Dulwich Old College

TQ3373 636-1/15/233

SOUTHWARK COLLEGE ROAD (West side) Dulwich Old College

30/06/54

GV II Chapel, almshouses and school, now offices. c1613-19, with later alterations and rebuildings. By John Benson, bricklayer contractor. For Edward Alleyn. Buildings stuccoed in 1821. Tiled and slate roofs.

PLAN: a complex of buildings grouped around a quadrangle. East range of former almshouses, now called Edward Alleyn House. Opened 1619, rebuilt 1738-39; remodelled 1821 by George Tappen, college surveyor. South range of chapel, much repaired and altered. Original central tower fell in 1631. Ground floor cloister and central tower both of coursed rubble added by Charles Barry Junior, 1866. West range was school, now offices. Early C19 and C20 alterations.

EXTERIOR: east range: courtyard elevation has three full-height projecting bays with entrances at sides. Two- and three-light Tudor-style windows with mullions and transoms. Buttresses at intervals. Strings above and below first floor. Slate roof behind parapet with finialled pediment motif above each bay window. Five groups of clustered cylindrical chimney shafts to ridge. Plain facade to College Road.

Chapel: courtyard elevation of seven bays with buttresses between four-light Tudor-style windows. Pitched roof behind parapet. Loggia arcaded with parapet and buttresses. Central tower of three stages with French-style slate roof and iron cresting. Gable end to College Road has pointed, traceried window to first floor between stepped buttresses; extensions to left.

School range: courtyard elevation of seven bays has three slightly projecting gabled sections with buttresses and decorative barge-boards. Eaves cornice to pitched tiled roof. Round-arched openings with doorway in central bay. Windows have latticed leaded lights, those on ground floor single or paired, those above in groups of four. String above and below upper floor. Square, angle buttresses to north gable end.

INTERIOR: of chapel remodelled 1823. Includes font of 1729 by Gibbs and reredos of 1911 by W.D Caröe. Quadrangle enclosed until 1866 with decorative iron gateway, now re-sited (qv). Dulwich Old College, entrance gates and piers form a group with Old Grammar School, Gallery Road (qqv).

Listing NGR: TQ3311073660