Lancaster House

Lancaster House is a college building constructed between 1866 and 1870 by John Norton and P.E. Massey for the International College. It was completed and extended in 1890 by J. Osborne Smith for the British and Foreign School Society.

The building is constructed of stock brick with polychrome brickwork and stone dressings, featuring slate roofs and metal frame windows in the Venetian Gothic manner. The principal facade comprises three storeys and attics arranged over ten symmetrical bays either side of a central entrance bay, with asymmetrical wings to the left and right and an attached tower to the left. A central rear wing links to parallel rear blocks of two and three storeys.

The central entrance bay projects forward and features a stone arched entrance beneath a flush red brick outer arch. Above this is a quatrefoil vesica with flanking rosettes, and paired foiled lights under a glazed rondel. The entrance is framed by clustered banded shafts with foliate capitals and hoodmoulds terminating in dragon stops. A pair of part-glazed oak doors stands beneath a shouldered arch. Above the entrance, a first and second floor oriel displays the inscription "FOUNDED MDCCCLXVI", with shafts at the outer angles. The first floor contains a four-light mullion and transom window with cusped lights. The second floor has paired two-light mullions also with cusped heads beneath a pair of crocketted hoodmoulds. Waterleaf bands run above and below these windows. Paired two-light mullion and transom cusped lights with polychrome arches sit beneath a pair of half-hipped slightly splayed mansard roofs. Ground and first floor paired lights stand under polychrome arches—those at ground floor are pointed-arched beneath a glazed rondel, while those at first floor have shouldered arches. Each side displays fifteen single second floor lights with cusped heads under polychrome arches, alongside slightly splayed half-hipped two-light dormers. At ground floor level are portrait medallions depicting Shakespeare (left wing), Montesquieu, Goethe, Dante, Homer, Aristotle and Cicero.

The right wing is set forward by one bay and presents a two-bay facade on four floors, with a lower ground floor flat-roofed porched entrance. Paired two-light mullion and transom windows occupy the first three floors. Three single lights appear at the upper floor, set in herringbone brickwork. Windows at each floor have different heads. A half-hipped gable terminates the wing, crowned with an iron finial forming a spiked globe with circlet above. The return and rear of this wing are treated as the main elevation.

The left wing is set forward by three bays and similarly treats its entrance front, right wing, and returns. It features paired two-light windows to the lower two floors and single three-light windows to the upper floors, with windows of different heads at each floor. The finial matches that of the east wing. A three-bay right return corresponds with the main elevation.

A four-stage tower is attached to the west, set back from the main block. The lower stages contain small single and two-light openings, some obscured by walling and a late twentieth-century bridge. Small paired lights under flush polychrome arches appear at the second stage. The third stage displays paired lights between shafts under a pointed arch, with a quatrefoil above. The tall mansard roof features delicate finials and a slender mansarded light to each face, supported on a corbel table.

The interior contains an entrance hall with a stone chimneypiece featuring a splayed hood and a three-bay screen of robust paired shafts on tall bases. An open well stair, partly boxed in and rising to the upper floor, features an ornate cast iron balustrade of repeated foliate scrolls for the first two storeys. A rear three-light mullion and transom stair window provides light. A slender iron spiral stair with knob finials rises to the upper storeys. Spinal corridors distribute teaching rooms. At the east end, on two storeys, are lecture theatres with seating now housed in the college archive. The upper floor formerly contained dormitories and single bedrooms. The college interior is generally plain and functional. The interior of the Principal's lodgings was not inspected but is reported to retain chimneypieces, mouldings and carpentry fittings.

Attached to the rear is a three-storey wing formerly containing the dining room at ground floor, linked to two and three-storey parallel ranges. A six and nine-bay two-storey wing features horned sashes and half dormers. A three and a half storey, four-bay block with a shaped gable displays ground and first floor small-paned sashes with glazing bars and second and third floor industrial tripartite windows. A three-storey six-bay flat-roofed block features iron-framed top-hung windows beneath segmental arches.