The Old Vicarage School

The Old Vicarage School is a house, now a school, on Richmond Hill. It was built by George Carew before 1681 and survives from that period, though it was extensively remodelled. The interior was remodelled in the early 18th century, and the exterior was altered around 1790 and remodelled in 1809 as a Gothick castle. Extensions with internal modifications followed in the 1830s and 1860s, with external rendering probably added in the 1840s. The interiors are attributed to Roger Morris.

The building is constructed of red brick with stucco rendering, and the roofs are not visible. It is three storeys with attic and basement, with the attic storey set back behind an embattled parapet. The front elevation is symmetrical in five bays. The central bay is canted at the upper storeys over a porch. Facetted embattled turrets stand at the angles, and facetted shafts flank the central bay, both featuring blind arrow slits. A continuous moulded cill band and moulded band to the parapet continue at lower level across the turrets to the return elevations.

The embattled porch has a three-centred arch to the front and pointed arches to the sides. A panelled and studded door sits beneath a three-centred arch, with an overlight of eight vertical panes each with an arched head, all set in a moulded stone doorcase. An iron screen and gate with quatrefoil panels and spearhead finials, and similar attached railings, guard the entrance.

All windows are set under hoodmoulds. The ground floor has sashes with glazing bars, with those to the upper lights pointed. The first floor has four-pane sashes with slender glazing bars, with those to the upper panes featuring four-centre arched lights with coloured glass spandrels. The second floor has pointed-headed three-light casements, each of three vertical panes. The central canted windows to the first and second floors feature fixed arched lights beneath paired overlights at the first floor—some with coloured glass—and small-paned casements with arched heads at the second floor. Small-paned windows, some casements, also under hoodmoulds, light the embattled attic storey.

At the rear, formerly the main entrance, the central bay breaks forward with a plain parapet. Facetted turrets stand at the angles, and a continuous moulded first floor cill band and moulded band to the parapet and turrets run across the elevation. A central embattled porte cochere and first floor oriel occupy the rear. The porte cochere has offset buttresses and arched openings under hoodmoulds, now blocked, with fixed light windows and a two-leaf door. An inner studded door similar to the entrance front sits within. The left-hand ground floor and all first floor windows are small-paned sashes with slender glazing bars, as on the ground floor of the entrance front. The ground floor right features a two-light casement with cusped upper lights; a flanking window is pushed out but retains its original upper lights internally. The oriel has cusped upper lights with brattished transomes. Second floor casements match the front elevation. All windows except the oriel are set under hoodmoulds. A pair of attic storey small-paned replaced casements complete the rear elevation.

The Ellerker Road elevation has altered ground floor windows—now cloakrooms—with upper floor windows beneath hoodmoulds, some casements as on the main elevations and one sash with glazing bars as on the main elevations. A pair of full height casements, at first floor and ground floor, both have blind boxes.

A two-storey wing to the northwest, now a school hall with classrooms above, is set back from the main building on both elevations. It is stucco rendered and embattled, with the upper storey set back. On the Richmond Hill elevation, a sash with slender glazing bars sits under a hoodmould, matching the main elevation ground floor windows. The first floor has a pair of four-pane sashes as on the first floor front windows, again under hoodmoulds. At the rear, the ground floor features a full-storey hall window of three lights with intersecting tracery and cusped upper lights with coloured glass, all set under a pointed embattled parapet. The embattled upper storey is set back and features a pair of three-light metal-framed windows with pointed arched glazing bars—some top-hung casements—both under hoodmoulds.

The interior is notable for its fine detailing. The entrance hall contains a fluted Ionic screen with a segmental arch featuring foliate plasterwork spandrels and a Greek key soffit. A heavy enriched modillion cornice runs to the front and rear halls, continuing on the upper floors. Four broken pedimented doorcases, each with an eared architrave and enriched pulvinated frieze, are fitted with doors of six raised and fielded panels. Shallow waterleaf moulded panels line the walls with a moulded dado, repeated on the upper storeys. An inner iron gate, detailed as the outer screen, protects the front door. The front right room (the headmistress's study) contains a marble chimneypiece with gothic panels and a late 19th or early 20th century grate with possibly French enamelled linings. The rear left room retains architraves using a variety of mouldings found elsewhere in the house, moulded panelled shutters, and a blocked chimneypiece with a raised overmantel panel, together with some 18th century wall panelling.

A very fine staircase rises through three storeys. It features an open well with carved tread ends, running as a closed moulded string at the upper landing, two balusters per tread with alternating fluted and cylindrical shafts, fluted newels, and a ramped moulded handrail with curtail. The stairwell is panelled with Ionic pilasters to the dado and a ramped moulded rail. Above the first floor is a large enriched panel with an eared architrave and smaller enriched foliate swag and scroll beneath the second floor stair window. The first floor half landing has a garlanded shell moulding to the soffit. The first floor landing ceiling features a rose with reeded vine leaf moulding. The central doorcase to the second floor has an eared architrave with classical mouldings. A similar first floor central doorcase was partly covered when inspected. Other doorcases at the first and second floors display robust alternating hemispherical and dart moulding, also repeated on the rear ground floor and upper side elevation windows. Doors are of six raised and fielded and sunk panels.

The first floor front rooms, formerly separate, were united in the early 19th century with a large moulded architrave and are now subdivided. Front window architraves and inner first floor door architraves are largely early 19th century with rosettes at the angles, egg and dart cornices, and panelled shutters. The rear left room (the staff room) is largely 18th century, with panelled walls featuring a moulded dado, egg and dart cornice, enriched window architraves, and panelled shutters. The rear right room has window architraves with hemispherical moulding and rope astragal, with plain panelled shutters. The second floor front rooms have egg and dart enriched box cornicing, rosette and dart window architraves, and largely plain 18th century moulded doorcases, some fitted with two-panel doors; the plainer rear rooms lack such enrichment. A stone spiral stair rises from the ground floor to the upper storey. The attic storey was not inspected.

The two-storey wing's ground floor hall and gym, formerly a schoolroom, features opposing pairs of softwood doors under diagonally lined panels within arched moulded architraves, panelled window architraves, and a marble chimneypiece with a four-centre arch and carved figure panels to the linings.

The building was leased around 1711 or 1712 to the widow and daughters of John Houblon, Governor of the Bank of England. By 1787 it was leased to Harriott Mainwaring Ellerker until her death in 1842. From at least 1862 it was occupied by the Wesleyan community, possibly responsible for the schoolroom to the north. It became a private girls' school from 1889 onwards.