Camberwell College Of Arts And Gate Piers At Entrance

Camberwell College of Arts, formerly Wilson’s Grammar School, is a grammar school dating to 1882, designed by ER Robson. It is constructed of red brick with stone dressings and bandings, featuring a high-pitched slate roof with a moulded stone eaves cornice.

The north elevation is two storeys with an attic over the east wing. It has an irregular frontage, with a recessed six-bay section and central gable, flanked by outer gabled wings. A small entrance link is set under the central gable. The doorway is topped with a four-centred arch and carved spandrels, and a plaque records: "Grammar School founded by Edward Wilson, Vicar of Camberwell, AD 1615. Rebuilt AD 1882." Windows vary in size and have stone lintels and sills, which continue as bands and triangular pilaster strips with stone copings and stops between. Two terracotta panels displaying coats of arms are positioned at first floor level in the left wing. A projecting octagonal staircase turret is located in the angle between the recessed section and the right gabled wing. The west elevation is two storeys with an attic to the right section, featuring thirteen irregular bays. It is similarly detailed to the north frontage. The left section, with a central gable, has pilaster strips rising to triangular pilaster strips at first floor level, between tall bipartite and tripartite windows. The right section, which has an attic behind a parapet and a small gabled bay at the end, has triangular buttress strips above the parapet, each acting as a pedestal supporting a shielded griffin. A slightly projecting, gabled, one-bay entrance section is centrally located. The stone doorpiece includes Ionic pilasters, an entablature with a pulvinated frieze, a broken segmental pediment containing a coat of arms, and a perpendicular canted bay window above. A large, stepped chimney stack is located to the right of the central fleche. A square crenellated tower feature is integrated into the east elevation. The interior remains uninspected. Stone entrance piers, each topped with an urn, are included as subsidiary features.