Underley Hall School

Underley Hall School, formerly known as Underley Hall, is a major example of Jacobean Revival architecture built in two phases: 1825-1828 and 1872. The original design was by George Webster, with later alterations and enlargements by Paley and Austin.

The older part was planned as a quadrangle with symmetrically composed facades to the south and east. The south facade, which was formerly the entrance, contains seven bays with canted bays to the first and last storey running through both levels. It features a plinth, two strings, and an openwork parapet closed by square turrets at either end, each topped with an ogee cupola. The windows are mullioned and transomed with two lights, except those in the canted bays which have five lights. A two-storey porch of coupled columns—Doric below and Ionic above—marks the entrance, with the date "1825" inscribed in a cartouche over the door. The building is constructed in ashlar with slate roofs and lead cupolas.

The east facade comprises five bays with end bays, turrets, and decorative features matching the south elevation. A one-storey Roman Doric tetrastyle porch with elaborate strapwork cresting spans the central bays. The west side contains the service wing with gabled dormers and no parapet, with the present entrance positioned beneath a three-storey tower, probably from the later build.

The newer northern section adds further rooms and extensive stable and office accommodation. The architectural details of the original block are continued in this addition, except for a four-storey tower with clasping turrets and an openwork parapet of Gothic arches. At its base is a square bay window with six lights on the ground and first floors, framed by Doric and Ionic pilasters respectively. The stable court features a decorated cast iron and glass canopy. A chapel was added in 1965 to the east by Building Design Partnership, connected by a corridor to the second phase of building, though this is not of special interest.

The interior is mostly the work of Paley and Austin. The vestibule contains a plaque inscribed "A.C.N. 1825". The dining room features a ceiling of moulded ribs in Tudor style and panelling with Ionic pilasters, complemented by a fireplace in keeping with the scheme. The former entrance hall and drawing room display similar panelling, with the drawing room also containing a fireplace of white marble by Webster, framed by coupled Ionic pilasters. The library in the later wing is Palladian in character with applied Ionic pilasters. Webster's staircase is entirely cased in panelling of cruciform design and has a ceiling pattern of ribs and pendants enclosing Tudor motifs. It rises in a wide dogleg configuration in two flights.

A terrace to the south of the house features retaining walls in keeping with the building's style, with similar gatepiers positioned to the west on the drive to Kearstwick. On the terrace to the east of the house, occupying the floor of a former conservatory, stands a large square stone vessel with Italian Romanesque decoration resting on four lions, probably dating from the 19th century.

The building was constructed for Alexander Nowell MP and later extended for the Earl of Bective. It is recognised as one of the first great houses of the Jacobean Revival, noted as such by Henry Shaw in his Details of Elizabethan Architecture (1839), and it was the first house of its size to be built in Westmorland since Levens. Both phases of construction were executed to a high standard, with Webster's work showing surprising scholarship. The house was the subject of the only drawings he ever submitted to the Royal Academy exhibition and represents one of his major surviving works.