Gramercy Hall School, Lupton House

Details

BRIXHAM

SX9055 BRIXHAM ROAD, Churston Ferrers 1946-1/6/43 (South side (off)) 18/10/49 Gramercy Hall School, Lupton House (Formerly Listed as: BRIXHAM ROAD Lupton House (School))

GV II*

Formerly known as: Lupton Hotel (including stable range) BRIXHAM ROAD. Country house (formerly known as Lupton House), now school. c1772, remodelled c1843 by George Wightwick. Restored without the top storey after a fire in 1926. Solid rendered walls. Hipped slated roofs. Rendered chimneys with prominent top cornices. Plan: Front range has large entrance hall with a main room at either side. To right a long rear wing with entrance hall (believed to be the original main entrance) having main room to right and large library to right. 1-room extension at far right. To left of the front range is a long low wing, linked to the stable block (qv) by an archway. Behind the main entrance hall, accessible also from the entrance hall in the rear wing, is a large top-lit room, possibly the site of the original staircase. The present main staircase lies behind this in turn. At right-angles to it, parallel with the left wing, is a long kitchen wing; behind it is a range of coal-stores, built into the hillside and filled from hatches in the top. Exterior: 2 storeys with single-storey additions. Main front 3 windows wide with 10-window return to right. 4-window left wing. Main front has centre porte-cochere with Doric columns; entablature with triglyphed frieze, modillioned cornice and patterned balustrade. Panelled double doors with anthemion-patterned grille in front of fanlight. Window with 4-paned sashes at either side. Flanking the porte-cochere at either side in ground storey is a Venetian window with balustraded panels below, the rail and plinth of the balustrade continued across the whole front as a pedestal course; 6-paned sashes with radial head-bars in main light, 1 over 2-paned sashes with margin-panes in side-lights. Upper storey has modified Venetian window in centre with 6-paned sashes in all 3 lights and a segmental pediment over flat-headed centre light. Outer windows single-light with moulded architraves, segmental pediments and 6-paned sashes; beneath them balustrades and pedestal-course as in ground storey. Front finished with a stepped bandcourse, above which are 3 balustraded panels and a top cornice. Return front to right similar in style, but with slightly projecting centre and wings. Centre doorway with attached Doric columns, entablature and triangular pediment; triglyphed frieze with paterae; round-arched doorway with moulded archivolt and imposts, half-glazed double-doors, scrolled iron grille in front of fanlight. At either side a Venetian window with stepped keystone to the centre arch and balustraded panels below. In the wings single-light windows with moulded architraves and stepped keystones. Upper-storey windows have moulded architraves; those in wings with stepped keystones, those in centre and at either side with pulvinated friezes and pediments, triangular in centre, segmental on the sides, balustraded panels below; centre window has consoles to the pediment and scroll buttresses to the architrave. Moulded top cornice and parapet with balustraded panels to the centre; stepped cornices and similar parapets to the wings, with cornices instead of copings. Single-storey section to right has 3 close-set windows flanked and separated by Ionic pilasters. Entablature above, surmounted by parapet with balustraded panels. Whole front has small-paned sashes: 6 over 6 panes in ground storey, 3 over 6 panes above. Left wing has Doric pilasters between and flanking the windows. Top cornice and panelled parapet, the latter with pedestals corresponding to the pilasters. Segmental-headed ground-storey windows with 8-paned sashes. Flat-headed upper-storey windows with 3-paned sashes. At left-hand end a tall, projecting round-arched gateway; rusticated flanking pilasters, top cornice and blocking-course; arch has moulded archivolt and imposts. Small-paned sash windows at rear. Coal stores have tall round-arched openings with plain imposts. INTERIOR contains much good detail, especially moulded plasterwork and chimneypieces with original iron grates; nearly all appears to be C19. Main entrance hall has screen of square pink and grey marble columns. Chimneypiece of matching marble with cornice-shelf on consoles; white marble cartouche in centre of frieze; round-arched iron grate. White marble statue of Lord Rolle inscribed 'E. B. Stephens sculp. London 1843: seated figure on pedestal.' Ground-floor rooms to right of hall and at front of wing have Adam-style ceilings and panelled shutters. Wing room has white marble rococo chimneypiece with patterned, coloured enamelled panels on the jambs; basket-grate with enriched iron fireback. Library has screen with paired scagliola Ionic columns. At each end a green marble chimneypiece with key-pattern frieze and shelf on paired brackets; enriched surround of iron grate, the baskets missing. Decorated ceiling with modillioned cornice. Open-well wood staircase with carved balusters and newels. Good detail in other ground- and first-floor rooms, although the main rooms all seem to have been on the ground floor. Lupton House is said to have been rebuilt by Charles Mayne Esq, who was sheriff in 1772. He sold it to Sir Francis Buller, the ancestor of Lord Churston, c1788. White's Directory of Devonshire, 1878-9, says the house was 'rebuilt about thirty-five years ago'. (White W: Directory of Devonshire: 1850-: 424-5; Gunnis R: Directory of British Sculptors, 1660-1851: London: 1968-: 372; The Buildings of England: Cherry B: Devon (2nd edition): 1989-: 833).

Listing NGR: SX9026355002

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

383550

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, Cherry, B, The Buildings of England: Devon, (1989), 833
Gunnis, R, Dictionary of British Sculptors 1660-1851, (1953), 372
Whites Directory in History Gazetteer and Directory of Devonshire, (1850), 424-425

Other
Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England, Part 11 Devon,

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