Singlegate School And Gatepiers

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 26/06/2017

TQ 27 SE 1329-/2/10014

COLLIERS WOOD SOUTH GARDENS Singlegate School and gatepiers

(Formerly listed as Singlegate School and gatepiers (including Singlegate School, South Gardens) CHRISTCHURCH ROAD)

II School for the Mitcham School Board. Dated 1897 on stone plaque, the architect H.P Burke-Downing. Red brick with half-timbered gables and stone dressings. Steeply pitched slate roofs culminating in timber cupola.

Rectangular plan of tall, single-storey classrooms ranged round entrance in South Gardens, to side of which is square stair tower culminating in pyramidal roof with louvres and pinnacle. Tall, picturesque stacks. Classrooms to south and west elevations each with paired bays under high gables, that to west with Ionic order and oeil de boeuf windows, that to south with volutes and keystones. This classroom has end bay facing South Gardens with tripartite window and louvre in gable. Long range of gabled classrooms on eastern elevation. The staircase tower has stone windows with Gothic tracery; the other windows are timber top-opening casements, those under gables of huge dimension.

Stone gatepiers with raised bands and rounded tops to main entrance, the other piers to Christchurch Road of banded brick and stone with ball tops. The small mid-C20 flat roofed addition to rear is not of interest. Included as a remarkably eclectic design for a board school, by an important local architect.

Source: Cherry and Pevsner, The Buildings of England, South London, 1983, p.438.

Listing NGR: TQ2685370270