Main Quadrangle And Memorial Hall Attached, At Haileybury And Imperial Service College

Main Quadrangle and Memorial Hall at Haileybury and Imperial Service College

This public school was originally designed by William Wilkins in 1806 as the East India College for the Honourable East India Company's future civil servants. The college opened in 1809, closed in 1858, and reopened as a public school in 1862. It amalgamated with the Imperial Service College in 1942.

The Wilkins buildings form a symmetrical square campus of two storeys constructed in 'Ware white brick' with slate roofs. Entry from the west is through a Greek Ionic distyle screen in Portland stone between pilastered lodges in the middle of the west range. The north and south ranges originally contained students' houses separated by professors' residences, while the chaplain's and principal's houses linked to the main quadrangle to the north and south. The chapel, library, committee room and dining hall were grouped in double-height spaces in the south range, linked by open Ionic porticos (distyle in antis) to the principal's house at the west and the kitchen block at the east end.

The long perspective of the south front, faced in Portland stone, forms a picturesque composition enhanced by landscaping by Humphry Repton (1809). It is a symmetrical five-part composition punctuated by prostyle Greek Ionic porticos—hexastyle at the centre, marking the original library set at right angles to the rest of the range, and tetrastyle fronting the open porticos representing the screens passages of more traditional college planning. The former chapel and hall have regular pilasters and a tall Greek window in each bay with architrave and converging jambs. The stone-faced terminal blocks are of two storeys each with a three-window central bay breaking forward.

Subsequent additions and alterations include a domed chapel built 1876–77 by Arthur Blomfield in brick within the quadrangle in Lombardic Romanesque style, topped by an octagonal drum, dome and cupola. The dome was rebuilt after a fire in 1878, with slate replaced by copper in 1927. Cloisters were added in 1885. In 1880, all but the chancel of the original chapel became the present library, with the old library becoming the nave of the present chapel. In 1936, Herbert Baker remodelled the chapel interior, added an apse rising sheer from the quadrangle, and inserted an inner dome with roundels in the pendentives by Charles Wheeler.

Big School (the school hall) was built 1912–14 by J W Simpson and Maxwell Ayrton. It is centrally positioned in the east range facing into the quadrangle and features a Portland stone facade of two storeys with an attic storey topped by a balustraded parapet. An Ionic giant-order with full entablature and fluted columns at the ends decorates the west front. The interior of the hall has a rusticated base and a proscenium in the form of a triumphal gateway. The clock and old cupola on the pedimented brick block in the centre of the north side of the quadrangle are said to have been moved forward when this bay was extended.

Memorial Hall (dining hall) was built 1930–32 by Herbert Baker and Oscar Faber. It is linked to the outside of the north range but symmetrical about the main axis, enclosing a vast square domed space engineered by Oscar Faber, with oak panelling and stone. The exterior is simple brick with stone dressings. The old dining hall became the present Council Room after the Memorial Hall was built.

The complex represents a striking picturesque composition in the Neo-Classical idiom of 1806, showing a Greek Ionic interpretation of the medieval college layout. By reason of its early date, it constitutes a landmark in the history of English taste and the springtime of the Greek Revival. Axial additions and an unusual dome have not compromised the neo-classical conception. The college was associated with many distinguished professors, including Rev. T R Malthus. The chapel dome is a prominent landmark, and the building forms the centrepiece of an extensive group of buildings of architectural interest within the sylvan landscape of the Heath.