Foxhill House is a Gothic revival style building on what is now the Whiteknights campus of the

University of Reading The University of Reading is a public university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as University College, Reading, a University of Oxford extension college. The institution received the power to grant its own degrees in 192 ...

Earley Earley is a town and civil parish in the Borough of Wokingham, Berkshire, England. Along with the neighbouring town of Woodley, the Office for National Statistics places Earley within the Reading/Wokingham Urban Area; for the purposes of loca ...

, adjoining the

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town of

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of letters, symbols, etc., especially by sight or touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process involving such areas as word recognition, orthography (spelling ...

. It currently houses the University's School of Law. Foxhill House is a grade II*

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

. The former stables and coach house immediately to the north east, which are now physically connected to Foxhill House, and also form part of the School of Law, are separately listed as Grade II.

History

The house was originally built in 1868 by the architect Alfred Waterhouse and used as his own residence until, in the early 1870s, he moved into an even grander property, Yattendon Court, which he had built in 1867. In the early years of the 20th Century Foxhill was occupied by Rufus Isaacs, who was variously

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for Reading,

Lord Chief Justice of England Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the peerage in the United Kingdom, or a ...

, the British ambassador to the

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and

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. In 1919 Isaacs sold the lease to

Hugo Hirst Hugo Hirst, 1st Baron Hirst (26 November 1863 – 22 January 1943), known as Sir Hugo Hirst, Bt, between 1925 and 1934, was a German-born British industrialist. Born near Munich, Hugo Hirsch became a naturalized British subject in 1883 and chang ...

, founder of the General Electric Company Ltd, who in 1934 became

Baron Hirst Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than a lord or knigh ...

of Witton. Hirst lived in the house until his death in 1943. Subsequently, the house was used by his daughter, Muriel, and her husband Leslie Carr Gamage until about 1958 when the University gained possession. Used for a period as student accommodation, Foxhill House was extensively restored between 2003 and 2005, in order to suit its new role as the home of the School of Law. In 2007 the courtyard of the building was refurbished with a grant from

PriceWaterhouseCoopers PricewaterhouseCoopers is an international professional services brand of firms, operating as partnerships under the PwC brand. It is the second-largest professional services network in the world and is considered one of the Big Four accounti ...

in memory of

Edwin Waterhouse Edwin Waterhouse (4 June 1841 – 17 September 1917) was an English accountant. He is best known for having co-founded, with Samuel Lowell Price and William Hopkins Holyland, the accountancy practice of ''Price Waterhouse'' that now forms part o ...

, who was both a co-founder of that company and the brother of the building's architect. Foxhill house was extended in 2009, in order to make room for more offices for academics and teaching staff. Several new teaching rooms were also created. The main extension was created between the main house and the stable block. The rear of the building was given something of a 'conservatory', which created 2 new teaching rooms, as well as a small kitchen area. This 'conservatory' can be seen when looking at the house from the east.See Gallery

Gallery

File:Foxhill from the west.jpg, Foxhill House from the west File:Foxhill from east.jpg, Foxhill House from the east File:Foxhill House 01.jpg, Foxhill from across the lake File:Foxhill House, Reading University, England.jpg, Foxhill House

References

External links

* {{Listed buildings in Reading Alfred Waterhouse buildings Gothic Revival architecture in Berkshire Country houses in Berkshire Borough of Wokingham Buildings and structures of the University of Reading Houses completed in 1868 Grade II* listed buildings in Reading 1868 establishments in England