Quernmore Secondary School

LONDON LANE, BROMLEY 1. 4407 Quernmore Secondary School TQ 47 SW 6/41 10.1.55.

II*

1. Originally called Plaistow Lodge. This House was built about 1777 by Peter Thelusson who died in 1797. His will, dated 1796, in which he directed that the income from his estate should be accumulated during the lives of all his children, grand-children and great grand-children living at his death and then distributed to the male representatives of his sons' families, when it was wtimated that it would amount to approximately £100,000,000 was the cause of the passing of the Accumulations Act 1800, commonly called the Thelusson Act, which still governs the question of the accumulation of income. From 1822-57 the house was the residence of the Banker, Walter Boyd, who looked after English interests in Frame from 1792-1815. It has been a school since 1896. It consists of a centre and 2 wings. The centre had 5 storeys and 5 windows on the west or entrance front. The ground floor is of rusticated ashlar with recessed round-headed windows having panels of balustrading below and keystones above. The 1st and 2nd floors are of stock brick with 4 stone pilasters having composite capitals, an entablature with paterae above the pilasters, a modillion eaves cornice and a pediment over the 3 centre window bays. Windows in moulded architrave surrounds with panels of balustrading below them and glazing bars intact. Those on the 1st floor have a frieze of fluting and paterae and pediments over, the outer ones triangular, the inner ones curved, the centre window being a serliana. Large stone porch with fluted Doric columns and half-glazed doors both in front and at the sides. The wings consist of linking portions and end pavilions. The former have 2 storeys and 3 windows each, the outer window bay on each side curving out to the pavilions. They are all of brick except for a rusticated stone doorway in the centre. Stringcourse, cornice and parapet. Round-headed recessed windows on ground floor. The pavilions, also of brick, have 1 large serliana each flanked by niches with statues and coade ware plaques of gryphyns above these. Stone stringcourse, cornice and pediments. The back of east front has a bow on all floors in the centre of the main block, a serliana on each side of this on the 1st floor, with rusticated pilasters below these, a round-headed window in the centre of each wing flanked by niches containing large bases and 2 storeys of windows in the pavilions, the north one having large tripartite windows with stuccoed pilasters between the lights which are probably a later insertion. The original interior was gutted except for the hall and back staircase.

Listing NGR: TQ4019270453