Underscar Manor Hotel

Underscar Manor Hotel is a hotel, formerly a private villa, built between 1856 and 1863 by architect Charles Reed (later known as Verelst) of Liverpool, commissioned by William Oxley, a Liverpool merchant. The building was extended in later periods, underwent mid-20th-century alterations, and was refurbished and converted to hotel use in 1990.

The house is constructed of irregular snecked rubble with ashlar sandstone dressings, rusticated quoins, and tall stone chimneys with moulded caps. It is roofed in Westmorland slate laid to diminishing courses, beneath a hipped roof with deep bracketed eaves. The architectural style is bold Italianate.

The building sits on sloping ground and follows an irregular linear plan aligned north-south, with the main house to the south and an attached service wing to the north.

The west elevation presents a symmetrical three-bay frontage of two storeys, featuring a taller advanced four-stage central entrance tower with a shallow pyramidal roof and deep bracketed eaves. The main doorway has a semi-circular arched and moulded ashlar surround with double three-panel doors. Above this, a 20th-century three-light window has replaced an original oriel. The upper stage is set with triple lancets with semi-circular arched heads. The flanking bays are marked by ashlar bands to window heads and cills, with tall ground-floor windows (one retaining an original sash, the other replaced with 20th-century French doors) featuring semi-circular heads channelled to imitate voussoirs. First-floor coupled-light windows have semi-circular arched heads with undivided sashes. To the left, a lower range links with the hipped gable of the tall service range.

The south front features a wide advanced gable set back from the line of the west front, with oversailing verges supported by massive brackets. At the centre is a tall canted ground-floor bay window with a pierced parapet topped by low railings. Above this sits a tripartite window with a bracketed open pediment. To the right is a late-19th-century seven-bay conservatory with a canted east end. North of the conservatory, a wide west-facing gable contains a five-light first-floor window, the centre light blind and forming a niche for an urn. A lower two-storey range to the right links with the hipped rear gable of the three-storeyed service range.

The interior was carefully restored during the conversion to hotel use. A wide entrance lobby with glazed doors and fanlight leads onto a tall stair hall via a semi-circular arched opening. The stair hall features a deeply moulded cornice, deep skirtings, moulded architraves, and a wide flat arched opening onto the staircase. The dog-legged staircase is lit by a wide semi-circular arch-headed tripartite window and has moulded handrails and cast-iron balusters of two different patterns. It leads to a first-floor landing with a central open well lit by an octagonal lantern. The lantern's surround comprises wide coved panels, each bearing a central roundel with a moulded classical plaster figure in deep relief. Below is a bracketed cornice set above a wide decorative frieze. Ground-floor reception rooms have six-panel doors, deeply moulded cornices, and marble chimney pieces. The conservatory features closely spaced and moulded roof trusses with roundel apexes and pendant bosses.

William Oxley purchased the land in 1856 for £1,340, and the house was completed in 1863. It was sited within extensive grounds planted with specimen trees and included a walled garden to the east, with commanding views of Derwentwater. Oxley died in 1861.

Underscar Manor is an extensive and prominent villa in the Italianate style, spectacularly sited and recently carefully refurbished. Its style and setting typify the mid-to-late-19th-century development around the Cumbrian Lakes by industrialists and entrepreneurs.