Kingston House

Details

KINGSTON BAGPUIZE WITH SOUTHMOOR KINGSTON BAGPUIZE PARK SU4097 14/99 Kingston House 06/08/52 (Formerly listed as Kingston House including Gazebo)

GV II*

Country house. c.1710, probably for Fettiplace Blandy, but with possible C17 origins: interior partly remodelled c.1730. Flemish bond red brick; limestone ashlar basement, quoin strips and dressings. Shallow gabled lead roof. Brick stacks, projecting from side walls of central block, are each paired together by round arch with moulded stone dressings. Double-pile plan. Early Georgian style. 2 storeys; 7-window range. 2:3:2 front has projecting pedimented central block raised by an attic above the outer bays. 2-light stone-mullioned basement windows. Steps to double-leaf doors with fanlight: keyed round-arched doorway has Doric entablature and base (without shaft) sunk into rusticated surround with triglyph frieze: segmental-arched sash window above has engaged Ionic columns and curved shoulders. 6-pane sashes with thick glazing bars to all windows: moulded stone architraves to keyed round-arched windows, and segmental-arched first-floor windows, all with apron blocks. String course. Moulded cornice carried across raised centre which has keyed moulded architraves to attic windows and lunette in pediment. Flaming urns of the Blandy family placed at outer ends of pediment and flanking parapets. Almost identical rear elevation has 2-light cavetto-moulded basement windows and double-leaf doors set in plain moulded architrave with fanlight and entablature. Pedimented 3-bay side walls have similar windows and 2 round-headed attic windows in each pediment: doorway to left has stone steps with brick walls and stone piers. Interior: basement has C18 kitchen and reset early C17 panelling with traces of filigree decoration beneath the paint. Plan: central hall opens to rear hall with staircase: first-floor saloon subdivided in 1730s. Hall has Ionic dentilled cornice, panelled dado and, on the rear wall, a tall round-arched entry with later C18 door and panelling flanked by 2 fine Baroque stone fireplaces. Keyed segmental-arched doorways with 6-panelled doors to dining room on left, with doors, panelling and marble fireplace of c.1730, and parlour on right with similar panelling and earlier C18 fireplace which has finely carved frieze and Fettiplace griffins on the consoles. Bedroom opening onto closet behind parlour has earlier C18 bolection-moulded panelling with dentilled pediment over doorway and broken-pediment entablature over marble fireplace: much of the panelling and the cornice removed in mid C20. Dog-leg back stairs behind dining room has turned balusters on closed string. Fine staircase, with pedestal-shaped newels and fluted bulbs carved at foot of turned balusters, rises in 2 arms to balustraded first-floor gallery: buffet on gallery has finely carved large shell niche. Panelled rooms of c.1730, eared architrave to overmantle on right. History: likely dates are about 1710 when Fettiplace Blandy, son of John Blandy and grandson of Sir Edmund Fettiplace, succeeded to the property; and in 1728 when the Blandys bought the "Mansion House" which the deed states had been purchased by Fettiplace from John Latton in 1670, the old moated house being left to fall down. It has been suggested that George Townsend built the Early georgian house because of similarities with the designs of hid former master, Vanbrugh. (Buildings of England: Berkshire, pp.160-161; V.C.H.: Berkshire, Vol.IV, p.349; C. Hussey, "Kingston House, Berkshire", Country Life, November '9, 1942, pp.890-3, 938-41; John Betjeman and John Piper, "Murray's Architectural Guide": Berkshire, 1949, p.131; deed at Kingston House dated 22.11.1728; H.M. Colvin, A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects, 1660-1830, 1978, p.830).

Listing NGR: SU4072897913

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

249597

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: Berkshire, (1966), 160-161
Ditchfield, P H, Page, W, The Victoria History of the County of Berkshire, (1924), 349
Colvin, H M, A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1600-1840, (1978), 830
Country Life in 19 November, (1942), 890-3
Country Life in 19 November, (1942), 938-41
Murrays Architectural Guide in Berkshire, (1949), 131

End of official list entry

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