Waterside Preparatory School (the Old Estate Mansion) (EHER 35962)

Late 19th century Gothic Revival country house by Philip Hardwick (the younger).

October 2019. Heritage assessment. Hassobury is significant as an example of Victorian country house architecture and planning of the second half of the 19th century. The house was designed as a country home for a large and growing family as well as to provide for entertaining space on a lavish scale to suit the Gosling family’s country lifestyle, in particular fox hunting. This required extensive service areas also known as “The Offices” to support the family and its social life. The Goslings commissioned Philip Charles Hardwick, a third generation architect with a successful country house practice for City clients. <1> NRHE data transfer: Large York stone mansion built in 1868 by P.C. Hardwick (the younger) in the "Gothic" style, and asymmetric in design. Mainly of two and three storeys it has a wing on the west end of one storey and attics. The north front has a large gable, a half octagonal three storeyed castellated bay and a three storeyed entrance wing, gabled with a large oriel bay on the first storey and a "Gothic" arched doorway beneath. The south front has two gables and two splayed bays with traceried parapets. The windows are mainly stone mullioned and transomed casements with "Gothic" arched heads. Roof tiled, with a number of gabled dormers with ornamental bargeboards on both fronts and a number of tall chimney stacks with grouped circular shafts and moulded caps and bases. <2> <3>