The building is constructed from limestone ashlar with hippedWelshslate roofs and comprises a square main block with flanking pavilions. The north front has a rusticated basement below a piano nobile, with mezzanine and attic floor over. The house also includes a Roman Catholic chapel and a rare rotunda staircase. There are many painted ceilings and ornate fireplaces, typical of the building's period.
Rotunda staircase
The rotunda staircase was designed by James Paine and is round. The ground floor under the staircase is black and white marble, with exits to the north and south and with sweeping staircases on either side. The stairs can sometimes be fitted with glass uplighter candle lamps and a stair carpet. The first floor has a wooden floor and also has Roman columns rising to the vaulted ceiling. The surrounding balustrade is made of fine leadwork with flowers covered in gold leaf and is topped by a wooden handrail. Leading off the first floor are four fine alcoves with tall wooden doors. Also on the first floor is a pipe organ in wood, ivory and gold. The ceiling is a high circular dome with a central window decorated with reliefs of musical instruments.
All Saints' Chapel
The Roman Catholic chapel which belonged to, and is integral to, the house, is known as All Saints Chapel, Wardour. It was enlarged in 1789 by Henry Arundell, 8th Baron Arundell of Wardour, to the designs of John Soane. From its beginning, it served the needs of a substantial local recusant community and still holds regular Sunday masses. Due to its exceptional acoustics, it is also sometimes used for musical events. Pevsner describes the chapel as having "the size of a very major parish church" and being "grand in its decoration". By the entrance is a marble relief of the Virgin and Child, sculpted by P-E. Monnot in 1703; inside are giant fluted pilasters and a groin vault. The sanctuary added by Soane at the west end has Ionic columns and a domed ceiling with gilded plaster. The marble altar is by Giacomo Quarenghi, who later worked in Imperial Russia; the painting behind it is by Giuseppe Cades, and stained glass in the lunette window above is by Francis Eginton. Pevsner describes in some detail the important collection of vestments, dating from the 15th century onwards. Ownership of the chapel was transferred to the Wardour Chapel Trust in the late 1890s, and the running costs and maintenance of this Grade I listed chapel are now funded entirely through voluntary donations.
Parkland and garden
A Camellia house, with walled gardens, was built northeast of the house in 1769 by Richard Woods for the 8th Baron. Plans for the grounds were suggested by Woods in 1764, but these proved too expensive and in 1773 were revised by George Ingham. Capability Brown was then brought in and undertook extensive earth-moving and tree planting between 1775 and 1783. The current garden includes a ha-ha, and a walled garden with a swimming pool. There is a long driveway, which passes the 19th-century hexagonal annexe and leads to the rear of the building and the chapel. There is also a Temple, built as a folly, in a distinct area of the grounds referred to as the Temple Garden.
Recent history
After the death in 1944 of John Francis, 16th and last Lord Arundell of Wardour, the building was leased and became the home of Cranborne Chase School. The school built new classrooms, studio dormitories and a dining-room extension on the south-eastern side of the main house, along with three staff houses to the west. The school eventually closed in 1990. In 1992 the house along with five cottages, six tennis courts, and a swimming pool in the walled garden, was sold for under £1 million to Nigel Tuersley, and was converted into 10 luxury apartments by designer John Pawson, with Tuersley living in Apartment 1, which occupies the two main floors of the central block. Extensions and ancillary accommodation added by the school were mostly demolished. The building was designated in 1951 by Historic England as a Grade I listed building, with its grounds later being Grade II* listed. It was used in the filming of the television mini-series First Born, and in the filming of Billy Elliot, a film released in 2000. In 2010 Jasper Conran bought Apartment 1, planning to live between there and Ven House.
