Former St Mary's Hall School and attached railings, terrace walls and piers

Former St Mary's Hall School and attached railings, terrace walls and piers

This former boarding school for girls was built in 1836 and designed by George Basevi. It was founded by the Reverend Henry Venn Elliot, Curate of St Mary's Church on St James's Street, on nine acres of land given by the Marquess of Bristol. The school closed in 2009.

The building is constructed in the Tudor Gothic style. The exterior features stucco scored to resemble coursed ashlaring with quoins. The roof is of slate, with a double span to the main block and gable facing to the dormers.

The main elevation is symmetrical and comprises two storeys with gabled dormers flush with the front wall to the centre block, and three storeys with facing gables to the end pavilions. The range extends to seven windows. The entrance is Tudor-arched with recessed spandrels, moulded jambs and chamfered surround. To either side of the entrance is a single Tudor-arched light set in a flat-arched surround. All other openings on the ground and first floors are flat-arched with Tudor hood mouldings which, on the ground floor of the centre section, are connected by a continuous springing band. The panelled door and hardware date from the late 19th or early 20th century.

The window ranges at either end are treated as projecting pavilions with facing gables, built on a larger scale than the centre block, projecting above its roof, and articulated by corner quoins. A storey band runs between ground and first floors. Above the entrance is an elaborate first floor window composed of five pointed lights gathered together in a single flat-arched surround. To the left of the centre range, just above the first floor windows, is a timber bell cote.

The centre block is topped by three gabled dormers symmetrically disposed, each pierced by a pair of Tudor-arched double-light windows. Each gable dormer has a finial at its peak; that over the centre is treated as a foliate cross. The first floor of the end pavilions has cross windows. Each end pavilion gable has a first floor window composed of four Tudor-arched lights with a common transom and hood moulding forming a continuous springing band across the pavilion. Each end pavilion gable is pierced by a three-light Tudor-arched window. The gables themselves are stepped in their lower halves, becoming pointed above.

The strong symmetry of the elevation is broken by one peculiar feature of the pavilion bays: the left pavilion gable has gabled returns while the right pavilion gable has a gabled return to the right only. These gable returns are themselves pierced by double Tudor-arched lights. The right return has a full-height chimney breast and four two-stepped gable dormers flush with the wall plane. All windows on this return have Tudor hood mouldings, although original openings have in many cases been altered. The left return is similar but even more altered, with an elaborate brick stack rising from the full-height projecting chimney breast.

The interior entrance hall features a noteworthy open-well wood stair with cast-iron balusters. The wood elements are simply chamfered and frankly assembled. The entrance foyer and hall have early to mid-19th century tile paving.

The listing also includes the cast-iron railings to the area at the foot of the main elevation and the complex of brick, flint and stone piers, parapets and walls which enclose and embank the west side of the two terraces immediately to the south of the school.

When first opened, the school was intended solely for the daughters of clergymen. Admission was extended to the daughters of the laity in 1920. At the time of resurvey in 1999, St Mary's was the oldest school in Brighton in continuous use.