Description

RICKMANSWORTH MOOR PARK TQ 0793 Rickmansworth 14/191 Moor Park and 26.7.51 Orangery/Stable Block (Formerly listed as Moor Park with entrance gate and GV lodges)

Country House, now golf club house. The Duke of Monmouth's late C17 house as rebuilt 1720-8 by Sir J. Thornhill for B. Styles. 1728-30 work supervised by G. Leoni. Altered 1751-4 by M. Brettingham for Lord Anson, 1763-5 by R. Adam for Sir L. Dundas, c.1830 by R. Cundy II for the Marquess of Westminster and 1849 by W. Burn for Lord Ebury. Wings removed 1785. Portland stone casing of earlier brick building. Slate hipped roofs. Baroque/Palladian Style. 11 bays with 5 bay returns. Corinthian Order. 2 storeys and attic. 4:3:4 front. Steps up to central colossal pedimented tetrastyle portico. Moulded coffered soffit. Ground floor tall round headed key blocked windows, banded rustication. Central entrance with secondary entrance in 2nd bay from right. First floor 8 pane sashes in architraves with cornices and panels below sills. 4 pane attic windows in architraves. Colossal pilasters to 3 central bays and to each pair of outer bays and at return ends. In pediment are arms of Lord Ebury. Balustraded parapet with piers to each bay. Plain parapet with central stack behind pediment. Garden front as principal front but portico is engaged, projecting slightly. Basement with forecourt balustrade, steps up to centre. 7 central ground floor windows are full height without moulded sills as to outer bays which are in shallower reveals. Right return has a terrace over basement with oeil-de-boeuf openings. Left return has a balustraded wall before a projecting basement. From left front a low, cement rendered 8 bay quadrant link with plain piers and open panels to Orangery and Stable Block, now shop and offices. Rebuilt in C19 following C18 model. Ashlar. Engaged Ionic Order. 8 bays face house: full height round headed glazing bar windows, banded rustication with key blocks. Balustraded parapet closed. End bays slightly set back and canted away. To left a distyle portico in antis to recess with 2 panelled doors. Left return, 1:3:1, round arched headed windows, central carriageway to inner yard. Paired pilasters flank outer bays. Inserted attic windows; Garden front: 8 bay, 1 storey rusticated block. Blind round arches. Panelled door to right of centre, semi-circular fanlight, pilastered jambs, further similar 3 and 4 bay elevations. Interior: cubic hall c.1730 with gallery and trompe l'oeil dome, abundant Baroque decoration, paintings by J. Amiconi, plasterwork by Artari and Bagutti. Saloon preserved from C17 house, ceiling by Verrio, wall panels c.1730 by F. Sleter. Dining Room c.1763 probably by R. Adam with ceiling decoration of 1769 by Cipriani. Open well stair probably by G. Leoni, top-lit in 1763 with grisailles by F. Sleter dated 1732, and paintings probably by J. Amiconi. Italian garden of c.1830 to NE. Old Pleasure Grounds originally laid out by Capability Brown c.1753 to SE (q.q.v.). (Country Life 6 and 13/1/1912: Colvin 1954: C. Hussey, English Country Houses, Early Georgian, 1955: T.P. Hudson, 'Moor Park, Leoni and Sir J. Thornhill', Burlington Magazine, vol.113, Nov.1971: Pevsner 1977).

Listing NGR: TQ0745893316

External Links

• Moor Park at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q6908050

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Leeds, Bradford and the North (Pevsner Architectural Guides / Buildings of England)
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cambridgeshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Cumberland and Westmorland)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1967)
• 
  Hampshire: South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects by Harwood, Richard (2012) Paperback