Poplars Hall

Poplars Hall

Reception hall, originally part of Hutton Residential School, constructed in 1906 by the Poplar Board of Guardians to designs by architects Holman and Goodram. The building was restored between 1990 and 1991 by Brentwood District Council following a period of disuse and vandalism. It is constructed of red brick with stone dressings and has a peg-tiled roof.

The plan is rectangular, comprising a main hall with lounge and service rooms behind to the west. The building is aligned north-south and stands approximately 200 metres north-northeast of Brentwood Adult Education Centre.

The east front elevation features five bays with brick Ionic pilasters and a decorative frieze of gauged and rubbed brickwork depicting leaf and Tudor rose designs. A central projecting porch marks the original entrance, with swept coping and an arched opening featuring a 'Gibbs' surround. The inner door is a renewed copy of the original with fielded panels, upper glazing, and side lights beneath a semi-elliptical over-light. Each bay contains a window in 'Gibbs' style with aprons; the outer pair are rectangular in 'cross' form, whilst those in bays two and four are similar but with lunate heads above. The centre window over the porch is lunate-headed. All windows have been renewed with glazing in the original style, featuring rectangular leaded panes with coloured glass borders, brown roundels, and green lining. Stone date plaques marked '19-06' sit above the windows. The roof is topped with five hipped dormer-style lights and four louvred hipped vents, with a central bold clock turret above. The turret is copper-sheathed with a domed roof and large weather vane, featuring dial faces on each side. The brickwork and stonework of the facade are executed to the highest standard.

The north and south end elevations are similar in character, each featuring curvilinear 'Dutch' gables with kneelers and pediments at their apices. A single central window to each elevation is mullioned and transomed with a 'Gibbs' surround and prominent key-stone. These windows measure 3 by 3 panes with round heads above radial glazing bars, and feature sun-ray glazing in white, yellow, and blue. The lower glazing matches that of the east facade windows.

To the rear, a single-storey unit with shaped coping adjoins a gabled block at the west end. Three windows punctuate this elevation, the central one being larger and segment-headed with upper centre-hung casements and lower plain sashes. The north end's central window has been converted to the principal entry doorway, now fitted with a two-leaf fully glazed door.

The west rear elevation is a single-storey unit running the full length with a central flat-roofed three-cant bay window. Originally there were eleven similar segment-headed windows with upper sashes containing 3 by 2 glazing bars and lower sashes plain. Two windows at the south end have been altered; the southern window is now a doorway and the adjacent opening is blocked.

Interior

The main hall is divided into five bays delineated by a hammer-beam roof with simple pendants. The trusses rest on stone corbels and are decorated with national emblems. The walls are lined with glazed tiles, cream in colour with brown and green dado, and an upper frieze with a lozenge pattern in green and red. The original front door features a wooden-framed and panelled inner porch. Three doorways and doorcases along the rear wall have been renewed as copies, with pedimented treatments and fielded panels.

The rear building, originally a large kitchen, has been remodelled to provide a lounge, bar, and service rooms.

Historical Context

Poplars Hall and the building to the south-southwest (now Brentwood Adult Education Centre) are the surviving structures from a very large complex comprising twin residential schools for boys and girls, conceived as a residential village for deprived children from East London. Poplars Hall served as the boys' dining hall. The leading guardian was George Lansbury, the social reformer, under whose leadership the policy was that the children at Hutton Poplars should receive 'decent treatment and hang the rates'.