Walmoor House, the Grade II-listed riverside mansion known as "Douglas' Castle", is on the market for a guide price of £1,900,000. The property, on Dee Banks in Chester, was built in the 1890s by Victorian architect John Douglas as his own home.
Douglas, born in 1830, designed the Elizabethan-style house with parapets and red sandstone towers to his personal tastes. He had amassed a large fortune through commissions from wealthy landowners and industrialists, including the 1st Duke of Westminster, allowing him to spend lavishly on his own residence. Its size and prominent position overlooking the River Dee earned it the nickname "Douglas' Castle".
Architect's Legacy and Historic Use
Douglas designed over 500 buildings in Cheshire, North Wales, and northwest England during his lifetime. His most famous creation is the Eastgate Clock, the elaborate domed clock atop the Chester city walls, said to be the most photographed clock in England after London's Big Ben.
Douglas lived in Walmoor House from about 1901 until his death in 1911. Ownership then passed to his son, who lived there until 1918. According to Historic England, it was later used as a girls school called Walmoor College. In 1935 it was recorded as Hampton House School, Walmoor Hill, a boarding and day school for boys under the headmastership of D.P. Saunders-Griffiths. It subsequently became the headquarters of the Cheshire Fire Brigade.
Property Features and Current Status
The fire service vacated in 1997, and the three-storey property has since reverted to its original residential use. The house is built of local red sandstone with finely tooled surfaces and a grey-green slate roof. The coat of arms of the Douglas family can still be found above the entrance porch, and the red heart motif, representing the heart of Robert Bruce, appears throughout the house.
The property, marketed by Savills estate agents, has seven bedrooms and four bathrooms spanning three storeys, plus a separate guest cottage within its grounds. Period features have been carefully maintained by its current owners.
