Woolverstone Hall

Details

TM 1938 WOOLVERSTONE WOOLVERSTONE PARK 7/44 Woolverstone Hall 22.2.55 GV I Country house, now school. 1776 by John Johnson for William Berners with alterations and additions of 1823 and later. 1823 work by Thomas Hopper. Woolpit brick with Portland stone dressings and rusticated facing to basement. Coade stone ornament. Slate roofs. Adam style. 2 storeys and basement to 7- bay centre, C20 2-storey single-bay additions recessed to each side behind 5-bay quadrant walls which link with wings of one storey and attic and 5 x 3 bays. Service courtyards behind screen walls to either side. Centre range: 3-bay cen- tral pedimented breakforward. Rusticated basement with 3 round-arched recesses, the centre one containing half-glazed double doors flanked by pilasters beneath patterned radial fanlight, further double doors to right and a sash window with glazing bars to left. Outer bays have further sashes with glazing bars. Above, tetrastyle Ionic portico with ornamented frieze, cornice and modillioned pedi- ment containing roundel with figure of Diana. Urns to pediment. 1st floor: Round-arched recesses to portico containing sashes with glazing bars in archi- traves on balustrades surmounted by panels of sphynxes with urns. Outer windows have dentilled pediments on consoles with paterae in the friezes. 2nd floor: 6- pane sashes in architraves. Plain frieze and modillioned cornice to outer bays. Hipped roof. Rusticated quadrant walls, with end pilasters and round-arched recesses containing sashes with glazing bars, surmounted by balustrades. Side wings: Remodelled in 1823. 3 bays to front with tetrastyle Roman Doric porticoes to central breakforward originally containing round-arched niches to ground floor, now replaced by windows. Frieze and 6-pane sashes to attic with cornice and blocking course. 5 bays to inner returns with round-arched recesses. Hipped roofs with tall stacks. Courtyard screen walls are pilastered with cor- nice and blocking course, part rusticated stone to front with eliptical carriage arch. Sashes with glazing bars to return walls and rear. Garden front: Centre range 3 storeys, 7 bays including central full-height 5-window bow. French win- dows to centre, otherwise sashes, mostly with glazing bars in architraves with cornices. 1st floor band. Similar windows to 1st floor, on balustrades, the central one pedimented. 2nd floor: 6-pane sashes in architraves. Frieze, modillion cornice and blocking course. Single-storey linking ranges to each side with engaged Doric colonnade containing tall sashes with glazing bars, sur- mounted by balustrade. Interior: The principal features with Adam-style decoration remain intact including the entrance wall with oval bas-relief panels of nymphs, a modest staircase with wrought iron honeysuckle balustrade and three principal rooms on the ground floor with good plasterwork ceilings and fire- places. The music room (now library) has bowed ends. To the first floor the domed hall and main bedroom retain the original decoration with a fine hand- painted fireplace and good ceiling to the latter. William Berners was responsi- ble for the development of the Berners estate in London with John Johnson (who became County Surveyor for Essex in 1782) as his architect for part of that estate. The house was sold to Oxford University in 1937 and became a school in 1947.

Briggs, N, Woolverstone Hall: some reflections on the domestic architecture of John Johnson (1732-1814). Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History. Vol XXXIV Pt 1. Photographs in NMR.

Listing NGR: TM1938838662

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

277323

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History in Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History, Vol. 34, (1977)

End of official list entry

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