Uppingham School Library

SP 8699-8799 UPPINGHAM 4/4 10.11.55 Uppingham School: Library GV II*

Library, formerly hospital and chapel. 1584, altered and extended C19 and C20, including work by T G Jackson and Oliver Hill. Of coursed squared ironstone with Collyweston stone slate roofs and coped gables with finials. Two parallel ranges, running east-west, the south range originally the hospital and the north range (now taller) on the site of the chapel and presumably incorporating stonework from it. South front one storey and attic. Plinth and ovolo-moulded cornice. Ground floor has 1 and 2-light stone mullioned windows, mostly ovolo-moulded but the 3 westernmost windows are C19 replacements and chamfered. The westernmost 2 also have transoms. Five 2-light dormers beneath coped gables with finials of varying design. Leaded panels to window. East end has a 3-light C19 window with transom, and a c.1968 one room flat-roofed canted extension lit by a 3-light ovolo-moulded mullioned window. Interior gutted, reroofed and converted to library c.1890 by T G Jackson, has Jacobean revival fireplace at west end and decorative plasterwork to the vaulted ceiling. North range, now 5 windows wide and one lofty storey, has a west end stack and an ogee Gothick cupola with weathervane dated 1825, marking a rebuilding and heightening. The final bay, east of a buttress, and the canted east end stair turret with gable on decorative kneelers, date from c.1890 (but reusing old stones, some carved with names and initials by pupils). Tall rectangular windows, with slightly convex leaded panes. Doorway to west in 4-centred hollow-chamfered arch (beneath carved vesica and memorial inscription) leads into World War II Memorial by Oliver Hill, a full-height barrel-vaulted space lined and floored with patterned marble, niche to south with names of fallen and pedimented doorway to east leading into north range of library with "stripped classical" panelling and gallery to south. Hospital and chapel founded by Robert Johnson, Archdeacon of Leicester, at the same time as the school. During the C18 the school took over the hospital building as a boarding house, and at first used the chapel as a dining hall.

Listing NGR: SP8655299594