Brynbella

Brynbella

Brynbella is constructed on a sloping site, presenting two storeys on the east approach side and three storeys on the west garden side. The house is built partly in ashlar stonework and partly rendered, with shallow-pitched slated roofs and stone chimneys. The west garden elevation displays the principal design, with the house organised around a central piano nobile positioned over a service basement, flanked by symmetrical outer units.

The main garden front is executed in ashlar stonework and is divided into three units. The central unit comprises two broad segmental three-window bays with a single window between them. A plat band marks both the raised ground and first floor levels, with a flat frieze decorated at intervals with roundels, surmounted by a modillion cornice and small blocking course. The ground storey is rusticated while the basement and upper storey are in plain masonry. At the centre stands a broad staircase in two flights with iron handrails, leading to a Tuscan porch with tall columns arranged in two pairs, a simple architrave, paired-modillion cornice, and an iron balcony handrail. A French window above opens onto a small balcony. The windows of the raised ground storey are hornless sash windows with 18 panes defined by very thin glazing bars, featuring rusticated flat arch heads and standing on the plat band which serves as a continuous sill. The reveals are stuccoed and painted white, and the heads have drop-sided draught screens. The upper storey windows are similar but contain 12 panes, without differentiation of the stonework at the heads, and have shallow separate sills. In the basement storey, each bay has a single tripartite sash window; that at the right is adapted to serve as a French window.

Each of the outer units is a five-window range, symmetrical in itself, with the central three windows slightly advancing and carrying a pediment with a circular sinking. A chimney rises above the centre of each pediment. The piano nobile arrangement of the central unit is not continued into the outer units, where the basement and two storeys are of similar height and the windows throughout are of the same proportion. Ground and first-floor level plat bands are present, along with a cornice similar to that of the central unit but without the frieze. Each outer unit contains five 12-pane windows in the top storey, two alternating with niches in the ground storey, and four windows plus one blank panel in the basement. Some basement windows and one ground floor window are painted shams.

The east approach elevation, the side elevations at north and south, and the returns of the central unit visible over the roofs of the side units are rendered and painted cream. The central unit on the east is a five-window range with a plinth and plat-band, and a modillion cornice in ashlar matching the garden elevation. The sash windows are of 12 panes; that at centre is tripartite with a shallow arched head. At the centre is a Tuscan porch in red sandstone with thin columns flush to the wall, an architrave and frieze with raised roundels and a cornice with shallow paired modillions. Six-panel doors with semi-glazed side lights stand beneath a transom, above which is a full-size decorative batswing fanlight with a plain stone surround. The side units at north and south have been altered. Both have been heightened by one storey. The southern unit has also been brought forward on the approach side to the line of the central unit, presenting a two-storey five-window elevation with a door flanked by pilasters, caps and cornice; the date 1902 appears on the rainwater head. The northern unit retains an original railed service area on the approach side with a low surrounding wall. Overlooking this at the end of the central unit is a tall arched staircase light, together with three sash windows and two small circular lights in a return of the north unit.

The plan incorporates an entrance lobby on the approach side linked to a small room said to have been intended as a breakfast room on the garden side. The principal rooms correspond to the bays on the garden side, with the dining room (originally a drawing room) to the south and the present drawing room to the north.

The interior design has been attributed to Michaelangelo Pergolesi, though this attribution has been challenged. There is bold plasterwork ornament, and the original pier glasses survive in the two main reception rooms. The fireplaces were designed by Mead and made by Bromfield of Liverpool. A stone staircase to the north of the approach side entrance lobby features simple but very delicate ironwork. Upstairs there is said to be a recess for Piozzi's chamber organ, with a chimneypiece featuring musical instrument decoration.