Description

SU 97 NW
10/29

BRAY
WINDSOR ROAD (north-east side, off)
Wateroakley
Oakley Court Hotel

(Formerly listed as Oakley Court and Nulli Secundus)

21.12.77

II*

Very large Victorian Gothic mansion, in landscaped surrounds by the river Thames. Now hotel and conference centre. Dated 1859, altered and extended late C20 by Nellist, Blundell and Flint. Buff brick with Portland stone and Bath stone dressings; fishscale tile roof with ridge cresting. Irregular plan with former lower service wing and courtyard (Nulli Secundus), now conference centre, adjoining on the south. Castellated tower part of and rinsing above the south-east front. Part one storey, part two storeys, part three storeys.

Several chimneys with offset heads and ornamental terracotta pots. Perpendicular mullioned windows with traceried heads in main building, with carved stops to drip moulds; some windows contained in canted and oriel bays. Machicolated and crenellated angle and stair turrets; crow stepped gables with flanking pinnacles and finials, surmounted by heraldic beasts.

Entrance (north-west) front: main features are a single-storey porte-cochere and entrance lobby projecting well forward of main face of building with a flat roof. Moulded, pointed-arched heads to openings; three-stage angle buttresses on north-west side of porte-cochere. Main front behind has two large crow-step gables, the one on the right taller, and slightly projecting. To the right is the former courtyard wall, curved brick, with moulded recessed panels and a pair of large, chamfered, ashlar gate piers with heavy moulded tops. The courtyard has been infilled with the conference centre which is of no special interest.

Garden (south-east) front: picturesque composition of three gables of different heights and a three-storey canted bay adjoining the three-stage tower which has single-light windows and a machicolated and crenellated top. To the left of this is the former service wing: plainer, of brick; casement windows with lighter brick dressings and pointed-arched heads. Near the centre of this wing is a clock tower: three stages, the lower stage brick, the upper stage painted wood with two louvred openings with cusped heads in recessed cusp-headed panels, on each face. Above this is a small hipped roof with two small gabled and louvred dormers, surmounted by a clock stage; clock face in moulded surround on all faces. A spirelet with gables at the foot and a weathervane at the top, surmounts the clock stage.

Interior: very fine principal rooms and staircase hall. White lounge: raised and moulded wall panelling. Plaster ceiling enriched with garlands and floral motifs. Elaborate frieze and cornice. A pair of matching wooden fireplaces with Caryatid pilasters, marble insets within carved and moulded architraves; each has an elaborate frieze decorated with garlands, within a moulded, arched head. Two elaborate window embrasures with fluted colonnettes, balustrades and delicate open-work in spandrels. Large, panelled double doors lead into the room, with applied decorative motifs and beading. Ante-room/bar: linenfold panelling and Tudor-style moulded and coffered ceiling. Staircase hall: full-height open-well staircase with elaborately scrolled and twisted iron balusters; moulded handrail; large chamfered newels with moulded tops. Moulded plaster ceilings and wall friezes. Panelled dado and doors. This style continued into entrance lobby which has an encaustic tile floor.

Listing NGR: SU9226577626

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Oakley Court at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q1441828

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

• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990
• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Period property manual, victorian house manual 2 books collection set by ian rock
• 
  Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)