Rosary Priory High School

Rosary Priory High School

A former large house, now a school, dating from around 1880 and located on the north side of Elstree Road in Bushey Heath. The building is constructed in ashlar with sandstone dressings and slate roofs, designed in an extravagant loosely classical style.

The building comprises three blocks with canted sides that angle away from the centre. The central and left blocks are 2 storeys with an attic, while the right block rises to 3 storeys and features two prominent towers: a 5-storey square tower and a 7-storey octagonal tower.

The central 3-bay block contains the main entrance within a 2-storey semi-circular porch with half-glazed doors, flanked by round-headed windows set in architraves. The ground floor displays Corinthian pilasters, while the first floor features a glazed and louvred timber balcony with Ionic pilasters. The flanking bays have shallower bows with Doric pilasters and cornices, bracketed sills and cornices to the first floor. A balustraded parapet surmounts this section, punctuated by segmental-headed dormers. The steep mansard roof is pierced by elliptical and circular openings and a central dormer, topped by a tall lantern with 3 lights to the front, corner pilasters, and a coved roof.

To the left is a 2-bay block with a linking bay, a tripartite first-floor window with pediment and dormer, and a semi-circular bow projecting forward. At the far left end of the front elevation stands a canted bay with round-headed windows. An axial stack on the left block features a panelled shaft and cornice.

The right section comprises a 3-storey tower block with a canted bay to the left containing tall round-headed sashes in keyed architraves that rise to an octagonal head. A quadrant curve with 2 windows leads to the octagonal tower, executed in white stone with red stone strips. Round-headed and square-headed windows alternate on the 4 sides across the floors, with ground-floor banded rustication. Moulded and bracketed cornices separate the storeys, and a balustraded parapet crowns the tower.

To the right of the octagonal tower are 2 bays with cross windows in a central rectangular bay, featuring bracketed cornices, balustraded parapet, and vermiculated quoins. Behind this section stands the 5-storey square tower with 2 bays on each side. The 4th floor displays triple round-headed windows with moulded architraves and key blocks, flanked by sandstone Ionic pilasters. The 5th floor has tripartite windows with bracketed cornices and central pediments. A bracketed cornice supports an open parapet. Pilasters at the angles of the tower feature sandstone panels that diminish towards corner turrets with open double arcades. The 2 bays on the right return of the tower show ground-floor banded rustication and round-headed French windows with Doric columns in the reveals, while the first and second floors have rectangular oriel windows on carved brackets. Iron railings run across the right half of the ground-floor front.

On the garden front, the composition is symmetrical in the arrangement 2:3:2. The centre block features steps rising from the basement to a 2-storey porch with a tetrastyle Corinthian ground floor and a first-floor glazed timber loggia with fluted Ionic pilasters. Flanking canted bays round into 3-storey turrets with round-headed windows; the turret to the left retains an open head with a Doric arcade and dentilled cornice to an ogee cap. To the sides, paired canted bays angled forward feature semi-circular bows at their return ends. Iron railings run across the ground floor of the garden front.

The interior was not inspected during the survey. The building was formerly known as Caldecote Towers and Caldecote Lodge. Attached 20th-century buildings are not of special interest.