252 St Margaret's Banks and east rear garden wall

A two-storey Georgian-style town house built around 1700 with late 19th-century alterations, now part of Rochester Independent College. The building comprises two gabled ranges parallel to the street, creating a roughly rectangular, double-depth plan with rooms in four quadrants of each floor arranged around a central staircase hall.

The external walls are constructed from red brick laid in Flemish bond with burned headers, with stock brick used in one of the rear ranges. The roofs are covered with Kent peg tiles and have stone copings. Window frames and the eaves cornice are of timber.

The principal (north) elevation is five bays wide and two storeys high with an attic. The ground floor features a central projecting canopy carried on Tuscan Doric columns, flanked by canted bays with plate-glass, horned sash windows under a moulded cornice and entablature. The first floor has five windows with flat-arch brick heads, each with flush, moulded architraves framing six-over-six hornless sashes. A timber modillion eaves cornice sits above. The tiled roof has five raking dormers with three-over-three horned sash windows.

The west side elevation is largely blind with an end stack and a rendered gable end with stone coping. A small lean-to extension with a mono-pitched roof covers a side entrance to the rear. The building shares a party wall with number 254 St Margaret's Banks to the east.

The rear (south) elevation comprises two elements: a principal gabled range positioned parallel to the front but slightly shorter, and a small two-storey side extension at the south-west corner. The gabled range has external walls largely of stock brick laid in Flemish bond, with a small area of red brick to the ground floor connecting to the neighbouring building. The small extension is of red brick with its own hipped roof. Fenestration comprises sash windows of various shapes and sizes in segmental or cambered brick arches.

The two principal ground-floor rooms have moulded window architraves, simple cornicing, dado and picture rails. The north-east room contains a stone fireplace featuring a Tudor arch with floral carvings to the spandrels. The principal first-floor rooms retain more panelling and mouldings; the north-west room has elaborate bolection-moulded panelling to the walls. The north-east room has a Baroque-style fireplace, probably from the 19th century. A doorway in the south wall of this room that provided access to the lateral corridor has been blocked up with panelling. The south dormitory retains a built-in cupboard and a window with a moulded architrave and panelled shutters.

The attic level shows embedded ceiling beams and rafters in places. The dogleg staircase rises from ground floor to attic with panelled walls. The balustrade has been boxed in, but original joinery remains visible including moulded handrails and simple newel posts with run-out chamfer stops and rounded caps.

A brick wall runs approximately north-south along the length of the rear garden, forming the boundary between 252 and 254 St Margaret's Banks. A stone plaque on the east side of this wall reads: 'Erected by T. TOMLYN 1790'.