Wrotham Park and Stable Block

Details

TQ 2499 POTTERS BAR WROTHAM PARK Barnet

12/230 Wrotham Park and 20.5.49 Stable Block (Formerly listed under General) GV II*

Country House. 1754 for Admiral John Byng by Isaac Ware. Stuccoed and wings raised 1810-16. c.1854 wings extended, colonnade and portico added to E for General Sir John Byng,first Earl of Strafford,by Henry Clutton. Gutted by fire in 1883, rebuilt with full attic storey. 1938 colonnades to E closed. Brick, cement rendered, stone dressings, slate roofs. Palladian villa expanded into a house of parade by addition of wings terminating in pavilions. 2 storeys with basement and attic to centre. Garden or W front: 1:3:1 centre with 3 bay links to semi-octagonal pavilions, links slightly set back. 2 storey tetrastyle detached Roman Ionic portico with attached columns behind. Pediment with Neptune and attendant sea nymphs in tympanum. Curved 2 armed staircase sweeps up to piano nobile entrance which has 3 French windows with pulvinated friezes and cornices to architraves, a segmental pediment on scrolled brackets to centre. Flanking portico on piano nobile 2 C19 canted bays retaining original Venetian window arrangement. Continuous smooth rusticated basement with round headed openings to central 3 bays. Continuous string course over piano nobile. Pulvinated frieze and mutule cornice below central block attic. Balustraded parapet to centre and link blocks. Central piano nobile windows on pavilions have architraves with pulvinated friezes and cornices and balusters beneath. Cupolas over pavilions. Architraves and glazing bar sashes to all openings. 3 hipped roofs to centre block. 1 to each link. Cross axial stacks in valleys. Entrance or E front: similar fenestration and arrangement of bays. Sunken basement with short flight of steps to entrance on piano nobile. C19 1 storey tetrastyle Ionic porch. Pediment in attic with empty shield and Arms. Flanking Venetian windows of 1754 with Ionic columns and balusters beneath, all in relieving arches. Balustraded parapet has Byng family arms to centre with 3 ball finials. Closed Ionic colonnades to piano nobile on link blocks nearly flush with central front wall. Second floor of links set well back. Pavilions extended with square fronts projecting forward of centre: aedicular windows to left with segmental pediments and relieving arches, rectangular bay to right. Pedimental gables with intertwined S's of first Earl of Strafford. Rusticated basement continues only on pavilions. Balustraded forecourt wall sweeps out in quadrants from entrance steps. S return bowed out to full height. N return has secondary entrance and link to stable block. Interior: entirely remodelled after 1883, only vaulting in basements of wings survives from 1754 build. Original plan largely retained. Imperial stair to S of centre. Stable block: early C19. Stock brick, slate roof. Half circle with extended arms. Pediment on 2 Doric columns projects forward over triple carriage entrance at head of circle. Clock in tympanum. On ridge a bellcote with weather vane. Flanking quadrants: 6 round-headed bays to each side with 4 lunette windows in relieving arches an entrance and a sash. 2 opposed pediments, that to right over a vaulted entrance with iron gates, that to left over double carriage doors. 3 further bays to each side. Low service court additions of 1854 by Henry Clutton with link to house, glazing bar sashes throughout. Landscaped park extending in all directions, laid out by Samuel Lapidge in 1765 with advice from Capability Brown. C19 terraced lawn against W front within which see urns, benches and statues (q.q.v.). Victorian garden to NW within which see the Orangery (q.v.). (Country Life 9 and 16/11/1918: Pevsner 1977: RCHM Typescript).

Listing NGR: TQ2479099155

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

164284

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, Cherry, B, The Buildings of England: Hertfordshire, (1977)
Country Life in 16 November, (1918)

Other
Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England, Part 21 Hertfordshire,

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.

Print the official list entry