Verdley Place, Including Terrace Walls

Verdley Place, including Terrace Walls

A large house, later converted to offices, built between 1873 and 1875 by the architect Anthony Salvin for his friend Charles Savile Roundell MP. The house was originally called Oeborne House. An unknown architect extended it in matching style from 1889, and the stabling was converted to offices in the later 20th century. The building is an example of Vernacular Revival style, one of only two houses designed by Salvin in this style; his own house, Hawksfold, also in the same parish, being the other.

The main structure is an asymmetrical building constructed of Bargate stone rubble with ashlar dressings and tile-hung upper floors, with tiled roofs and tall brick chimneystacks. It rises to two or three storeys with irregular fenestration.

The west wing's north front, which serves as the entrance, features at its extreme right an external stack bearing the initials C and J and the date 1873, though this also displays a shield of Sir Felix Otto Schuster, who became the owner after 1907. A bartizan tower leads to a projecting gable with four-light windows. To the left is a further gable containing two four-light windows and a gabled porch with bargeboards. The entrance itself has a two-centred arched opening with a linenfold-panelled door. A three-tier staircase window to the left contains heraldic glass. The 1889 service wing of three storeys adjoins to the left with paired sash windows, and at the extreme left stands a one-storey former stable block, its courtyard glazed over for office use.

The west wing's south front is of two storeys with six windows, mostly mullioned and transomed casements, though it includes a five-light oriel under a gable and a six-light bay to the ground floor right, with an octagonal ground-floor window at the extreme right end of Salvin's building.

The 1889 extension to the east features an adjoining four-storey water tower with a pyramidal roof and weathervane. To its right is a two-storey three-bay portion with a projecting gable containing a second-floor oriel and a canted bay below. At the extreme east is a one-storey billiard room with a projecting gable and a six-light square bay.

The east elevation displays a hipped tiled porch with balusters and double doors with elaborate hinges. Attached to the house is a low curving terrace wall incorporating two stone benches.

The interior contains a staircase hall with a Jacobean-style staircase featuring fretted arches as balusters and square newel posts with carved knops. An armorial staircase window with leaded lights displays four stained-glass shields bearing the mottoes "J'ESSAYERAI", "NEC PRECE NEC PRETIO", "IN GOTT ALLEIN", and "TREU UND FEST". Paired fluted Ionic columns support an elaborate fireplace with a marble surround, wooden panels of old Flemish carvings and caryatids, set within a seven-sided alcove with Tuscan columns, six shell niches, and the motto "IN GOTT ALLEIN"—a feature dating to Schuster's occupation.

The old dining room has a ribbed ceiling with an ovolo-moulded cornice and two fireplaces with triple stepped overmantels, along with a six-panelled door. The old library features a plastered ceiling with pendants. The drawing room displays an elaborate cornice with stylized fish and eels, panelling, and a mantelpiece incorporating architectural fragments from the Low Countries. The former billiards room contains a fireplace with a four-centred arch in marble, red De Morgan tiles, and Flemish panels of religious subjects and putti, with panelling featuring Composite pilasters. The service staircase has stick balusters, a mahogany handrail, and a column newel. Some original fireplaces remain on the first floor, including one fitted with antique Delft tiles.