The Royal Liberty School

The Royal Liberty School, located on Upper Brentwood Road in Gidea Park, was built in 1768-1769 and features late 19th-century additions. Originally known as Hare Hall, this mansion was designed by James Paine for J A Wallinger. The main block is faced with ashlar stone and is connected by colonnades to two-storey pavilions. The ground floor is rusticated and has four square sash windows, semi-circular headed niches at either end, and a central entrance featuring a modern door and a semi-circular Tuscan porch added in 1896. The façade has a one-three-one bay arrangement, with a projecting center that includes four three-quarter columns of an Adamesque Ionic order supporting a pediment adorned with coats of arms and swags, along with coupled pilasters at each end.

On the first floor, there is a tall semi-circular headed window flanked by lower round-headed niches. The outer bays contain tall straight-headed sashes, with a balustrade below a moulded string course. Above the first floor, a reeded string course runs along the building, and the attic storey features small oblong sashes, an entablature, a cornice, and a shallow pitched slate roof. The plain return elevations consist of three bays with a rusticated ground floor. The flanking colonnades, originally single storey, have been heightened, leading to rectangular pavilions that are three bays wide and two storeys tall, topped with pyramidal slate roofs; the right-hand pavilion retains its original central stack.

The rear elevation is constructed of red brick and includes a moulded stone cornice and a pedimented center with three sashes featuring gauged plum brick arches. The two lower floors are obscured by later two-storey additions. A large central Tuscan porch is also present. Many of the additions were made by W Seth Smith around 1896. Although the interior has been significantly altered, it still features a top-lit oval staircase, some panelling, and chimney pieces in the first-floor rooms.