Burton Closes, Bakewell, Derbyshire

Description

BAKEWELL

SK26NW BURTON CLOSE DRIVE
831-1/2/36 (North side)
13/03/51 Burton Closes

GV II*

Country house, now residential home. 3 principal building
phases: firstly a summer villa built c1845-48 for John
Allcard, banker and stockbroker to a design by Paxton and John
Robertson; the interior fittings by Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin
executed by JG Crace, Minton, Hardman and George Myers.
Second phase: c1856-58 extensions for William Allcard, railway
engineer, to a design by TD Barry of Liverpool and Edward Welby Pugin.
Third phase: further additions in 1888 for Smith Taylor-Whitehead by
JB Mitchel-Withers.
MATERIALS: deeply-coursed tooled sandstone with ashlar
dressings; slate roofs with rolled-lead ridges.
PLAN: when completed the house formed a U-shaped plan around
an entrance courtyard; the north range was demolished in 1949
and replaced by the present building of 1972 by Robert Quie
Associates.
EXTERIOR: 2 storeys with partial attics; single-storey
(former) conservatory. Deeply-moulded plinths and continuous
first-floor string course; tall octagonal paired stacks
throughout.
Central block of c1845-48 is aligned north-south and is in
Tudor Gothic style. Plan: central 2-storey entrance hall with
stairs to right, principal rooms to rear, services to left;
originally there were only 2 main bedrooms.
Entrance front (west): symmetrical, 3 bays, the centre
projecting and having stepped 1:3:1-light window to first
floor, coped gable and octagonal pinnacles; one-storey porch
with studded doors in Tudor-arched surround with hoodmould,
castellated parapet with pinnacles.
Outer bays: two 2-light windows beneath stepped 3-light
windows which rise into dormers with coped gables and metal
finials. Hoodmoulds throughout.
Garden front (E): asymmetrical, 4 bays. 2 wings both gabled,
one with stepped 3-light window over canted bay, the other
with canted oriel over 3-light window; 3-light windows
elsewhere and all are mullioned with transoms (except the
oriel); coped gables with pinnacles and apex finials (as
front).
Left return (S) is as bay 3 of garden front.
The second phase wing (to south); in Perpendicular Gothic
Revival style. The building of this involved the removal of
the conservatory which was re-assembled to west of this range;
it is of 8 bays, each bay with C20 casement; panelled pilaster
buttresses, crenellated cornice.
The wing itself, a markedly asymmetrical 5-bay elevation
dominated by an octagonal turret (the spirelet removed), with
traceried upper panels, the topmost panels pierced,
single-light windows to first floor and a garden entrance
below.
To the left one gabled and 2 hipped bays with oriel and
storeyed bay windows respectively; recessed bay connects (to
right) with south return of earlier range.
Courtyard elevation treated in a more restrained fashion which
harmonises with the earlier work.
INTERIOR: central block; entrance hall in late medieval
spirit; panel-vaulted ceiling with stencilled patterning (by
Crace); 5-light window with patterned glass (by Hardman);
screen with gallery and linenfold panelling, part glazed with
trefoiled lights.
Stair hall to right: open-well staircase with poppy-head
finials on octagonal newels, octagonal balusters,
richly-carved panelling to dado and string.
Dining room with crenellated fireplace having motto and John
Allcard's initials; panelled dado and ceiling with stencilled
decoration bearing morally uplifting texts; transom lights
have monograms.
Drawing room: 2 ornate doorways with original brass door
furniture and pierced cresting; wall mirror in carved and
crested surround; 11x5-panel ceiling with repeated stencilled
design (some panels painted over); patterned glass to the
transom lights. Present office with crested library shelving
and panelled ceiling. Numerous original features elsewhere.
Second phase wing; a vaulted passage links to 1840s drawing
room and to a room having a polychromatic fireplace with
initials 'W.A.', oak motifs and birds in a vine trail;
diagonal ceiling panels with repeated stencilled design.
Former billiard room also with original fireplace and panelled
ceiling.
1888 east garden front (to north of 1840s range): in a plain
Renaissance style. Paired cross-windows, buttresses with
gablets rise to middle of first floor; gabled roof dormers.
The south bay angled towards the 1840s range, the dormer more
elaborate with grotesques and flying buttresses.
Gateway to courtyard with large piers having stopped chamfers
and castellated tops; one wing wall has small bellcote on
courtyard side.
HISTORY: John Allcard occupied the house with his unmarried
daughter. He died in 1856 and the estate passed to his son
William who had eleven children. William only occupied the
extended house for 3 years; on his death in 1858 it passed to
his son William Henry Allcard, a barrister. The family lost
its wealth in the stock market crash of 11 May 1866 'Black
Friday'.
The house finally passed from the family in 1871.
EXTRA INFORMATION: the house is starred because the early work
(although now incomplete) presents what has been described as
a 'virtual epitome of early Victorian visual taste' (set in
grounds landscaped by Paxton). The later ranges are handled
very sensitively and create a complex C19 house of
considerable distinction.
(The Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Derbyshire:
Harmondsworth: 1986-: 77-78; Dissertation B.A. History of
Design: Carrington P: Burton Closes, Bakewell, Derbyshire:
1986-).

Listing NGR: SK2205467664

External Links

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Burton Closes

A Grade II* Listed Building in Bakewell, Derbyshire

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