Rhinefield House Hotel

SU 20 SE BROCKENHURST RHINEFIELD

9/5 Rhinefield House Hotel 28.7.86 GV II *

Large country house now hotel. 1888-90 by WH Romaine-Walker and Tanner for Miss Mabel Walker and later her husband Lt Comm L Walker-Munro. Squared rough- faced Purbeck stone, Bath stone dressings, plain tile stacks, moulded brick stacks. Large and imposing, Jacobethan with Gothic through Flamboyant and Tudor to even Renaissance motifs. 2½ storey, double pile of 5 bays, with cross wing at each end, and (cutting pile) on garden side projecting taller hall, at one end, on lower level 2 storey service courtyard (projecting forward on service front) Entrance front has to main part, central 2 storey porch with 4-centred archway in square frame and armorial tablet over, 3-light transomed window over, stepped diagonal buttresses and octagonal turret on LH face. Beside 1st floor corbelled balcony. To RH 2 1st floor oriels. Elsewhere small mullioned windows. Crennelated parapet running right across to pierced balustrade on 2 storey canted bay on RH wing. Wing gables have coped verges with pinnacles. On central roof at different levels 2-light gabled dormers. On inner side of wings and RH side of porch single moulded stacks, another on ridge and multi-shafted stacks at Ill end and behind ridge. To LH is courtyard with large octagonal turret filling corner of junction. Interior is famous for its eclectic richness, rooms maintain varied impressiveness generated by house as a whole. In centre, behind porch and front pile with its corridors, is Great Hall of 30m x 8m with full hammerbeam roof and projecting full-height bay window over garden. Dining Room has panelling and C17 Baroque fireplace and Armada plaque by French Huguenot Aumonier. Smoking Room is in Moorish style (from The Alhambra) with horseshoe arch arcade and stalactite plasterwork. On the 1st floor are the bedrooms in a sort of 'tous les Louis style', with Fragonard Ceilings.

Listing NGR: SU2650803660