The Great Staircase

This is as grand a public space as the adjoining Hall, with similarly elaborate plasterwork and vaulting. Family and guests would process from up these stairs to the Saloon on the floor above. The cantilevered stairs are now unfortunately too fragile to be used, but the wooden balustrades, delicately carved to resemble wrought iron, can still be admired.

The massive English mahogany commode has equally well-carved lion heads on its corners. Above it hangs a bird's-eye view of the North Front of Beningbrough Hall painted by the little-known Bouttats and Chapman in 1751.

Download In focus: Great Staircase

Portraits from the National Portrait Gallery on display:

Sir Peter Warren
1703-1752
Vice-Admiral
by Thomas Hudson
circa 1751
oil on canvas
53 1/2 in. x 52 in. (1359 mm x 1321 mm)
NPG 5158

Samuel Johnson
1709-1784
Poet, critic and lexicographer
by; after Edward Hodges Baily; Joseph Nollekens
1828 (1777)
marble bust
27 in. (686 mm)
NPG 996

James Cornewall
1698-1744
Naval captain
by Unknown artist
1730s
oil on canvas
50 1/4 in. x 40 in. (1276 mm x 1016 mm)
NPG 5323

Sir Isaac Newton
1642-1727
Mathematical scientist
by; after Edward Hodges Baily; Louis François Roubiliac
1828 (1751)
marble bust
28 in. (711 mm)
NPG 995

John Perceval, 1st Earl of Egmont
1683-1748
President of the Trustees of Georgia
by Vincenzo Felici
1707
marble bust
33 in. (838 mm)
NPG 1956

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All images and text are subject to copyright protection. 22 November 2008