Langley Park School

Langley Park School is a country house, dating from circa 1740 and originally designed by Matthew Brettingham, with 19th-century alterations by Anthony Salvin. It is constructed of red brick with lead and slate roofs. The house is three storeys high with four-storey corner towers, arranged in a seven-by-five bay layout.

The south front, the main entrance front, is symmetrical and arranged 1:1:3:1:1 bays, with the outer bays slightly advanced and rising to four storeys to form square corner towers with pyramidal roofs and weather vane finials. The windows are sashes without glazing bars, set under flat, gauged brick arches. Keystones are present to the arches in the outer bays and ground floor openings. Rusticated brick pilasters divide the bays. The central three bays are grouped under a pediment, featuring an early 19th-century Doric entrance porch with a balustrade at first floor level. A moulded brick cornice runs between the first and second floors, topped by a coped eaves parapet with urn finials above the pilasters.

To the south-east and south-west are two-storey side wings, each of four-by-four bays, linked to the main house by short quadrant link blocks. These wings are divided 1:2:1 by rusticated brick pilasters. The windows have glazing bars, and a moulded brick cornice and eaves parapet, with ball finials above the pilasters.

The north facade is symmetrical, with nine bays. Ground floor windows are sashes, though the glazing bars have been removed. A pediment sits above the central three bays. The central doorway features unfluted Ionic columns supporting a broken pediment, set against a rusticated brick surround. Flanking screen walls to the side wings have pedimented niches containing figures. Corner towers have some blind sashes, and on the west side, a flat-roofed stair block has a semi-circular headed window.

The interior is notable for its fine 18th and 19th-century plasterwork. The entrance hall has a domed centrepiece to the ceiling, depicting four allegorical figures and four roundels with heads in profile. The ballroom has an ornate 19th-century Baroque ceiling and cornice, a white marble fire surround with figures in bas-relief, and a plaster panelled overmantle. The saloon (now a staffroom) features rich relief plasterwork depicting Greek mythological scenes within ornate panel surrounds; the principal entrance door has a pediment on consoles surmounted by two figures of children. Fine library plasterwork is attributed to Charles Stanley and depicts tendril work around an oval relief of Diana and Actaeon. A Venetian window in the east wall is accompanied by a canted bay to the north. A first-floor room above the entrance hall has a painted ceiling by Clermont, dating from circa 1755. The dining room is believed to be a reconstruction by Salvin, retaining an 18th-century interior design but within a 19th-century addition. The staircase has three twisted balusters per tread and wall decoration including large plaster medallions with heads in profile.