Tabley House - Interior

Interior

The entrance to the first floor on the south front leads to a room now known as the Portico Room. This was the original entrance hall to the house, but as a result of the 19th-century alterations it was converted into a billiard room. It was later used as a drawing room, and during the time the house was used as a school, it was the school library. From 1990 it has been restored as the entrance hall. It contains a white chimney-piece and a cast iron grate. The mahogany woodwork was carved by Daniel Shillito and Mathew Bertram and the plasterwork was by Thomas Oliver. In the side walls are plaster figures of Isis and the Capitoline Flora in niches, and on the walls are plaster relief medallions representing the four seasons. Much of the furniture in the room has been moved from elsewhere in the house. The breakfast table carries the mark of the Lancaster firm of Gillow. The lantern suspended from the middle of the ceiling was made by Ince and Mayhew in about 1770, and was restored by Plowden and Smith in 1998.

To the east of the Portico Room is the Drawing Room. This was designed by Carr as the dining room, and contains a white marble chimneypiece designed by Carr. The plasterwork is again by Oliver. The furniture and paintings are original to the house. The paintings include one of John, 1st Baron Byron by William Dobson, one of his wife as Saint Catherine by Peter Lely, and two paintings by John Opie. The most important painting in the room is Tabley, the Seat of Sir J. F. Leicester, Bart: Windy Day, by J. M. W. Turner. Also in the room are two still life paintings by Thomas Lister, 4th Baron Ribblesdale, a cousin of the Leicesters.

The room to the north of the Drawing Room was originally the common parlour, and is now known as the Octagon Room. It provided a link between the public rooms on the south of the house and the more private rooms on the north side. Again designed by Carr, its canted corners contain china cabinets. It also contains a set of five paintings of Tabley by Anthony Devis. The ceiling has Rococo plasterwork by Oliver. This room leads to the Dining Room on the north side of the house, which contains paintings of the Leicester family. These include 3rd Lord Tabley by Frank Holl, Colonel Sir John Leicester, Bart., and the King's Cheshire Yeomanry Cavalry exercising on the Sands at Liverpool by George Jones, Portrait of 2nd Lord de Tabley by Margaret Carpenter, a full-length Portrait of 2nd Lord de Tabley as Colonel Commandant of the Earl of Chester's Yeomanry Cavalry by Francis Grant, Hilda, Mrs Cuthbert Leicester Warren by Simon Elwes, Lt. Colonel John Leicester Warren by Graham Rust, and Margaret Leicester Warren by Philip de László. Also in the room is Extensive Picturesque Landscape, with Gypsies by Francis Bourgeois and, over the sideboard, is the Portrait of the Prince Regent, later George IV by Thomas Lawrence and his studio. The fireplace in the Dining Room is made from Anglesey marble and was designed by George Bullock.

In the centre of the first floor is the Oak Hall, so-called because of the oaks formerly growing on the site of the new hall. It contains a mahogany four-flight staircase. The staircase has triple ballusters, and was carved by Shillito. Afain the plasterwork is by Oliver. More family portraits hang on its walls and the hall's contents include a hobby horse, a man trap, and an 18th-century sedan chair. Also in the hall is a memorial display for Tabley House School. The other room on the north side of the house is known as the Marble Hall. This was created from Carr's original rooms in the 19th-century alterations. It contains five reliefs on its wall, one of which depicts the nine muses.

The west side of the first floor is occupied by the gallery, which has been described as "one of the great rooms of Cheshire". It contains most of the finest furniture from the house. The items include mirrors and marble tops attributed to the London workshops of Thomas Chippendale, and sofas attributed to George Bullock. There is more furniture by Gillow, a "very rare" 17th-century English virginal signed "Phillip Jones", and an Italian spinet dating from about 1598. Paintings in the gallery include the Portrait of Sir John Fleming Leicester, 1st Lord de Tabley, in Peer's Robes, started by Joshua Reynolds and completed by James Northcote, and Portrait of Georgiana Maria Lady Leicester by Lawrence. There are more paintings by Northcote and Lawrence, and others by James Ward, Julius Caesar Ibbetson, William Hilton, Charles Robert Leslie, Francis Cotes, Henry Fuseli, Augustus Wall Callcott, and George Henry Harlow.