PITZHANGER MANOR
Ornate landing area
Revealing the past
One of the borough ’ s landmark buildings is slowly travelling back in time by more than 200 years as a delicate restoration project works to return it to its most famous incarnation as the ‘ country home ’ of a renowned architect .
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The recent successful restoration of Walpole Park in Ealing returned it to something approaching its Regency glory days , when it served as the grounds of Pitzhanger Manor House . The house is now receiving similar treatment .
Ealing Council is undertaking the project in partnership with Pitzhanger Manor & Gallery Trust ( set up in 2012 to manage the buildings ), and it is being funded primarily through grants obtained from Heritage Lottery Fund , Arts Council England and others . The restoration of the Grade I listed manor house will mean it will , as closely as possible , recreate Sir John Soane ’ s original vision for the site more than two centuries ago . Soane was , and remains , an influential figure in architectural history .
Since work began on the site in 2015 , there have been a number of critical repairs carried out ; and several layers of later extensions and alterations have been peeled back to reveal Soane ’ s original layout . Bricks from the Victorian ‘ infill ’ extension will be reused to construct a colonnade outside . It will be a recreation of Soane ’ s 19th Century covered walkway that used to take guests from the house to the kitchen wing and gardens – but will now instead take visitors to and from the house and the gallery . The gallery is itself being restored and upgraded . Lifts are being added to make the site fully accessible for the first time .
During the painstaking early stages of the restoration of the house a number of features – some hidden from view for a long time – have been uncovered . For example , the freshly exposed north elevation will again become visitors ’ first
24 around ealing Spring 2017
The façade of the building incorporates four Caryatids on columns , based on ancient Greek sculptures from the Acropolis in Athens