Greek temple-style house rescued from two centuries of Northumberland damp

Belsay Hall is recognised as one of England’s earliest Greek revival houses. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

“It is an amazing construction and should be more famous,” said English Heritage properties curator Mark Douglas in the vast, echoing cellars of a remarkable, Greek temple-style building – not in Athens but eight miles from Newcastle airport.

“Architectural students should be flocking here, they really should.”