Ravensbourne School (Old Buildings, Including Great Hall, Gymnasium And Dining Hall)

Ravensbourne School, on Bromley Hayes Lane, is a purpose-built educational institution that evolved from a County School for Boys into a Grammar School and finally a mixed Comprehensive School. The original main block was designed by H P Burke-Downing in 1908 and built between 1910 and 1911. The same architect extended the complex to the north-west in the early 1930s, adding the Great Hall, dining hall and gymnasium in a complementary style.

The architecture is Queen Anne in character. The buildings are constructed of brown brick with red brick and stone dressings, with hipped tiled roofs throughout.

The central block of the original 1910–11 building spans nine windows and features a central lead cupola with central oval windows carried on four columns, with egg design to the plinth. A central curved open pediment contains circular windows with keystone, flanked by swags. The eaves cornice is embellished with modillions. The centrepiece is a 24-pane window with eared architrave and three keystones. The ground floor displays an elaborate stone doorcase with a swanneck pediment bearing a shield ornamented with swags and keystone, topped with a putto. The doorcase is flanked by engaged Tuscan columns and approached by six curved steps with a curved solid balustrade with ball finials. The windows are 24-pane sashes with stone keystones. A band runs between the floors.

On either side of the central block are three bays set back progressively, each with solid brick chimney stacks featuring round-headed flank arches with stone impost blocks and keystones. A further bay set back on either side has circular windows to the first floor and a ground floor window divided by a stone apron. Four-light dormers and pairs of 12-pane sashes with triple keystones occur at the sides. At both ends are projecting pavilions with round-headed pediments, modillion cornices and tall curved windows flanked by oculi. The ground floor of each pavilion has three sash windows. The left pavilion, owing to the slope of the land, also includes a basement with curved windows and sashes.

To the north-east, a caretaker's house is attached to the main school by a brick arch. It is mainly pebble-dashed with a gable; the first floor window has been replaced with a late 20th-century insertion. A Tuscan porch serves the ground floor. Two pebble-dashed chimney stacks rise from the house.

The original main building connects to the circa 1933 north-west extension by a colonnade of brown brick with red brick or tiled dressings, comprising five round-headed arches with keystones and two oval windows.

The Great Hall, of circa 1933, is built of brown brick with red brick dressings and a hipped pantiled roof. Its front features a central tall round-headed window with a round-headed entrance below. The first floor has oculi at the ends; other windows are sashes. The sides of the Great Hall display sculptural stone panels above central windows and high relief panels of swags above other windows. Parapets are capped with urns at the corners.

A classroom block to the rear of the Great Hall is of two storeys with nine 24-pane sashes. The Gymnasium is attached to the north-west of the Great Hall, built of brown brick with red brick dressings, a hipped tiled roof and six panels to the parapet. Connected to the north-west side of the Gymnasium by a colonnade of Tuscan columns is the Dining Hall, a single-storey structure of brown brick with red brick dressings, a hipped tiled roof and one brick chimney. Three hipped dormers rise from the roof, and a parapet with stone coping crowns the structure. The stone doorcase bears a panel with carved relief of Saint George and the Dragon. A T-wing features an oval window and doorcase flanked by two oval windows.

Interior details from the 1911 building include the Old Hall, which retains a cambered ceiling with three roundels carved with fruits in deep relief. A deep modillion cornice with ovolo moulding runs throughout. Doorcases feature eared architraves. A panelled balcony on three sides is supported by four elaborately carved brackets. Five 24-pane windows light the space. A central circular window with stained glass depicts the school shield and motto; similar windows, now without stained glass, occupy either end. Tiled walls to the dado are painted over.

The War Memorial Library, also in the 1911 building, has a cambered ceiling with three panels and a bracket cornice. A frieze of wreaths runs below, with wall panels and dado panelling in the lower portions. A bolection-moulded stone fireplace is surmounted by a wooden memorial tablet.

The Great Hall of 1933 functions as an auditorium with a ceiling featuring four large roundels with fruit in high relief, joined by square panels with a pattern of interweaved circles. The stage has a curved proscenium arch carried on Tuscan columns with a central keystone. Two plain well staircases provide circulation. A framed architect's drawing of the 1911 building is retained in the Old Hall.