Thorpe Hall (Peterborough)

{{About|the mansion in Peterborough||Thorpe Hall (disambiguation){{!}}Thorpe Hall}}

{{Use British English|date=February 2023}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2024}}

{{Infobox historic site

| name = Thorpe Hall

| location = Longthorpe

| locmapin = Cambridgeshire

| coordinates = {{coord| 52|34|21.5|N|0|16|27.5|W}}

| image = Thorpe Hall - geograph.org.uk - 384907.jpg

| architect = Peter Mills

| beginning_date =

| gbgridref = TL1705098600

| built_for = Oliver St John

| built = 1653-1656

| designation1 = Grade I

| designation1_offname = Thorpe Hall;
Former stables to Thorpe Hall;
Gateway from garden to stables of Thorpe Hall

| designation1_date = 7 February 1952

| designation1_number = 1126912; 1126913; 1126914

| designation2 = Grade I

| designation2_offname = Walls, gatepiers and entrance gates to Thorpe Hall

| designation2_date = 7 May 1973

| designation2_number = 1331545

| designation3 = Grade II

| designation3_offname = Lodge to Thorpe Hall;
Archway in garden of Thorpe Hall to the south west;
Summerhouse in grounds of Thorpe Hall

| designation3_date = 7 May 1973

|designation3_number = 1161982; 1309857; 1331546

| designation4 = National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens

| designation4_type = Grade II*

| designation4_offname = Thorpe Hall

| designation4_date = 14 January 1988

| designation4_number = 1000139

}}

Thorpe Hall at Longthorpe in the city of Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, is a Grade I listed building,Longthorpe 1. 1500 Thorpe Hall TF 1901 13/57 7.2.52. I GV 2 built by Peter Mills between 1653 and 1656, for the Lord Chief Justice, Oliver St John. The house is unusual in being one of the very few mansions built during the Commonwealth period.Brandon, David and Knight, John Peterborough Past: The City and The Soke (p. 17) Chichester: Phillimore & Co. 2001 After a period as a hospital, it is currently used as a Sue Ryder hospice.

While parliamentary soldiers were in Peterborough in 1643 during the English Civil War, they ransacked the cathedral. Parliament disposed of Church property to raise money for the army and navy and the parliamentarian Oliver St John bought the lease to the manor of Longthorpe and built Thorpe Hall. In 1654 it was described by the author John Evelyn as "a stately place...built out of the ruins of the Bishop's Palace and cloisters."Davies, Elizabeth et al. [http://www.peterborough.gov.uk/page-9568 "Civil war and a return to peace"] in Peterborough: A Story of City and Country, People and Places (pp. 18–19) Peterborough City Council and Pitkin Unichrome, 2001

A symmetrical composition in ashlar, rusticated quoins, with square, groups of rusticated chimney shafts; the north and south elevations are identical, three dormers, casements under pediments, the centre one semi-circular. A stone slate roof overhangs on modillions. There are seven windows, with plain stone surrounds to top and ground floors. The porch with Tuscan columns supports a balcony. The balcony window on the first floor has a segmental pediment and shouldered architrave. The windows of the second and sixth bays have pediments, while the others have frieze and moulded cornice. A band marks first-floor height. There is a flight of eight steps with balustrade supporting two urns.

The interior is complete, except for library or Great Parlour panelling now at Leeds Castle. There may have been two designers, Mills and John Stone, a French-trained son of Nicholas Stone.Tim Mowl & Brian Earnshaw, Architecture Without Kings: The Rise of Puritan Classicism Under Cromwell (Manchester, 2015), pp. 111-6. Principal rooms have richly decorated fireplaces and plaster ceilings by Peter Mills. The principal staircase has heavily carved foliated open panels to broad balustrade. A stone screen on the landing was added in 1850 by Francis Ruddle of Peterborough.[https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1126912 Images of England No. 49711] National Monuments Record, English Heritage (retrieved 27 January 2008). See also Country Life XVL (p. 234) 1904, XLVI (pp. 300, 330 & 364) 1919

Thorpe Hall is situated in a Grade II listed garden that is open to members of the public throughout the year. The curved walls forming the entrance courtyard, gatepiers and entrance gates,LONGTHORPE 1. 1500 Walls, gatepiers & entrance gates to Thorpe Hall TL 1798 13/57C 7.5.73. I GV 2, see [https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1331545 Images of England No. 49712] National Monuments Record, English Heritage (retrieved 28 January 2008) former stables to the right,LONGTHORPE 1. 1500 Former stables to Thorpe Hall TL 1698 13/57A TL 1798 13/57A 7.2.52. I GV 2, see [https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1126913 Images of England No. 49713] National Monuments Record, English Heritage (retrieved 28 January 2008) and a shouldered stone architrave gateway flanked by vertically halved pilasters with volutesLONGTHORPE 1. 1500 Gateway from garden to stables of Thorpe Hall TL 1698 13/57E 7.2.52. I GV 2, see [https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1126914 Images of England No. 49715] National Monuments Record, English Heritage (retrieved 28 January 2008) are also Grade I listed buildings. The late 19th-century lodge,LONGTHORPE 1. 1500 Lodge to Thorpe Hall TL 1698 13/246 7.5.73. II GV 2, see [https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1161982 Images of England No. 49717] National Monuments Record, English Heritage (retrieved 28 January 2008) octagonal summerhouse in red brick with fish scale slate roof,LONGTHORPE 1. 1500 Summerhouse in grounds of Thorpe Hall TL 1698 13/57D 7.5.73. II GV 2, see [https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1331546 Images of England No. 49716] National Monuments Record, English Heritage (retrieved 28 January 2008) and a free-standing archway resembling a Venetian window in designLONGTHORPE 1. 1500 Archway in garden of Thorpe Hall to the south west TL 1698 11/57B 7.5.73. II GV 2, see [https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1309857 Images of England No. 49714] National Monuments Record, English Heritage (retrieved 28 January 2008) are Grade II listed buildings.

A maternity hospital from 1943 to 1970, it was transferred to the National Health Service in 1948, coming under No. 12 Group (Peterborough and Stamford Hospitals Management Committee) of the East Anglian Regional Hospital Board.Beatty, Gwendoline "Peterborough and District War Memorial Hospital 1928–1968" in Peterborough's Past Vol. 3 (pp. 45–56) Peterborough Museum Society, 1988 In 1986 it was acquired by the Sue Ryder Foundation and is currently in use as a hospice.