Langham Tower (Sunderland High School)

Langham Tower (Sunderland High School)

A villa built between 1889 and 1891 by architect William Milburn for William Adamson, a trader in ships' provisions and oil and son of a shipbuilder. The building was later used as a training college from 1922, subsequently becoming part of a polytechnic in 1975.

The house displays an eclectic style incorporating 16th-century motifs. It is constructed in a mixture of half-timber framing with plaster nogging (some pargeted), ashlar, bright red and hard brick with dark grey mortar, and ashlar and terracotta dressings. The roof is plain tiled with terracotta cresting, cast-iron finials, and brick chimneys. The plan is irregular.

The exterior features two tall storeys with attics and turrets, arranged in a 4 by 5 bay configuration. The 3-bay front to Burdon Road is dominated by a battlemented entrance tower. The tower's ashlar ground floor contains a multi-moulded open Tudor arch on two orders of Shap granite nookshafts, framing steps up to a panelled porch door flanked by windows with etched and bevelled glass. Above is a stone oriel with sill and eaves bands. An impost band marks a geometric tracery 3-light mullion window with elliptical head, supported by a corbel table beneath the battlements. The steeply-roofed cottage-like structure above the tower features diagonal bracing to posts and similar detail in the gable, with deep eaves and exposed purlins and rafters. The 2-storey range from which the tower projects displays varied brick and timber detailing, the latter jettied and decorated in the style of North West England. A big stepped chimney stack projects between two right bays, decorated with ashlar and a long terracotta panel. The steeply-pitched roof has pargeted coving and runs parallel to the front. The right return to the garden features varied mullioned and transomed fenestration, central canted bays, and a right-end octagonal turret with some curvilinear cusping. A central gable rises from the canted bay's hipped roof, and the turret has a conical roof with a tall finial. Tall brick chimneys display pilaster strips and cornices.

The interior contains much rich decoration. A half-glazed screen from the entrance lobby features etched and bevelled glass with patterns of grasses, flowers and birds. The stair hall, styled in the Jacobean manner, has a panelled dado to an open-well stair and gallery. The principal newel carries a metal figure of a 17th-century soldier serving as a gas lampholder, with melon finials on other newels. Cusped balustrade pendants drop from a bowed landing projection. A frieze displays low-relief grotesques, and strapwork decorates the ceiling. A large mullioned and transomed stair window, signed by Atkinson Bros. of Newcastle upon Tyne, contains richly coloured panels depicting scenes of the arts and technology. Throughout the house, 6-panelled doors have elaborate brass escutcheons and many feature elaborate surrounds. The dining room (now common room) at the rear right contains oak panelling and a ceiling with low-relief panels of copper-coloured pressed paper showing heraldic devices, along with a chimney-piece with richly-coloured tiles. The library (now committee room) at centre right has a large arched chimney-piece with pictures of knights in armour flanking the fire windows. The drawing room at the front right retains an early 20th-century Rococo stucco ceiling decoration.