Upton House

Details

SY99SE
958-1/4/252
08/08/72

POOLE
Upton (South side)
UPTON ROAD
Upton House

GV
II*
Country house, now partly offices. Early C19. For Christopher Spurrier MP for Bridport. Enlarged 1830 by John Penistor for Sir Everard Doughty, Bart.

Unpainted stucco over brick with some Portland stone dressings, hipped slate roofs, and rendered ridge and lateral stacks. Central hall plan.

EXTERIOR: basement, two storeys and attic; seven-window range. Three-bay pedimented central breaks forward and has Ionic porch to ground floor with swagged frieze and blocking cornice. Within porch central double-leaf, part-glazed door with fanlight to round-arched head, flanked by twelve-pane sash windows. Similar sashes to first floor above with incised flat-arched heads and keyblocks and circular attic window to pediment. Ground-and first-floor windows to bays either side have swagged apron panels and moulded surrounds with key blocks; twelve-pane sashes to first-floor windows, Gothic glazing patterns to ground-floor sashes. Rusticated quoins, rusticated treatment to pedimented centre,storey band, swagged frieze and moulded stone cornice. Rendered, stone-coped parapet with sections of balustrade alternating with blank upright oval sunk panels; segmental-headed dormers behind balustrade. Main range is flanked by single-storey quadrant walls framing forecourt, with Ionic colonnades similarly detailed to porch. Back walls rise above colonnades and have similar parapets to main block. Sash window within colonnade each side with elliptical-arched head,flanked by similar blank windows.

Five-bay right side elevation of house has projecting central bay with a sash window to ground and first floors with round-arched head and blank side lights,and circular attic window above to pedimental gable. Fifteen-pane sash windows to ground floor either side and twelve-pane sashes to first floor. Basement windows with small panes and wood lintels, strong band and swagged frieze broken by open-based pediment to three central bays continued over projecting bay as gable. Prominent chimneystack rises above gable. Nine-bay garden front to south has three-bay centre flanked by shallow three-bay,two-storey bows. Full-length windows to ground floor with Gothic glazing patterns. Twelve-pane sashes to first floor with C19 blind boxes. Angle strips with channelled rustication, swagged frieze ,moulded stone cornice and plain parapet four segmental-headed dormers behind parapet.

Ground floor was formerly covered by iron verandah the floor of which survives, black and white chequered stone paving, punctuated by quatrefoil patterns.

Single-storey attached screen wall of white brick, left with plain stone-coped parapet hiding offices, balanced by wing to right. Two-bay lean-to building against front of wall with pair of tripartite windows may have been a conservatory originally; rendered walls and hipped slate roof.

Single-storey service block to rear of screen wall at basement level of white brick with hipped slate roof. Single-storey wing to right of garden front with hipped slate roof behind plain stone-coped parapets has twelve-pane sashes with gauged brick flat-arched heads, shallow segmental bays to right end elevation and segmental-headed dormers behind parapet.

INTERIOR: rooms are ranged round full-height, top-lit central hall with lavish detailing. Vestibule behind porch below principal level with flight of six stone steps up to inner hall. Corinthian column screen between vestibule and hall. Iron balustrades to stops and landing with pairs of brass balustrades alternating with wrought-iron panels and mahogany handrail. Steps are flanked by internal window to left lighting basement and glazed door to right, both with round-arched heads; three stone steps down to door. Stone-paved floor, and rusticated walls below principal level. Inner hall has stone paved floor with black diamond insets. Reeded doorcases with attenuated acanthus capitals and six-panel mahogany doors with inlaid ebony Greek key patterns above bottom panels.

Curved cantilever stair rises in exedra at right end of hall. Reeded column screen with acanthus capitals and elliptical arches at head of stair. Similar screen at opposite end of upper hall. Circular gallery with iron balustrade enriched with brass Gothic-style cresting. Deep core enriched with swags and bucrania. Ten-sided lantern with domed glazed roof. Circular panel to centre with eagle bearing chandelier chain.

Library has fitted bookcases with concealed door to hall. Statuary marble chimneypiece with Roman Doric half-columns relief panels above with profile heads of Ceres to left. Bacchus to right, tablet with sea goddess grasping dolphins' tails and anthemion ornament to frieze. Original pelmets, wallpaper friezes with foliage scrolls and deep enriched cove.

Double-leaf curved mahogany doors to drawing room folding into walls, reputedly Elliptical Hypotenuse pivot doors. When closed they form part of niche in Library. Drawing room, extended late C19 into east wing has similar wallpaper frieze to that in Library. Very fine statuary marble chimneypiece, said to have been made for a palace of Napoleon I with bare-breasted female satyrs flanking fireplace aperture with ivy garlands to waists supporting baskets of flowers and mantel. Central tablet in low relief in Greek style with elderly seated male figure facing a seated female figure and a standing female figure behind her indicating a table holding two jugs and a bowl. Chimneypiece is similar in design to that in Royal Closet at Buckingham Palace from the Throne Room of Carlton House in marble and bronze and another at Bagatelle in the Bois de Boulogne, Paris, with bronze mounts attributed to Gouthied. Even so the proportions of chimneypiece suggest it is English.

Garden hall to centre of south front has statuary marble chimneypiece with wide flutes to uprights, tablet with incised lozenge and original cast-iron grate with brass enrichments. Ceiling core similar to that in hall. Dining Room has pair of marbled Corinthian columns to inner end, originally framing sideboard, supporting sections of entablature with swagged frieze. Statuary marble chimneypiece with Roman Doric half columns, swagged tablet and original grate.

Former Roman Catholic Chapel in east wing, later converted to Library (then Billiard Room) is top lit with Soanian-style curved plaster ceiling rising to octagonal skylight. C19 oak chimneypiece in Jacobean style. Dogleg back stair behind main stair from basement to attic, approached by curved gib door from inner hall.

Extensive basement linked to former detached kitchen in area behind quadrant wall. Lower hall below inner hall. Kitchen later converted to fives court. An exceptionally complete and well-appointed Regency mansion, ingeniously planned inside, built for one of Poole's most prominent citizens.

Listing NGR: SY9931092991

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

412634

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Inventory of Dorset II South East, (1970), 208

End of official list entry

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