254 St Margaret's Banks

254 St Margaret's Banks is a three-storey detached town house in classical Georgian style, probably mid-18th century or earlier in origin with later alterations. It is now part of Rochester Independent College.

The building has external walls of red brick laid in Flemish bond with tuck pointing. The parapet has stone coping and stone steps lead to the main entrance. The roofs are covered with Kent tiles.

The principal building, which faces the street, is rectangular on plan. To the rear are extensions of different dates, each two bays wide; the extension to the south-east is set further back than the 21st-century linear range to the south-west. Like the neighbouring buildings, number 254 is set at a slight angle to the street to face north. The ground floor is arranged with a central hallway and staircase and rooms to each corner.

The principal elevation is five bays wide. There is a prominent pointed plat band between the ground and first floors and a moulded modillion eaves cornice above the second floor; both features continue partially on the return elevations, which are blind party walls. The parapet above the cornice is also of red brick laid in Flemish bond but appears to have been rebuilt in the 20th century due to its lighter colour. Fenestration comprises recessed six-over-six pane sash windows to the ground and first floors and three-over-three sashes to the second floor. All windows have projecting sills and flat-arch brick heads. The central doorcase to the ground floor is framed by pilasters and a triangular pediment, with panelled reveals. The door is panelled with fish-scale and ogee tracery to the fanlight above and is approached by a flight of stone steps. The lower ground floor is partially visible above the pavement; the brickwork is rendered and three of the four window openings are now blind.

The exterior walls have brick chimney stacks to the north-west corner and over the south-east rear range. The roofs are arranged in four hipped ranges perpendicular to the street; the south-east corner range has a hipped roof twice the width of each front range, while the modern linear rear extension to the south-west continues two of the hipped roofs of the front ranges, interrupted by a roof lantern.

The rear elevation is four bays wide; two each to the older east range and the 21st-century extension to the west. Both have walls of red brick laid in Flemish bond. The east range has six-over-six pane sash windows with projecting sills and segmental brick arches; two to the ground floor and one to the first, and a pair of raking dormers with casement windows above. The modern extension has matching fenestration except the first-floor window heads are flush with the eaves.

The entrance opens into a central hallway with a curved, open-well stair. The staircase and timber panelling throughout this room probably date from the building's time as a hotel in the early 20th century. The north-east reception room retains bolection moulded panelling between a foliate dado rail and dentil cornice. The two windows in this room have panelled reveals and the pair of doors in the opposite wall have round-arched heads and moulded architraves. These doorways flank a fireplace with a stone mantelpiece, the latter probably from the 19th or early 20th century. The opposite front room has a wide arched alcove adjacent to a strong room, a walk-in safe with a vaulted ceiling and a metal door that probably dates from the building's time as a hotel. This room, now used as an office, also has a 20th-century fireplace and a deep moulded window architrave with shutters. The other ground-floor room in this original part of the building is a lecture room in the south-east corner, which also has a fireplace. In the modern extension on this level are toilets and an additional lecture room.

The principal staircase is made of timber, with a curtail step and bracketed open strings, and cantilevers out in a curved open stairwell. Turned balusters support a moulded handrail, which continues across the first-floor landing with more decorative casement mouldings to the soffit. There is a secondary staircase leading down to the basement, which has a number of brick vaults and brick flooring. This secondary staircase appears to have been truncated between the ground and first floors; it survives above and provides the main route to the second floor of the building and has column-on-vase balusters and a moulded timber handrail to the upper levels. Prior to the 20th century this may have been the principal staircase.

On the first floor, the lecture room at the front of the building spans the whole width of 254. It has fluted window architraves with panelled reveals, a timber mantelpiece to the fireplace with decorative floral roundels, and a lateral ceiling beam with decorative mouldings. The south-east lecture room on this floor has a stone fireplace with a modern timber mantelpiece. In the modern extension on this level is another lecture room. The second floor contains residential accommodation and bathrooms and has few historical features of note.