Harrow School War Memorial Building, Memorial Shrine, Ceremonial Staircase and Retaining Wall

Harrow School War Memorial Building, Memorial Shrine, Ceremonial Staircase and Retaining Wall

This Neo-Jacobean war memorial complex was designed by Sir Herbert Baker and constructed by Holloway Brothers on a challenging sloping site. It comprises a shrine building, ceremonial staircase, forecourt and retaining walls, with joinery work by A Brockett and W Penfold. The structure incorporates interior fittings salvaged from Brooke House, Hackney, and floorboards from HMS St Vincent (1815).

The building is constructed of knapped flint and red bricks made by Daneshill Brick and Tile Works Ltd, with Portland stone ashlar. It features stone mullions and transoms, leaded casement windows, decorative brick stacks, and a slate roof with square-section rainwater downpipes and decorative 'H'-embossed rainwater hoppers. The plan is irregular, conforming to the site's topography, with a rectangular core, angled sections to north and south, a terrace at the north end and a bowed western bay to the entrance loggia.

The two-storey building with basement to the centre and north rises on falling ground. The entrance elevation to the south is treated as a loggia-style shrine, approached through decorative wrought-iron gates leading to a buttressed round-arched entrance arcade with heraldically carved panels. The upper floor features a central canted multi-light oriel window flanked by 6-light windows, with wall height emphasised by a parapet. The High Street and Grove Hill elevation comprises five bays with gabled outer bays (the left one incorporating a foundation stone at ground level), each with multi-light windows to the upper floor. Basement windows are 3-light strips at pavement level, with round-arched windows above at ground floor and a multi-light oriel to the upper floor, flanked by 9-light windows. The north elevation terrace is accessed through an arched doorway, with a central round-arched doorway and flanking 6-light windows at ground level, and a multi-light window at the upper floor centre, flanked by 6-light windows. The west rear elevation features a multi-light canted window at the centre with blind bays flanking, and a brick terrace with balustrade retaining wall to the north end, with steps down to Church Hill.

The shrine is a tripartite, dome-vaulted stone structure. Within its apsidal west end stands an ashlar cenotaph (sarcophagus) bearing an ornate carved sword, with a dedicatory inscription commemorating the sons of Harrow who died in the Great War of 1914-1919, and carved wreaths on the flanking ends. The loggia walls contain panels inscribed with the names of the fallen, each surmounted by gilded inscriptions reading "BE THOU STRONG AND OF GOOD COURAGE BE NOT AFRAID NEITHER BE THOU DISMAYED", "BE THOU FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH AND I WILL GIVE THEE A CROWN OF LIFE", and "REMEMBER THOSE WHO DIED FOR FREEDOM AND HONOUR AND SEE YOU TO IT THAT THEY SHALL NOT BE FORGOTTEN".

The interior features polished ashlar in the dome-vaulted gallery at ground level. A bow-ended display loggia to the east (lining the road) contains a bronze dedicatory wreath at its centre on stone flags, with bronze inscribed panels to the bowed walls and inscribed memorial dedications in ashlar. A timber-panelled, bow-ended double staircase occupies the west side. A ladies' rest room accessed from the gallery sits in a vaulted room with a scalloped octagonal ceiling light at its centre. The gallery displays busts including Viscount Palmerston by R Jackson (1870), Sidney Herbert by Foley (1865), Bishop Perry by G Summers (1876), a bronze head of Winston Churchill by Clare Sheridan (1942), and the 4th Earl of Aberdeen by W Theed. A bust of Sir Robert Peel by M Noble (1850) is positioned at the staircase.

Rooms to the north have keystoned doorways, panelled doors and herringbone parquet floors, with fireplaces featuring decorative tiles. The upper floor reception room above the gallery has a multi-light roadside window, boarded floor, panelled dado with niched sections to the end walls, and a corniced ceiling with plasterwork wreath to a central oval domed recess. Bronze busts of Stanley Baldwin and Archbishop Davidson by Newberry A Trent (given 1927) occupy this space.

Decorative timber saloon-style doors with newelled upper panels lead to steep, narrow alternative stairs to the lower floor. The masters' room at the north end has a boarded floor, postal gantries dated 1929 with panelled front to a service lift, and a trabeated timber ceiling. The Fitch Room is lined with decorative oak panelwork from Brooke House, Hackney (circa 1580), featuring a scalloped motif, fluted pilasters and decorative carving. A stone mantelpiece of the period of Henry V and VII displays four-centre-arched form with architraved mantel, strapwork carvings and small masque carvings. Teak floorboards from HMS St Vincent (1815) cover the floor. All windows feature decorative stained glass, including one dedicated to Alex Fitch with heraldic and figurative designs; modern stained glass appears in the canted window to the southern forecourt end.

The basement, refurbished in 2014, contains a kitchen with modern fittings, boiler room and storage rooms. Decorative brass door and window fittings appear throughout.

The ceremonial staircase comprises a double perron of steps from High Street with a landing providing access to the higher level of Church Hill. Portland stone balustrading to both streets rises over retaining walls faced in flint with stone insets. At the apex where the streets converge stands a lamp on an octagonal base dated 'MCMXIX' (1919). A rectangular slab milestone is incorporated into the High Street face, inscribed '10 miles to London'. A balustraded retaining wall to the higher ground of Church Hill at the west of the forecourt (to the right of the steps) features buttress-flanked ashlar niches. The flagged forecourt contains a circular granite marker embossed with a metal cross at its centre (the site originally intended for a memorial cross). Decorative metal lamps flank the High Street entrance.