke room opposite.

The interior is richly appointed. The entrance hall features a two-column Ionic screen to the left and a corresponding wall pair to the right. It has a good stone floor with some tiling, an enriched cornice, and a plain ceiling leading to a passageway with niches either side and under a flat vaulted plaster ceiling. The grand staircase, from the 1737 build, has two fluted Doric balusters per tread, dado, and Gibbsian newels. At the first landing is a deep recess through a pair of Corinthian columns with a large triple window with stained glass and fine joinery inlay floor. Thorwaldsen plaques adorn the side walls.

The library, the largest of the main rooms, contains Baseri bookcases and an enriched cornice. A fireback dated 1641 bears the Hyett motto "COR IMMOBILE". The drawing room displays splendid 18th-century Chinoiserie painted hangings on canvas attached to battens.

A stair corridor links, via an ante-room with glazed barrel vault and some coloured glass and Greek key frieze, to the dining room. This room features a replica Parthenon frieze and scagliola columns to opposed recesses. The recess nearer the drawing room has a glazed flat ceiling. A black marble fireplace with two bronze masks and porphyry bases to columns is complemented by a decorative plaster ceiling.

The house is a very mannered building resulting from Baseri's adaptation of the earlier structure. Unusual floor level relationships to the elevation and quirkily varied sash divisions on the main front are characteristic of this eclectic approach.