Battenhall Mount (former St Mary's Convent School)

Battenhall Mount is a large Italianate house built in two principal phases: the original house of 1865-9 constructed for William Spriggs, and substantial extensions in the 1890s carried out for the Honourable Alfred Percy Allsopp MP. The 1890s alterations and additions were designed by John Henry Williams and Robert Alexander Briggs, who maintained the Italianate character across the building's exterior whilst employing a variety of styles for the interiors. The builders were Joseph Woods and Sons. Specialist contractors included Farmer and Brindley for marble work, Jackson and Sons for some plasterwork, Starkie, Gardner and Company for ironwork, and Graham and Banks together with Walker and Sons for woodwork. The tiles in the music room are thought to be by William de Morgan. The chapel, dating from 1896, was designed by Briggs. William Forsyth and his former apprentice, H.H. Martyn of Cheltenham, are reputed to have worked on the interior decorations including plasterwork and woodwork.

Materials and Construction

The house is built of yellow Gault brick laid in Flemish bond with stone dressings and a slate roof.

Plan and Form

The house is arranged around a T-shaped courtyard. It has two storeys with basements and two belvedere towers which rise to three storeys.

Exterior

Windows throughout the building are plate glass sashes. String courses run along the principal fronts at first floor sill level and at the level of the window heads. Deep bracketed eaves extend across the building.

North-western Entrance Front

The entrance front features a three-storey tower at the right which forms the entrance and appears to be a feature of the original 1860s house. This tower formerly had an entrance at ground floor level, now partially blocked to form a round-headed window serving the present entrance lobby. The first floor has paired sashes on three sides, each with stone heads and stone quoins to the corners. At second floor level there are two round-arched windows to all four sides. The shallow-pitched square roof has bracketed eaves with a wrought iron finial and weather vane at the centre.

At ground floor level on either side of the tower are paired arched openings dating from Briggs's alterations of the 1890s. Those to the left form the principal entrance to the house, above which is a stone crest carved in relief. To the left of this entrance are two projecting square gabled bays which are later additions. These have ashlar walling and mullioned windows, each with three lights. Arched attic windows project into the shallow gables. Further left are the randomly-distributed windows of service rooms.

Garden Front

The garden front comprises three bays of the original house at the left and three wider bays representing Briggs's additions at the right. The left-hand bays have a square bay window at extreme left at ground floor level with three mullioned lights to both floors and a keyed oval window to the gable. The right-hand bay has a canted bay window extending through both floors with a keyed oval window to the gable as before. Recessed between these is a single bay. At ground floor level, a projecting lobby serving the garden entrance has ashlar walling and was apparently superimposed in the 1890s. This lobby is bowed with two round-arched openings and has a doorway and two round-arched niches to its rear wall.

The three-bay extension by Briggs to the right has a two-storey canted bay at the centre which exactly matches the original at the left. To either side are similar canted ground floor windows with wide mullioned triple-light windows at first floor level.

South-eastern Flank

The south-eastern flank has a projecting semi-circular bay at the left, which marks the orchestra stage inside the music room. This bay has banded rustication to the ashlar walls at ground floor level. Above, the first floor has an open semi-circular loggia with Ionic columns and a domed roof which rises into the shallow gable above. To the right of this is the recessed belvedere tower, which has a doorway at ground floor level with a hood mould and coat of arms in relief to its head. Above this is a first-floor balcony supported by deep carved console brackets, and to its left is a carved cartouche which turns the corner. The second floor has three arched openings to each side and a shallow pyramidal roof with a metal cross as finial. The walling to the right of this has service room windows and is abutted by a lengthy extension housing classrooms, a dining hall and assembly hall added at various dates in the 20th century.

North-eastern Street Front

The street front has nine bays with windows of differing heights at ground floor level and a doorway at the right which has pilasters at either side and a round-arched head. The first floor has a semi-circular dummy oriel at the centre which corresponds with the apse in the chapel. At each side are four sash windows with balustraded panels beneath.

Courtyard and Pergola

Attached to the north-western entrance front is a rectangular courtyard whose boundaries are marked by a partial enclosure of stone vase-shaped balusters. Evenly-spaced rectangular plinths support Roman Doric columns. Wooden cross-members of a pergola survive to the north-eastern and north-western sides but have been lost on the south-western side.

Interior

Entrance Lobby

The entrance lobby has a mosaic panel to the floor bearing the wording 'Grüss Gott, tritt ein / Bring Glück hinein' picked out in black Germanic letters, and there is a stained glass window panel showing the Allsopp arms. Two further rich stained glass panels are located in a waiting room off the lobby, and the lavatory adjacent to the entrance also has a stained glass window.

Library

The library has fitted bookcases to two walls and a moulded fire surround with mirrored overmantel.

Drawing Room

The drawing room is in a loosely Georgian style with swan's neck pediments above the substantial door surround and the fireplace.

Dining Room

The dining room, added by Williams in 1892, has moulded panelling to the lower walling and a running frieze to the upper wall which may be relief plaster or panels of gilded leather. The richly-moulded ceiling has pendant bosses. At the centre of the north-east wall is a large inglenook fireplace with fitted upholstered benches at either side and a carved Jacobean surround.

Music Room

The music room and the sculpture gallery are placed back-to-back in the south-eastern angle of the garden front. They interconnect and join with the drawing room and dining room to make a circuit of reception rooms, presumably for receptions or musical parties. The music room displays a mixture of styles and has a sprung floor and moulded ceiling which combines Rococo and Baroque motifs. The three canted bay windows have fixed seating with moulded bench ends. At the south-eastern end is a stage backed by a large niche. At the north-western end of the room is a large fireplace in Renaissance style with panels of variegated marble and a large overthrow to the top which incorporates the Allsopp arms. The hearth has a tiled surround which includes a frieze showing Scylla and Charybdis.

Sculpture Gallery

The sculpture gallery is of two-storey height and has a floor of marble tiles and a tunnel-vaulted ceiling with patterns of clear glass and stained glass quarries. Crossing the room at first floor level is a marble bridge which has coffering to the intrados and richly carved decoration to the spandrels on both sides, including stylised beasts in the manner of grottesche. The bridge supports two columns to each side which have carved capitals. At the south-eastern end of the room is a minstrels' gallery which has similar columns and carved capitals to both floors. A further gallery looks down into the room from a former bedroom on the south-western side and has a wrought iron balustrade. A spiral stair leads up from the minstrels' gallery to a second floor belvedere room which has a shallow domed ceiling with coffered plasterwork.

Staircase

The dogleg staircase is in a loosely Jacobean style and has deeply-moulded newels and knops, raised and fielded panelling below the dado, and panels of open strapwork forming the balustrade.

Chapel

The chapel at first floor level has an inlaid floor with inlay of various marbles which includes the Allsopp crest. To the north-east wall is an arched niche which contains a fixed solid altar. Both the altar frontal and the gradine are inlaid with semi-precious stones. The tabernacle on the altar has a silver-gilt door showing the Agnus Dei in relief. Fixtures include stalls in a continental style with richly inlaid marquetry, bronze panels to the doors, stained glass windows, and a metal screen to a side chapel. The Builder illustrated the chapel interior and recorded that Farmer and Brindley undertook the marble carving and that the woodwork was by Starkie Gardener.

Exclusion

Pursuant to section 1(5) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990, it is declared that the 20th-century block of one and two storeys attached to the south-east flank of Battenhall Mount, which contains classrooms, the kitchen, dining hall, science laboratories and the assembly hall, is not of special architectural or historic interest.