Its classical topiary garden and dogleg wooden staircase make a grand first impression; the atrium with balcony is similarly storybook.

Best of all is his immensely solid wooden staircase with a vault in the form of an upturned ship 's hull.

He led me down a rickety wooden staircase into the depths of a cavern below the excavations.

The heat was so intense that the wooden staircase that could have carried many of the inhabitants to safety simply collapsed.

At the far end a wooden staircase swept up into shadows.