Petteril Bank

PETTERIL BANK

House, now offices and showroom. Built in 1829 for John Fawcett, an attorney, with late 19th-century extensions. The building is constructed in calciferous sandstone ashlar on a chamfered plinth, with a string course, cornice and solid parapet. The roofs are graduated green slate with one gabled dormer; the ridge and gable chimney stacks are of ashlar.

The building has an overall rough L-shape, elongated by its extension. The original house is two storeys: the entrance facade is two bays and the garden front four bays; a three-storey, four-bay extension adjoins at the left rear. The entrance facade features an off-centre Gothic ribbed panelled door in a pointed chamfered surround with pointed side lights under heraldic shields. Above this is a five-light overlight of coloured heraldic glass under a hoodmould. The casement windows are divided into two-lights by glazing bars, set in chamfered surrounds under hoodmoulds. The garden front has an off-centre full-height canted bay window flanked by gabled parapets, with casement windows with glazing bars under hoodmoulds and small blind lancets in the gables. The right bay contains a narrow French window with a casement above under a hoodmould. The rear elevation has similar windows to the garden front and a gabled parapet. The extension displays two- and three-light stone mullioned windows and a prominent bay window on its entrance facade.

The interior is complete and Gothic in character, except for Jacobean carved wooden fireplaces in the hall and front room. The hall and stairs feature stone stair arches and panelled dado, while the wooden staircase has fretted rails and a moulded wooden handrail with hexagonal newels topped with shaped caps. A heraldic two-light stained-glass stair window incorporates the city and Fawcett arms. Ribbed panelled doors with elaborate brass knobs and finger plates are set in wooden architraves throughout. The drawing room has a columned window arch and a corresponding blind arch on the opposite wall; Gothic ribbed panelled shutters in two parts flank the window. A white marble fireplace with ribbed and columned detailing is fitted here. The plaster ceiling is moulded in rib and petal patterns in a radial design around a central roundel.

The Carlisle Journal of 1829 records the theft of tools from a workman "now working on the new building erecting by John Fawcett at Petteril Bank". Local directories confirm that John Fawcett was living in The Crescent, Carlisle in 1829 but had moved to Petteril Bank by 1834. At this period, the architect Rickman was working on several projects around the city, including Holy Trinity Church and Christ Church (1828), the Devonshire Street Reading Rooms (1830), Brunstock House and Scaleby Castle (around 1830), and Rose Castle (1829–1834); it is possible he could have designed Petteril Bank. From 1909 the owner was Lady Gillford, daughter of the 12th Earl Home and aunt of Alec Douglas Home; a nearby park is named after her. Following her death in 1951, the house was acquired by the County Council.