Alice Court

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So, after a recent pilgrimage last summer to Derbyshire and the Peak District I've found myself very much smitten by a style of architecture I previously hadn't cared much for; English Baroque and Palladian Revival. So I've been working on a house to reflect this new found interest, a house that is largely influenced by my visits to Lyme Park (National Trust) and Calke Abbey "The Un-Stately Home" (National Trust), there also influences from visits to Kedleston Hall (National Trust) and also Chatsworth House and Sutton Scarsdale (English Heritage).



Creation
I started creating the Baroque and Palladian facades with a view to recreating Calke Abbey, but with a larger courtyard. I then took inspiration from Lyme Park for the courtyard and Kedleston Hall for the grand entrance leading up into what is now the Marble Hall. In the Marble Hall I had originally intended to make it two stories with a dome, but this didn’t pan out so well. I then realised I had no idea what I was going to do with the two remaining sides I had yet to build to form an enclosed courtyard. Here I took inspiration again from Lyme Park and Wilton House and decided to create a much older part of the house that would give it Tudor and Medieval origins as well as a more plausible reason for still being built with a courtyard. I was then able to furnish the interior, borrowing rooms from each of the houses that have inspired me.

Marble Hall + Blue Saloon – Kedleston
Great Hall , Dining Room , Servants Rooms and Undercroft – Calke Abbey
Panelled Rooms, Bathrooms, Red Galleries and Family Entrance Hall – Lyme Park
Oriel Room – Coughton Court (National Trust)



Premise
The narrative that I wanted the house to tell has grown off of the back of a story I’ve had formulating in my head for a while. To summarise it, the house was first built as a fortified Medieval manor house by Norman colonisers that was updated in the Tudor era.
It then remained largely untouched until the early 1700s when two sides of the house were demolished and rebuilt in the Palladian Revival style with a the formal living spaces lifted up a level with the creation of a Piano Nobile (First Floor) and Secondo Piano Nobile (Second Floor) above a rusticated Cellar (Ground Floor), one side was then altered further to fit the Baroque style. The house then saw a few alterations during the early Victorian era but the estate was beginning to fall on hard times by the end of the 1800s. Throughout the early 1900s it slipped further in to decline as most of the rooms in the Tudor wing were simply shut up and left to decay as the family were unable to afford their upkeep, leaving them living in fewer and fewer rooms, gradually selling off parts of the estate to try and get by. Then during the second world war the house was requisitioned and used by the military for training purposes. Most of the family’s possessions were removed and stored in the barns and various other outbuildings. During the military’s occupation a bit of structural maintenance was carried out to stabilize the majority of the house and make it usable, but most of the Tudor and 18th century gardens were swept away and ploughed over for arable use.
Then after the war the family took in a local commune of artisans masquerading as an arts school who worked to restore the house and learn the fading crafts that went into constructing such a home, although very little has yet been done to the gardens.
The house is currently presented at a time when the school has moved out of the main house to work on the surrounding outbuildings and lodges across the estate. Electricity has been installed throughout most of the house, the ceilings and floor joists have all be repaired in the upper rooms, but the old servants’ rooms have seen very little attention since the servants left and have largely been used as storage rooms, along with the room off of the ‘Roman Bath’ that has also been requisitioned as a junk room.

The premise for the name is that the house was originally built by a French family after the Norman invasion, they named it “Cour de Elysee”, but the natives couldn’t pronounce it and instead referred to it as “Alice/Alyse Court” which is what has stuck to this day, this was very much inspired by the story behind name of Belvoir Castle.



Lot Info:
The house was built on a 60 by 60 lot costing 831,918 Simoleons furnished and 528,047 Simoleons unfurnished.
CC Required Before Installation:
Georgian Window Double Hung 2x1 by missyzim
Georgian Window Double Hung 1x1 by missyzim
Palladian Arch Window tall by missyzim
Fixes for Three EA Wall Sets from the Base Game and Ambitions by Buckley


Creator Notes:
All of the fireplaces in the house have been upgraded to ‘fireproof’.
Some of the key bathrooms have been upgraded to ‘unbreakable’.
The house has been play-tested and the wild goose chase that is the curse of the random floating ceiling tiles seems to have been defeated.
The only item used from the LateNight EP is the piano in the Great Hall, so if you don’t have that EP and don’t mind going without the piano then you should still be able to play and enjoy the lot.
I’ve also included a PackageFile version of the lot as part of the upload for those of you who feel more comfortable installing it that way.
The lot has been pictured in FagerSims’ extremely beautiful and enchanting world ‘Dronningslund'. Be sure to check it out for yourselves!
And for that matter, if you get the chance, be sure to visit all of the places mentioned as they’re all incredibly beautiful and well worth a visit!

I hope you will all enjoy this creation as much as I have, as usual, let me know if you find any issues. Enjoy!

Lot Size: 60x60
Lot Price (furnished): 831,918 Simoleons
Lot Price (unfurnished): 528,047 Simoleons

Custom Content Included:
- Georgian Window Double Hung 2x1 by missyzim @ TSR
- Palladian Arch Window tall by missyzim at TSR
- Georgian Window Double Hung 1x1 by missyzim at TSR
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