Glen Usk

Glen Usk is a small country house, originally an elegant Neoclassical villa, dating from the 18th century. The building is constructed of white lined-out stucco with shallow slate roofs set back behind a blocking course, and features axial stacks. It is a compact three-storey building, almost as deep as it is long, with a tripartite plan along each axis.

The south-facing garden front features very shallow, full-height bows that flank a central bay. The windows are small-paned, hornless sash windows on each floor, with those on the ground floor extending down to ground level and fronted by a fine painted wrought iron arcaded veranda with a copper roof. The return elevations are five bays wide (originally presumably three bays), with regular fenestration, although some window recesses are blind. The west side has two external doorways providing access to a courtyard between the house and a nearby temple, and a round-arched stair window.

The entrance front was altered around 1840 to include a single-storey entrance hall and a Doric screen with a triglyph frieze and balustrade, flanked by advanced wings. Behind the screen is a doorway with glazed upper panels and side lights, flanked by round-arched windows with keystones. The ground floor of the advanced wings has arcaded, Italianate fenestration, Venetian windows to the first floor, and tripartite windows to the attic storey, all with hornless sashes. A first-floor corridor, articulated by pilasters and with 12-pane sash windows, links the two wings, having been brought forward from the original building line.

The plan, as remodelled after alterations to the entrance front, comprises three bays, each essentially three bays deep. The central entrance hall has a depth of two bays, divided by a screen of fictive marble Ionic columns; a small sitting room is located to the south, overlooking the garden. The outer bays are broadly symmetrical, with principal rooms facing the garden elevation—the drawing room to the southeast has an anteroom beyond (almost central to the east range). This is balanced to the west by the dining room and the principal staircase, which opens off the hall. The staircase is a fine cantilevered open string stair with slim spindles, a swept handrail, and moulded tread ends. Adjacent to it, on the north side (beyond the original front wall of the house), are the back stairs, balanced in turn in the east range by a small cloakroom. A study and kitchen are located to the northeast and northwest respectively.

The interior retains fine original joinery and plasterwork throughout, including friezes with a palmette pattern in each of the main rooms facing the garden. The drawing room and anteroom both feature marble chimney pieces with free-standing, fluted Doric columns and a panelled dado with moulded panels above. The sitting room in the center of the south range retains substantial remains of an early decorative scheme, including fictive dado panelling (now covered), together with a fine scagliola fireplace. A range of vaulted cellars extends beneath the house.