Dulwich Old College

Dulwich Old College is a complex of buildings comprising a chapel, former almshouses, and a school, now used as offices. Constructed between approximately 1613 and 1619, the buildings were originally designed by John Benson, a bricklayer contractor, for Edward Alleyn. The facades were stuccoed in 1821. The roofs are tiled and slate-covered.

The complex is arranged around a quadrangle. The east range, now known as Edward Alleyn House, originally housed almshouses, built in 1619 and rebuilt between 1738 and 1739. George Tappen, the college surveyor, remodelled it in 1821. The south range contains the chapel, which has undergone repairs and alterations over time. The original central tower collapsed in 1631. A ground floor cloister and a central tower, constructed of coursed rubble, were added in 1866 by Charles Barry Junior. The west range was originally the school and is now used as offices, and has seen alterations in the early 19th century and 20th century.

The east range’s courtyard elevation features three full-height projecting bays with entrances on either side. It has two- and three-light Tudor-style windows with mullions and transoms. Buttresses are placed at intervals, with strings above and below the first floor. The slate roof is behind a parapet that incorporates finialled pediment motifs above the bay windows. Five groups of clustered cylindrical chimney shafts rise from the ridge. The College Road facade is plain.

The chapel’s courtyard elevation has seven bays, with buttresses between four-light Tudor-style windows. A pitched roof sits behind the parapet. A loggia is arcaded with a parapet and buttresses. The central tower has three stages and a French-style slate roof with iron cresting. The gable end facing College Road features a pointed, traceried window on the first floor, flanked by stepped buttresses, with extensions to the left.

The school range’s courtyard elevation has seven bays, including three slightly projecting gabled sections with buttresses and decorative barge-boards. It has a tiled pitched roof with an eaves cornice. There are round-arched openings, including a doorway in the central bay. Windows have latticed leaded lights; the ground-floor windows are single or paired, and those above are arranged in groups of four. A string runs above and below the upper floor. Square, angle buttresses are present on the north gable end.

The interior of the chapel was remodelled in 1823. Features include a font dating from 1729, designed by Gibbs, and a reredos from 1911 by W.D. Caröe. The quadrangle was enclosed until 1866 by a decorative iron gateway, which has been relocated. Dulwich Old College, with its entrance gates and piers, forms a group with the Old Grammar School on Gallery Road.