John Ray House

John Ray House, Bocking End, Braintree

A single storey gymnasium in neo-Georgian style, built in 1928-29 and designed by John Stuart, the County architect.

The building is constructed of red and purple brick laid in English bond with stone dressings. It has a gable roof with slate covering and stone copings and brick parapets to the north and south elevations.

The plan is rectangular with projecting wings at the east and west that wrap around the side elevations. The south elevation, modelled on an eighteenth century orangery, is the principal facade and has single storey projecting wings to the west and east. The wings are of brick and stone with stone cornices and were originally used as separate entrances for boys and girls. They project to the south to create an open space paved with grey and white Sicilian marble, further defined by a colonnade of paired Doric columns supporting a plain entablature and approached by a flight of stone steps. Pairs of pilasters on the south wall of the main range echo those on the colonnade. The whole design is a carefully composed exercise in symmetry and classical restraint. Between the pilasters are twelve-over-twelve light sliding sash windows with a top light of four glazes. The windows have stone surrounds and entablatures with the carved Essex coat of arms on a boss with lions head and foliate motifs over the central window. The north elevation has seven windows in the same form. The east elevation incorporates a stair tower, lit by a nine-over-nine arched sash window, which leads to the balcony above the gym area. Both the east and west elevations have semi-circular lights with radiating glazing bars at upper level and door and window openings at ground floor. The latter are blocked on the west elevation, which also supports an external chimney stack with stone dressings.

The former changing rooms in the east and west wings have been converted to office accommodation, waiting rooms and toilet facilities. A curving mezzanine roof has been inserted at the west end of the gym to create a more intimate space for wedding ceremonies. The sense of space remains tangible, emphasised by a vaulted and coffered ceiling along the length of the building with square and rectangular motifs, rising from projecting piers. At the east end is a gently curving balcony with panel motifs and plain timber hand rail. The space beneath the balcony has been partly enclosed and late twentieth century doors inserted at either side. Beyond this later work, the original two leaf timber panelled door remains and leads to the stairs which access the balcony above.

The County High School in Braintree was built in 1904-07 by Essex County Council on land donated by Mrs Sydney Courtauld of Bocking Place. In 1928-29 this gymnasium was built at the Bocking End frontage to the north of the school, the two buildings separated by tennis courts. It was paid for by W J Courtauld. Elevational drawings indicate that the building remains intact externally, apart from the blocking of a door and two windows on the ground floor of the west elevation. Following the closure of the school in 1992, the gymnasium was sympathetically converted into Braintree's Registrars' Office, opening in 1994. Some interior remodelling took place during the conversion, but these are considered reversible and the most significant features of the gymnasium interior remain.