Hoopern House

Details

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment of 07/08/2020

SX 99 SW
871/24/10110

PENNSYLVANIA ROAD (west side)
101 AND 103, Hoopern House

23-JUN-00

II
Large mansion, core built before 1831 for E.P. Lyon with later C19 alterations and extension, presently used by the University of Exeter as the Institute of Population Studies. Mass wall construction, unpainted stucco, blocked out. Channelled rustication at ground floor level. Classical Revival to style to main range.

PLAN: two rooms wide either side of entrance hall and stair and deep rectangular plan. Service block to rear may be the core of the 1831 house, the main range is probably an addition of the 1860s. Rear stack visible from right return.

EXTERIOR: two storeys. Symmetrical, five-bay front. Two storeys high. Moulded band at first floor sill level and elaborate eaves cornice with dentils and triglyph frieze. Parapet hides roof. Central main entrance with Doric porch, sides infilled at a later date. Doorcase has overlight and panes either side of the nine-panel door. Ground floor hornless sash windows with top sash having six panes and the bottom sash without glazing bars and pedimented architraves with apron. First floor windows are four-pane horned sashes. Housing for horizontal sliding shutters (missing).

Right return stuccoed with channelled rustication and banding at first floor level and eaves cornice continues over five bays. Some blind windows at both floor levels but some sixteen-pane hornless sashes to ground floor and four-pane horned sashes at first floor. Central first floor window has housing for horizontal shutters (now missing). Access to basement below ground floor level via steps down. Slightly lower two-storey service block, now No.103 and used for student accommodation. This is two storeys plus cellars which run into those beneath Hoopern House itself. It has a painted stucco finish. Three bays. Ground floor has three thirty-pane hornless sash windows with a later entrance between the first and second windows. First floor has two two-light casement windows. Shallow hipped roof with asbestos slates visible above parapet.

The left return of main range is stucco, with channelled rustication and moulded the banding at first floor level and eaves cornice all continue on the left return. Evidence for a probable former conservatory, now missing. At ground floor left are steps up to a half-glazed two-leaf entrance with deep rectangular overlight and glazed panels flanking either side of the door itself. At first floor are a tripartite hornless sash 1/2, 3/6. 1/2 to the left, the middle window is a 3/6 hornless sash and a blind window in the third bay. The two glazed windows both have housing for horizontal shutters (now missing).

INTERIOR: only partially inspected. Elaborate inner door with geometric stained glass. Open well-stair with turned balusters. Original doorcases and doors.

HISTORICAL NOTE: according to Harvey, Hoopern House became the home of Mark Kennaway a local philanthropist and leading Exeter Liberal. On his death in 1877 a sale notice in 1877 listed `Stable with three stalls, another with three looseboxes...coach-house for three carriages...the large yard is well supplied with hard and soft water and there are a brew house, piggeries and other convenient accessories'.

In spite of alterations this is a good quality villa with many features of interest.

Listing NGR: SX9257094272

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

480991

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Harvey, H, Discovering Exeter: Pennsylvania, (1984), 33

End of official list entry

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