Audley End House

Details

SAFFRON WALDEN

TL53NW AUDLEY PARK, Audley End 669-1/3/329 Audley End House 01/11/72 (Formerly Listed as: AUDLEY END Audley End House)

GV I

Part of a palatial country house. Built 1605-1614. By the Earl of Northampton, John Thorpe and Bernard Janssen, mason. For Thomas Howard. Earl of Suffolk. Reduced in size and refurbished later, particularly in 1721 by Sir John Vanburgh, in the 1770's for Sir John Griffin Griffin by Robert Adam, and in the C19 when the rooms were reorganised for the second, third and fourth Lord Braybrookes. Ashlar faced, copper roofs. U shaped plan. 3 storeys with principal first floor the tallest. All windows are of ovolo moulded, mullioned and transomed form, lights mainly now have plain glass. Parapets all round hide roofs and are pierced with strapwork decoration. W front elevation: central second floor 7 window range, 3x2 lights, in front, lower open hall block of 2 storeys height, central oriel bay window 6x4 lights, side 1x4 lights, on each side two 4x3-light windows. Two 2-storey porches as ground and first floor loggias with Ionic grouped corner shafts of black and white marble with profuse strapwork and grotesque decoration, ground floor round headed arched doorways, early C17 doors, panelled with war and peace motifs. Loggia upper floors have pair of openings to front. N and S ends of range have tower shaped blocks, turrets at the corners with blocked, keystoned, round headed apertures, swept copper capping and weather-vanes. Full height bay window. Windows - ground floor 7x2-lights, first floor 7x3-lights, second floor 7x2-lights, matching return windows 2 lights wide. Each side matching windows, 2 on inner face, 1 on outer, all 3 lights wide. Rear, E elevation: around court, open to E. Central 7-window range with second parapet seen behind. First and second floor windows of 3x2 lights. Ground floor arcade with paired Ionic pilasters, glazed with 4-light tracery ascending in tiered semicircular arches. Central doorway with surrounding semicircular architrave in Jacobean style with inset red marble cabochons. 2-leaved door, panelled lozenge decoration. Wings E ends have central 3-cant full height bay window, middle windows, ground floor 5x2 lights, first floor 5x3, second floor 5x2 lights. Side cant window match, all 2 lights wide. Single outer matching windows to each floor, all 3 lights wide. Inner faces of wings to courtyard symmetrical with central 3-cant bay window, central windows all 4x2 lights, side cant window, matching of single light width. Single outer windows each side of bay, matching, all 7 lights wide. Waterheads, round court, S side of 1679, N side I.R.1686 and 1786. The inner corners between wings and principal E facade have turrets similar to those on W front but larger with windows on each face of 3x2 lights. S side elevation: 2 elements, to W, S end of front elevation with full height 3-cant bay window, ground floor not as house style but 1x2,5x2,1x2 lights with wooden glazing bars to lower lights, upper central light. First floor central window 6x3 lights, sides 1x3, second floor central light 6x2, sides 1x2. Turrets each side with blocked round headed openings with keystones. Range to E has 2 full height bay windows with single windows between and windows at W end. Bay window, first floor 7x3 lights, second floor 7x2 lights, return side lights match, 2 lights wide. Between bays, matching window 6 lights wide, at W end also matching 4 lights wide. Ground floor loggia arcade of 9 bays (including bay windows) now infilled and with a simple 2-light window in 8 bays. One has a framed and panelled door with upper glazed panel (second from E end). Arcade has Doric pilasters and entablature. At roof level, large turret seen from E court behind parapet, also tall grouped chimneys seen along range. N side elevation: similar to S side but some differences as it is the service end. To W, N end of front elevation, full height bay window, ground floor, canted central window only 4x2 lights with subsidiary wooden glazing bars, each pair of lights 2x7 panes. To E, 2x2 light window similar glazing, lower lights sashes, to W, doorway with C19 4-panel, flush reeded door. First floor, large rectangular bay 7x3-light window, second floor canted central window 6x2 lights, side cants 1x2. First and second floor windows between projecting bays, to W, 3 lights wide, to E 4 lights wide. Ground floor between bays, to W, early window of 4x2 lights, apparently not restored, with original twin intermediate iron mullions to each light, doorway now cut through lower lights, to E, 3x2-light window with wooden sashes in lower lights and upper glazing bars, pairs of lights, 2x7 panes, adjacent, plain sash window. Projecting bays, ground floor, W window of 3x2 lights, E window 3x1 lights. Enclosed service courtyard abuts N side of house, single storey brick, slate roofs. Early C19 segment headed doorways, some doors early C19 with reeded flush panels, window also segment headed mainly casements with glazing bars. Also, second group of larger buildings in arc facing W, some 2-storeyed, all linked and contiguous with service court, hipped slated roofs, some provided with paired display Roman cement chimney stacks, whole irregular group now colourwashed. INTERIOR: principal features include the Jacobean hall and screen and contemporary N and S timber-framed newel staircases, also the saloon, once the Jacobean Great chamber with its ornamental plaster ceiling. Later work includes one room of a set of state apartments, an C18 stone staircase by Vanburgh leading off the hall high end and the refurbishment of rooms in the S range by Robert Adam. Contemporary with Adam, but designed by Hobcroft is the `Gothick' chapel in the NW angle. Fuller description on interiors in RCHM. HISTORICAL NOTE: the house is the second to have been built precisely round the cloister of Walden Abbey, granted by Henry VIII in 1538 to Sir Thomas Audley. Audley's house was constructed within the church, N range and claustral buildings to the S. The present house, built by Thomas Howard, Lord Treasurer to James I overlies the earlier building but had a second, larger outer court to the W. This was entirely demolished by the later C18 except for the 2 surviving porches on the W front that appear to belong to the outer court and were built in a second phase of construction in a more profuse style of decoration, probably to designs by John Thorpe. Research suggests that the 2 porches were for the king and queen respectively and that they originally led to 2 similar sets of royal apartments. Later work includes the total removal, in the C18 of the E range of the inner court that contained the long gallery, council chamber and original chapel. Also a loggia on the S side was infilled (as now). The house was owned for a short while by King Charles II and has had owners who have retained the Jacobean style in much of the later refurbishment. In 1948 it was sold to the Ministry of Works. (The Buildings of England: Pevsner N & Ratcliffe E: Essex: London: 1965-: 61; Architectural History: Drury PJ: No Other Palace in the Kingdom Will Compare With It: London: 1980-: 1-39; Drury PJ & Gow IR: Audley End, Essex: HMSO, London: 1984-).

Listing NGR: TL5246738150

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

370379

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: Essex, (1965)
Drury, PJ, Gow, IR, Audley End Essex, (1984)
Architectural History in Architectural History, (1980), 1-39

Other
Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England, Part 15 Essex,

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