page_title: Fonthill Splendens
section_title: Alderman Beckford's house
hierarchical_section_title: Fonthill Splendens / Alderman Beckford's house
caption_attribution_description: English: Fonthill Splendens Floor Plan
context_page_description: Fonthill Splendens was a country mansion in Wiltshire, built by Alderman William Beckford; building began in 1755 and was largely complete by 1770. The construction followed the destruction by fire of the previous Fonthill House. The new mansion had a life of only fifty years, being demolished in 1807.
  Beckford is usually referred to as Alderman Beckford to distinguish him from his more well-known son, William Beckford of Fonthill Abbey. Fonthill Splendens was a major country house of its time, but knowledge of it has largely been eclipsed by the story of Beckford’s Gothic edifice, Fonthill Abbey.
  As with the earlier building, the mansion was in its time just known as Fonthill House. The name Fonthill Splendens may have been used colloquially but only appeared in print in 1829, some twenty years after the house was demolished.
context_section_description: This very substantial mansion was built in the Palladian style, largely based on the design of Houghton Hall in Norfolk. It seems that a formal architect may not have been engaged. Credit is usually given to a ‘Mr Hoare a London builder’.  Given the closeness of Fonthill to Stourhead, James or George Hoare may have had some connection to the Hoare family.
  The building consisted of a nine bay central block on three floors. This was connected by quadrant colonnades to free standing five bay pavilions of two floors. Two flights of steps on the north front led to a portico with pediment on four giant Ionic columns. The principal rooms were all on the first floor or piano nobile, set around a vast central hall, the Organ Hall. The basement or ‘Rustick Story’ floor seems to have been used for everyday living.  All the services such as the kitchen and brewhouse were confined to the separate wings, internal passageways in the quadrants connecting them to the central block.
  Architecturally, the house was considered to be a rather old-fashioned design, some twenty years out of date in comparison to the latest styles. The interior, however, was fitted out by the Alderman in the current taste of the 1760s and was extremely richly decorated throughout, with painted ceilings, elaborate chimney pieces, velvet and damask wall hangings, a library, many oil paintings and tapestries.
  He also carried out extensive landscaping works to the grounds.  The stream flowing north/south through the grounds was dammed to form Fonthill Lake. A bridge crossed the lake, and on the shore a boathouse and several grottoes were built, by Joseph and his son Josiah Lane.  The fine North Lodge entrance remains: an archway with pediment over and lodges either side, the facades decorated with vermiculated block rustication. The house seems to have suffered from a low lying position close to the lake, there being many complaints over the years of it being damp.
caption: Fonthill Splendens, ground plan, illustrated in Vitruvius Britannicus, Volume 4, 1767.[5]
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