Pardes House School

TQ 2490 31/18/10339

HENDON LANE, N3 (south-east side) Pardes House School

GV II

Former boarding school block, now a primary school. 1925-6 by Middlesex County Architect, HG Crothall. Multi-coloured, load-bearing brick with stone dressings; rear facade windows with red brick flat-arched heads. Plain tiled gabled and hipped roofs behind battlemented parapets; that to the former main entrance conical. Western wing with a part louvered, copper-clad fleche. STYLE: Arts & Crafts inspired Tudor style, reflecting the old collegiate style. PLAN: L-shaped. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys. Metal-framed, centrally pivoted windows with small panes; timber frames to the rear. Windows mostly separated by capped buttresses but those on the lst floor on the eastern wing are separated by 3 tall 2-stage chimney stacks. Former main entrance in octagonal bay set in the angle of the "L"; moulded segmental arch with carved enrichment surmounted by an heraldic plaque under a hoodmould. Recessed panelled and part-glazed doors. Entrance flanked by 2-light transom and mullion windows with 3-light windows above. Western wing has 3-light, double-height transom and mullion windows and a north western Gothic tracery window flanked by buttresses expressing the internal hall. Eastern wing with 4-light windows to the projecting ground floor and paired 3-light windows above. Symmetrical north-eastern entrance front with slightly projecting central entrance bay having a moulded, segmental arch and 3~Iight window above; this flanked by 3 3-light windows to each side. Two rainwater hoppers are dated AD 1926. INTERIOR: retains the original form plan and features. The half-panelled assembly hall has an open hammer-beam timber roof, a balcony across the end and 3 canted, balustraded balconies opening from the upper floor on the south side. The octagonal room above the entrance was formerly a library. HISTORY: this block was built as an expansion to the well-known Christ's College boarding school founded in 1857 by Thomas Reader White, Rector of Finchley. It stands opposite the original school building by Edward Roberts.

Listing NGR: TQ2489490409