Classroom Dining Hall And Head Masters House Brighton College

BRIGHTON COLLEGE: CLASSROOM, DINING HALL AND HEADMASTER'S HOUSE

This is a private school complex on Eastern Road, Brighton, begun as an Anglican foundation at the initiative of William Aldwin Soames. The principal buildings date from the mid-19th century and represent the work of the distinguished architect George Gilbert Scott alongside later additions.

Scott designed the main classroom range between 1848 and 1849, followed by the headmaster's house and dormitory to the east in 1853–54, and the chapel and small hall opposite in 1859. The dining hall to the rear was added in 1865–66 by an unknown architect. The complex was built under the leadership of successive principals: the Reverend Arthur Macleane (Bishop of Edinburgh) for the classroom block, the Reverend Henry Cotterill for the Master's House, and the Reverend Dr John Griffith for the dining hall.

Scott's original courtyard plan, documented in the Illustrated London News of 13 October 1849, called for a cloister-like arrangement of three arcaded ranges open to the south in the Gothic Revival style. However, lack of funds meant only the north range was constructed. Throughout the 1860s and in subsequent work, the materials remained consistent: galleted flint with Caen stone dressings (now poorly repaired in cement), with tile roofs.

The classroom block is a rectangular building of two storeys over a central cellar, with a nine-window range symmetrical about a projecting two-storey entrance porch. The entrance porch is the most prominent feature, with its three projecting faces open to the ground through pointed segmental arches with suborders and moulding. Corner angle buttresses with two set-backs frame the opening. The first floor of the porch has a stone canted bay supported on massive, simply chamfered corbels, containing a tripartite bay window with traceried heads. Above rises a gable with kneelers, tumbled-in stone wedges, and stone coping (the three gable statues are now missing), with a clock face near the peak.

The ground-floor windows of the main range are identical: three-light openings under segmental super-arches, each light with a trefoiled, plate-tracery head. Pointed segmental-arch entrances flank the extremes of the range. Traces of Scott's original cloister plan remain visible between the ground and first floors in the form of corbels intended for roof rafters, with a weather moulding above. The first-floor windows finish in gabled half dormers projecting above the eaves. On either side of the porch, first-floor windows have two lights with transom and simple "Y"-headed tracery in segmental, pointed arches. The remaining first-floor windows are two-light pointed arches with Geometric-styled tracery heads culminating in a cusped roundel; the gable above each is pierced by a trilobed attic light. To the left of the entrance porch, introducing an asymmetrical feature, stands an octagonal bell turret ending above the eaves in a spirelet. Ridge stacks appear between the first- and second-window ranges, between the sixth and seventh ranges, at the right end wall, and behind the bell turret, with single set-backs throughout.

Internally, the entrance hall comprises three bays lit by pointed-arched windows. A simple pointed-arched arcade runs across the north side, beyond which rises a stair into a full-height stair hall covered with a boarded, pointed barrel vault. This vault continues into the library on the first floor of the entrance porch, a space originally used as a chapel. Interior appointments are modest, with historiated and ornamental carving in places. The boarded entrance door retains original iron hinges and bolts. All windows feature chamfered mullions and transoms, glazed with metal casement windows.

The Master's House and dormitories to the right were built for the Reverend Henry Cotterill and have an L-shaped plan. They are linked to the main block by a truncated, square-plan tower; the documentary and material evidence do not indicate whether this tower was built simultaneously with the main range, the Master's House, or at a later date. The Master's House rises three storeys over a basement, with a four-window entrance elevation. The left-hand window ranges are treated as a gabled bay with an attic storey. The entrance is flat-arched with cusped quadrant corners and a segmental, pointed-arch overlight filled with tracery, approached through a segmental, pointed-arch opening in a single-storey square porch topped with a cusped parapet enclosing a first-floor balcony; gargoyles ornament the porch corners. To the right of the porch stand two double windows with transoms and tracery heads. To the left stand two double-light windows with tracery. Hood mouldings appear above all windows except where otherwise stated. Between the latter pair of windows a buttress rises to support a rectangular stone bay on the first and second floors, each floor pierced with four cusped lancets; the bay terminates in a crenellated parapet and steep lean-to roof. The heads of the remaining first-floor windows match the entrance's design. A plain, pointed-arch, double window with two lights appears in the second-window range on the second floor. The two window ranges to the right terminate in gabled half dormers, with flat-arched windows having tri-lobed head lights lighting the attic of the facing gable roof. An angle set-back buttress strengthens the left corner. Moulded storey bands cross the main elevation, with the topmost continuing across the left return.

The left return is considerably plainer but achieves a highly picturesque effect through a set-back chimney breast near the corner and a full-height gabled bay with traceried windows. Beyond this stand three recently-restored timber dormers, one partially obscured by the tower. The right return is a one-window range stepping back to a tower-like projection at the corner with the dormitory wing to the rear. The dormitory range to the rear employs simplified but still Gothic-feeling window designs. Stacks appear at the left-end wall, rear of the right-hand wing, and outer walls of the dormitory range.

The Dining Hall at the rear was added to serve the complex and features a timber-framed roof of four bays defined by crown post roof trusses. The crown posts are omitted at the north and south walls to avoid obscuring a pair of two-light, Geometric-styled windows; the centre of the gable above contains a cusped roundel. The four intermediate bays are each subdivided by a hammer beam truss formed by omitting the tie beam which, in the main bays, carries the crown post.

The classroom range and Master's House form an important group with the Chapel and the range by T.G. Jackson along Eastern Road.