Stonyhurst College, Shireburn Quadrangle, Ambulacrum and former Laboratories

Stonyhurst College, Shireburn Quadrangle, Ambulacrum and former Laboratories

A Roman Catholic boarding school comprising classrooms, communal areas, services and offices, arranged principally around Shireburn Quadrangle with adjoining structures.

Shireburn Quadrangle

The North Range was built in 1699 for Sir Nicholas Shireburn. Its eastern part, constructed in ashlar with a chamfered plinth, rises 2 and a half storeys and features mullioned windows with hoodmoulds, chamfered or moulded doorways, and gabled dormers with coped verges and ball finials. A central doorway to the primary 3-bay phase has 1699 inscribed on its lintel. The range was extended westward around 1860 in similar style, with a semi-elliptical arched cart entry. The eastern end was altered around 1922, with an inserted doorway bearing that date on its lintel. The rear elevation is plainer, of coursed stone with ventilation slits to ground and first floor and some 20th-century inserted windows.

The East Range comprises two phases. The northern part, built around 1700 for Sir Nicholas Shireburn, is 3 storeys tall with a 5-bay west elevation in ashlar. It displays mullioned windows with hoodmoulds, a moulded doorway, Welsh slate roof and ridge stacks. The rear elevation is of coursed stone with 16-pane sash windows and modern replacements. The southern block was built around 1810, originally the only surviving element of the Jesuits' first south front, with an upper floor added in the mid-19th century. This section stands 3 storeys with 5 bays, featuring pairs of narrow sashes and 16-pane sash windows to the ground floor, 36-pane sash windows to the first floor, and 16-pane sashes to the second floor, all set in raised architraves. A stone box gutter sits beneath the pitched slate roof. A 20th-century infill against the south gable-end is not of special interest.

The Kitchen Range, on the west side of the quadrangle, is a 3 to 4-storey block of 3 bays built in 1862 in ashlar. It has a slate roof behind a plain parapet, chamfered plinth, string courses, and tall mullioned and transomed windows to the ground floor (the former kitchen), with mullioned windows to the upper floors and a 4-storey south bay fitted with cast-iron vents. To its north lies a lean-to service block dating from the 1860s in similar revival style to the North Range, featuring a tall doorway. A 20th-century infill to the north is not of special interest. The south side of the quadrangle is enclosed by the rear of the South Front.

The quadrangle surface is laid with sandstone setts, installed around 1862. A pair of low coursed stone walls with curved ends and half-round copings enclose a former coal store, now the setting for a Memorial to the St Omers martyrs dated 1833, comprising fragments including a two-armed St Omers cross.

Ambulacrum

Built between 1849 and 1852 by J.A. Hansom, the Ambulacrum is an indoor recreation hall erected on the former service yard behind the South Front. It features ashlar walls and mineral felt with patent glazing to the pitched roof. The interior is lined with ashlar, with iron roof trusses and tongue-and-groove roof soffit. The modern floor is not of special interest. A refurbished octagonal lantern ante-room occupies the south-west corner.

Art Department

The Art Department was originally erected around 1810 as a chemistry laboratory forming part of the Jesuits' first South Front buildings. It was remodelled and extended eastward around 1861. The range abuts the south side of the Ambulacrum and is arranged as a single-storey linear block subdivided into three large top-lit laboratories or lecture halls, with a 2-storey bay at the east end and a taller primary phase block to the west. The construction comprises dressed sandstone and cement render with pitched roofs and roof-lights. An entrance on the south elevation has a modern door flanked by fixed windows with top-lights. The east gable-end features a canted bay window with sashes. A flat roof over the east end was added in the late 20th century and is not of special interest.

The three full-height rooms are finished as chemistry laboratories, instrument rooms or lecture rooms with decorative plasterwork to deep coved ceilings featuring moulded cornices and octagonal top-lights. A part-glazed panelled screen separates two of the rooms. Panelled doors with brass fittings remain, and windows retain their original ironmongery.

Architectural Style and Materials

The buildings are constructed principally of sandstone ashlar or coursed dressed stone, with chamfered plinths, string courses, hoodmoulds, parapets and copings. Pitched roofs are covered in graduated Lakeland or Welsh slate or mineral felt. The architectural expression blends Jacobean, late Georgian and 17th-century revival styles.