Chigwell Grammar School

Chigwell Grammar School, dating to around 1620, has undergone extensions in the 18th and 19th centuries. The building is constructed of red brick in English bond, with a roof of handmade red clay tiles. The original block runs northeast-southwest, with a southern aspect, and originally contained the English School at the southwest end, the Latin School, and the Latin Master’s house at the northeast end. There are three external chimney stacks on the rear wall and one internal stack within the front pitch of the roof of the Latin Master's house. A crosswing extends to the northeast with a chimney stack at its southeast end, dating to the 18th century, and there are two parallel ranges to the northeast, constructed in the 19th century. A rear wing was added at the southwest end in the 19th century. A 19th-century porch of red brick, featuring stone quoins, a stone doorway with a four-centred head and a dated crest from 1629, partially obscures the original twin doorways that led into the English and Latin schools; brick Tudor arches of these original doorways are partially visible. The southeast elevation features three large, mullioned and transomed windows of twelve lights, which are inaccurate reproductions of the original 17th-century windows. There are also two tripartite double-hung sash windows of four-fifteen-four lights in Venetian groupings, dating to the 18th century. On the first floor, two original windows feature four lights with splayed mullions and plastered brick surrounds, each consisting of two fixed lights. Adjacent to these are two wrought iron casements with rectangular leading, separated by a small blocked aperture. The elevation includes a parapet with stone coping and three flat-roofed dormers with 20th-century casement windows. The brickwork incorporates randomly arranged blue flared headers and has been repaired in places. The rear chimney stacks are largely original to eaves height, with the upper sections rebuilt. Most of the northwest and southwest windows are 19th and 20th-century reproductions, although one blocked window with ovolo-moulded brick mullions, visible above the 19th-century extension at the southwest end, remains from the original construction. The southwest elevation of the southeast wing is constructed with plum brick in a Flemish bond and features a six-panel door within a doorcase of engaged Doric columns with a dentilled open pediment and a fanlight with curved geometrical tracery. There are two stone steps with moulded nosings and a wrought iron shoescraper. The ground floor has two double-hung sash windows, while the first floor has three, each with twelve lights and flat arches of gauged red brick, dating to the 18th century. Inside the English School, now a library, there are two tiebeams with shallow arched braces, moulded pendants, and queen posts shaped like flat balusters. The hearth has been re-bricked. One other hearth is blocked and the remaining one has been converted into a seat recess. The school is documented in drawings from approximately 1820 by J.C. Buckler and 1850 by F.W. Fairholt. Historical records suggest that while the foundation deed is dated 1629, the school was likely built soon after Archbishop Harsnett purchased the site in 1619, and was operational by 1623. Sufficient original structure and detail remain to provide a valuable record of architectural features from that period.