Quernmore Secondary School

Quernmore Secondary School, originally Plaistow Lodge, was built around 1777 for Peter Thelusson. The unusual circumstances surrounding Thelusson’s will, which stipulated the accumulation of his estate for future generations, led to the passage of the Accumulations Act of 1800, also known as the Thelusson Act, which still governs income accumulation. The house was later occupied from 1822 to 1857 by banker Walter Boyd, who managed English interests in France. It has served as a school since 1896.

The building comprises a central block flanked by two wings, connected by linking sections. The central block, originally five storeys high with five windows on the west (entrance) front, features a rusticated ashlar ground floor with recessed round-headed windows, each with balustrading panels and keystones. The first and second floors are constructed of stock brick and feature four stone pilasters with composite capitals, an entablature with paterae, a modillion eaves cornice, and a pediment over the three central window bays. The windows are set within moulded architraves, with intact glazing bars. The first-floor windows are embellished with a frieze of fluting and paterae, and have pediments—triangular for the outer windows, curved for the inner ones—with the central window being a serliana. A large stone porch with fluted Doric columns and half-glazed doors on both the front and sides enhances the entrance.

The wings consist of two-storey linking portions with three windows each, the outer bays curving out to form pavilions. These wings are primarily brick, apart from a rusticated stone doorway in the center of the wing. The pavilions, also of brick, each feature a large serliana flanked by niches containing statues and Coade ware plaques of gryphyns above. The wings possess a stringcourse, cornice, and parapet, along with round-headed recessed windows on the ground floor.

The east front is characterized by a bow on all floors in the center of the main block, flanked on the first floor by serlianas with rusticated pilasters below. Round-headed windows are centrally positioned in each wing, flanked by niches containing large bases. The pavilions exhibit two storeys of windows; the north pavilion notably has large tripartite windows with stuccoed pilasters between the lights, likely a later addition. The original interior was largely gutted, with the exception of the hall and a back staircase.