La Sagesse School, Jesmond Towers

La Sagesse School, formerly Jesmond Towers, is a large house dating to the early 19th century. It was originally built and then extended between 1817 and 1827 by Dobson for Sir Thomas Burdon, and further enlarged in 1869 by T. Oliver and in 1884 by T.R. Spence for Charles Mitchell. The building is constructed of sandstone ashlar, with Welsh slate roofs to the canted bays and graduated Lakeland slate roofs elsewhere. Its plan is irregular and it is designed in the Gothic style.

The house is two and three storeys high, with nine irregular bays. The recessed entrance has a partly-glazed door set within a Gothic porch featuring a panelled ceiling, flanked by four-light windows with Y-tracery; above are windows with two cusped lights. Tall panelled buttresses flank the entrance bay, culminating in pinnacles. A pierced balustrade is situated on either side, and a central stepped parapet displays a coat of arms. The building incorporates a variety of canted, oriel, and square bay windows with stone mullions, some of which are also transomed and traceried. Drip moulds, buttresses, and parapets are present, some gabled with sloping battlements, others pierced. A gallery on the left features a high central parapet and corner turrets with large acanthus bud finials. A three-storey tower to the rear has a battlemented parapet.

The interior includes a stone-arched entrance hall with a tiled floor, as well as a Gothic ashlar chimney piece and a similar-style cast iron grate. The billiard room features vine and oak carvings around the door frames, which have painted glass panels, and high-quality painted glass in the windows. A small sitting room to the right has a finely-moulded stucco cornice and frieze with foliage patterns, alongside a painted dado in an arts-and-crafts style. The staircase in the right part of the house possesses a delicate Gothic balustrade with pendants to the landing’s triple arch, and stucco Gothic-panelled soffits above the doors. The gallery, designed to display paintings, incorporates top lights, end windows, an ornate stucco frieze and cornice, and a panelled coved ceiling.

Group Value: This building is listed for its particularly important contribution to the architectural heritage of the area.