Marden Hill House, Service Block and Annexe

Details

TEWIN MARDEN HILL TL 21 SE 5/145 Marden Hill House, 20.10.52 Service Block and Annexe (Formerly listed as Marden Hill) GV II*

Country house, now 6 flats. 1790-4 by F. Carter for R. Mackay retaining fragments of house built c.1655 for H. North. Altered 1818-19 by Sir John Soane for C.G. Thornton, Governor of Bank of England. Further altered and extended 1866. Yellow stock brick with earlier and later red brick on service buildings. Portland stone dressings. Stone flag hipped mansard roof with leaded central valley. Tiled roofs on service buildings. Simple Neo-classical Style. Square on plan, 5 x 5 bays. 2 storeys with attic and basement. Entrance front: central 2 storey tetrastyle Ionic porch added by Soane using columns originally intended for New Bank Buildings in Princes Street. Quarter spheres at bases flank steps up to large glazed round arch behind which are more steps up to inner entrance with 2/3 glazed double doors, segmental pediment on consoles. First floor tripartite windows onto balustraded balcony, panelled pilaster strips and blocked cornice. Returns have ground floor round headed small pane fixed windows, first floor glazing bar sashes. Outer bays have thin glazing bar sashes recessed with gauged brick flat arched heads, cambered heads to basement, moulded stone course over basement, blind arcading on ground floor with moulded stone impost blocks, string course at first floor sill level, all continuous. Attic has later C19 pedimented 9 pane half dormers to centre and outer bays breaking stone coped parapet, intermediate blind panels with original round headed dormers behind in mansard. Stacks, dormers and lantern in central valley. Rebated corners to return elevations, that to left is garden front with a large 3 bay full height bow to centre. Double curved flights of steps removed from principal entrance by Soane, round piers, balustrades and broad handrails. To centre a round arch with arms on keystone. Ground floor 15 pane sashes, shaped brackets to moulded blind boxes, moulded architraves on bow. Surmounting bow is terracotta balustraded parapet. Pedimented half dormers, that to centre a 3 light casement with round head to centre, moulded frame. 2 ridge stacks. Rear elevation is similar without impost blocks and string course at first floor sill level. Entrance to left of centre with steps up with curved iron handrails. Panelled door with 8 pane rectangular fanlight, pilastered doorcase with shaped brackets to dentilled hood. Right return from front has 2 stacks, scattered sashes. Towards rear a full height projecting apsidal water closet. Interior: Soane's alterations include entrance hall; lateral segmental vault with key pattern and ball mouldings, niches in quadrant corners, distyle in antis Corinthian columns to staircase; a single flight up returns in 2 to landing, continuous handrail, wreathed at base, swept round in curves without newel posts, iron balustrade with rosettes in diamonds, late C18 plasterwork below oval lantern. Ground floor: dining room; segmental arched sideboard recess, coffered and reeded, late C18 chimney-piece. First floor boudoir with complex typically Soanian vaulting, laterally vaulted bay to segmental cross vault with central rosette, key pattern and ball moulding, further saucer dome with flanking segmental vaults. Extending to right from main block is passage link to service block, largely C18 incorporating some C17 brickwork. 2 storeys. Accretions to front of link with end of service block projecting, refaced c.1800, 1st floor sash, hipped roof, an extruded stack with offsets on inner return. Outer return faces stable yard and is main elevation of service block, early C18, irregularly fenestrated. Ground floor: towards left a door of 4 raised panels, upper glazing with rusticated and pilastered timber doorcase concealing C17 jambs. To left a paired flush frame 16 pane sash with a small hood, to right a 5 light casement, segmental headed door and 2 light casement. 2 further bays added to far right with a door and 16 pane sash. Plat band to first floor with sashes and casements, cross axial ridge stack at original right end. Right end ground floor segmental headed 4 light casement, plat band, first floor 16 pane sash, hipped roof. Inside service courtyard is early red brick to rear of passage link with a door, plat band, first floor early leaded cross casement. Rear of service block has later projecting tilehung first floor on iron columns. A quadrant wall from main block leads to late C19 Annexe adjoining service block. Gable end to rear with a ground floor 4 light bay window. Moulded bargeboards. Returns have moulded brick, plat bands, extruded stacks with paired diagonal shafts. (Country Life, 22/8/1941: D. Stroud, The Architecture of Sir John Soane, 1961: Pevsner 1977: RCHM Typescript).

Listing NGR: TL2793613988

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

356255

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Stroud, D, The Architecture of Sir John Soane, (1961)
Pevsner, N, Cherry, B, The Buildings of England: Hertfordshire, (1977)
Country Life in 22 August, (1941)

End of official list entry

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