Park House

Park House

This is a substantial early 19th-century townhouse, possibly built for William van Mildert, the last Prince Bishop of Durham (1826-36), and may have been used as a residence for his wife Jane following her stroke in 1833 until her death in 1837. The house was extended significantly during the late 19th century to the rear and right side, and underwent extensive internal remodelling around 1975 with listed building consent. It is constructed of coursed stone with a slate roof.

The building is three storeys with a double frontage and end stacks, with its main entrance on Park Parade (numbered 21 Park Parade). To the right, slightly set back, is a single-bay two-storey extension that extends to the rear as a two-storey gabled service wing, part of which forms 33 Christ Church Oval. To the left rear is a second extension originally single-storey but raised to two storeys around 1975; part of this forms 35 Christ Church Oval.

The east elevation of the original house features first and second floor windows with cornices and architraves and exposed sash boxes. A first floor cill band runs across, and above this are raised coped gables with kneelers and a bracketed rainwater gutter. The central entrance is a timber Doric prostyle portico, which has undergone some inappropriate 20th-century repairs. The porch is flanked by shallow bow-fronted windows, each containing three sash windows. These bows are later alterations, probably mid-19th century, as they cut through a ground floor cill band.

The side extension has two smaller windows than the main house, with concealed sash boxes and moulded stone architraves. A stone gutter course above has been cut through for a modern downpipe.

The south elevation of the original house is a three-bay gable end, three storeys with attic above. A large semicircular stone ashlar bay replaces the left ground floor window, while the window above has been converted to French doors providing access to the flat roof. The other windows retain sashes with similar detailing to the front elevation, with architraves and cornices. The French doors retain the cornice of the original window. The single attic window is a two-over-two fixed sash with a plain stone lintel and cill without architrave.

The southern rear extension is stone-built with a flat roof and flagstone-capped parapet. Its windows are later 20th-century replacements of no special interest, though original plans suggest the windows were originally triple windows mirroring those of the northern rear extension. The western entrance to 35 Christ Church Oval is via a late 19th-century style stone ashlar canted bay.

The northern rear extension is stone-built with a Welsh slate roof. Its southern elevation comprises three to four bays with scattered fenestration. Windows are eight-over-eight hornless sashes with concealed sash boxes beneath plain stone lintels. The west gable end is coped but without kneelers, and features scattered fenestration including triple windows at both ground and first floor with plain stone mullions and Queen Anne revival style sashes (divided upper sashes above plate glass lower sashes). A ground floor single window of similar style is also present, as is a former back door now serving as the entrance to 33 Christ Church Oval.

The interior was extensively remodelled around 1975 with listed building consent. Some late 19th-century features survive in the left-hand ground floor flat, including paired Classical columns which originally framed a large opening to the rear extension that housed the billiards room.