The Art Gallery

The Art Gallery, also known as Crescent House, is a late 1840s villa built by the Uppleby family in an Italianate Cinquecento style. It is the most impressive of the villas along The Crescent. The building is constructed of ashlar and has a symmetrical design with three bays, the central bay being taller and slightly projecting. Notable features include dentil eaves cornices, rusticated and chamfered quoins, and a panelled band separating the floors.

The taller central bay has heavy rustication on the ground floor and is further distinguished by quoin pilasters on the first floor, a slight perspective batter, and pilasters framing the centre window with an archivolt. There is a blind balustrade below this window and between the pilasters. The ground floor entrance is flanked by two very narrow side lights and features double panelled doors with a semi-circular fanlight. The rustication extends into the reveal, with chamfered voussoirs and a keystone to the arch. The flanking lower bays have one window each; the first-floor window on one side is blind with panelled flanking strips, console brackets over to the cornice, and a blind balustraded balconette on fluted console brackets. Ground floor windows are set within eared architraves with keystones, shaped brackets to support the sills rising from a low moulded plinth.

A single-storey wing, likely added in the 1850s, extends to the right, incorporating a tile cornice that continues from the main block’s string course and has a balustraded parapet. A distinctive external chimney features quoins pierced by an arch and a cornice capping. Two blind, eared architrave windows are also present.

The south garden front stands on a balustraded rock-faced terrace, built to accommodate the sloping site. The elevation is similar to the entrance front but without the pilasters. A central, canted stone bay window is present on the ground floor, complete with a bracket cornice and balustraded parapet. A west wing, added in the 1850s, includes a basement and features eared architrave windows with keystones and fluted consoles supporting the sills.

Inside, the entrance hall rises through two storeys with a cast iron railing to a gallery, and matching balustrade to the staircase. The property is set within fine grounds extending down to the valley.

The Art Gallery is part of a significant group with Woodend, Londesborough Lodge, and The White House, including their gates and gate piers.