Castle Goring

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Building information
Castle Goring
Town	Worthing, West Sussex
Country	England
Architect	John Rebecca
Client	Sir Bysshe Shelley
Completion date	1797-1798
Cost	£90,000
Style	Greco-Palladian and Gothic

Castle Goring is a country house in Worthing, in Sussex, England.

One of Worthing's two Grade I listed buildings, this is without doubt Worthing's most important building in terms of its architecture. Castle Goring was designed by John Rebecca for Sir Bysshe Shelley, 1st Baronet of Castle Goring and grandfather of the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Sir Bysshe Shelley's son, Sir Timothy Shelley preferred to live at Field Place in Horsham and it was intended that his son Percy Bysshe Shelley would live here, however Percy died aged just 29 and this never happened. Built in the 1790s, the building is perhaps unique in having a Greco-Palladian south front and a Gothic north front. The Greco-Palladian south front is said to be a copy of a villa near Rome, while the north-east front is thought to resemble nearby Arundel Castle.

Surprisingly little is known about the interior of this once magnificent country house. The building's owners do not welcome visitors and it is believed that no professional architects have been allowed into the building for several decades. The building has been left to decay to the point that it is on English Heritage’s list of neglected buildings and its situation is described by English Heritage as "very grave"[1].

The glass dome in the centre of the building has windows which have not been replaced, which is causing severe water leaks onto the once-impressive spiral staircase below.^[1]