WOTTON HOUSE

WOTTON HOUSE, GUILDFORD ROAD

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II*
List Entry Number:: 1189814
Date first listed:: 11-Mar-1987
List Entry Name:: WOTTON HOUSE
Statutory Address:: WOTTON HOUSE, GUILDFORD ROAD

User submitted image — Uploaded by Brian Mawdsley This photo may not represent the current condition of the site
View all

Location

Location of this list entry and nearby places that are also listed. Use our map search to find more listed places.

There is a problem

Use of this mapping is subject to terms and conditions.

This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale.

What is the National Heritage List for England?

The National Heritage List for England is a unique register of our country's most significant historic buildings and sites. The places on the list are protected by law and most are not open to the public.

The list includes:

🏠 Buildings
🏰 Scheduled monuments
🌳 Parks and gardens
⚔️ Battlefields
⚓ Shipwrecks

Find out more about listing

Historic England Archive

Search over 1 million photographs and drawings from the 1850s to the present day using our images archive.

Find Photos

Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II*
List Entry Number:: 1189814
Date first listed:: 11-Mar-1987
List Entry Name:: WOTTON HOUSE
Statutory Address 1:: WOTTON HOUSE, GUILDFORD ROAD

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:: WOTTON HOUSE, GUILDFORD ROAD

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

County:: Surrey
District:: Mole Valley (District Authority)
Parish:: Wotton
National Grid Reference:: TQ 12161 46966

Details

TQ 14 NW, 4/119

WOTTON C.P., GUILDFORD ROAD, Wotton House

GV

II*

Country house, now training and conference centre. Early C17 for the Evelyn Family, extended in the later C17 and to the east in the C18 by William Kent. Further extended and altered in early C19 by Francis Edwards and, following a fire, restored and enlarged by Henry Woodyer for John Evelyn in 1877. Timber framed core now entirely clad, brick with terracotta decorations in the entrance front to the north, cement render on rear extensions with some tile hanging in gables. The majority of the roofs now plain tiled with some hipped and slate roofs to rear right. Original house was of compact multi-gabled plan with a U- shaped entrance court to the north, this remains the central core with early C19 wing to left on north side and Woodyer extensions to right, projecting to enclose new courtyard. C18 orangery and later C19 extensions lay parallel to rear. Entrance front:- two storeys with attics in gable ends of wings. Stone panels in parapet band to centre range, stone stringcourse over ground floor. Wings have plat band over ground floor and cornice stringcourse over first floor on west with finials to gable apexes. Octagonal turrets to return walls of wings under ribbed, lead-domed wooden cupolas and stone dressed lancet fenestration with two 4-light mullioned and transomed windows under octagonal stacks to ridges of roof. Label mouldings either side of central porch on each floor. Two similar windows to ground floor left of centre, two smaller windows above over paired, stone-dressed quatrefoils. One 8-light, mullioned and transomed window on each floor to right of centre. Courtside of west wing has 3 shaped gables, each with arrow slit decoration, over 3 mezzanine glazing bar sashes and 3 sashes on first floor. The mezzanine sashes in raised brick flanking scrolls, those to first floor, and two windows on ground floor, in brick pattern surrounds imitating shutters. Central door in ribbed brick Jacobethan style surround and under flat hood on baluster pilasters. Door genuine early C17 with thick strapwork and decorative panels. Right hand (east) wing court front:- Three mullioned and transomed first floor windows, hipped roof dormers above. Two storey porch to centre with crowning winged Gryphons, and flanking stone-capped angle buttresses. Foiled light, mullioned and transomed, first floor window, decorative frieze below over first floor. Arched door surround with stone dressed flanking lights. Left hand return front of west wing with two C17 gables showing. C17 fenestration with 4-light attic windows and 7-light windows on each floor below, the end two lights shorter. Rear - long jumbled front with gable to left, flat roofed angle bay to left of centre, the old house, with sash fenestration and front stacks flanking gable to centre, and C18 orangery and C19 extensions set back to right. Orangery with decorative parapet and banded piers (C19). Single storey service buildings beyond.

INTERIORS:- Dining Room - formerly the Orangery and once detached. William Kent, extended to south by Woodyer. Simple panelled ceiling with central 'rose' guilloche and egg and dart mouldings and modillioned Ionic eaves cornice. Plasterwork (Kent) wall panels painted in C18 Chinese style by Jean Dieudonné Deneux (Belgian), double panel to centre in scrolled surround. Oval bamboo frames with ribbon garlands. Small paintings over doors. Pedimented and bracketed door- cases with architrave surrounds to panelled doors. Deep niche to end with flanking Doric pilasters and coffered half-dome over. Several fragments remain from old house including Jacobean and Elizabethan panelled strapwork doors and surrounds -(one off the "cloister" and further ones to offices). Room 14. Colonnaded Ionic Screen Passage to one end with guilloche soffit moulding and end pilasters flanking two central columns. Fluted frieze, dentilled cornice and end paterae over. Curved end wall. Ante Room - in Chambers style with curved end niches under diamond panel coffering and shells over doors. Fine curved doors, original, in architrave surrounds with flat hood over. Bay leaf garland and fluted frieze over. Evelyn Library - by Woodyer. 7 bays in high Victorian Gothic with round pier arcades and cross rib-vaulted roof, deep foliage capitals to columns. Billeted panelling and painted texts on walls over arches. Massive fireplaces of coloured marble. Flanking columns and crested overmantle in French Baronial style. Steel doors in imitation of wood panelling. The Evelyn Family Seat, John Evelyn born here in 1620 and eventually came into his possession in 1699 on his brothels death. Traditionally the now Deputy Principal's office is the room of Evelyn's Birth. The house is most famous for its "Italian Garden" laid out by Evelyn and included in the "Register of Parks and Gardens of Historic Interest in England, Part 40 Surrey" as II*.

Listing NGR: TQ1216146966

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:: 290082
Legacy System:: LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, Nairn, I Rev. by Cherry, The Buildings of England: Surrey, (1971), 542-4
Other
Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England, Part 40 Surrey,

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.