School House And Attached Laboratories At Leighton Park School

The School House and attached laboratories at Leighton Park School, formerly known as Pepper House, were built in 1830 and originally belonged to the Cobham family. The building was extended in 1891 by Alfred Waterhouse for use as a school. The School House is two storeys high with a basement, constructed of painted brick on a plinth. It features flanking corner piers, stone architraves, and bracket cills, along with a moulded string at the first-floor level. The cornice and blocking course add to its architectural detail.

On the first floor, there are six windows with panels below, while the ground floor has two windows: a left-hand tripartite window with a bracket cornice and a right-hand angled bay window with pilasters and a cornice. The windows are cross-glazed sash types. A large Tuscan porch from the circa 1840s is centrally located, with a recessed doorway flanked by niches and a shaped border in front that indicates the former presence of a fountain. The south front has a 1:5:1 bay arrangement, with the outer bays breaking forward and featuring tripartite windows. A central half-glazed door leads to a terrace that includes a small ha-ha and a retaining wall.

The school laboratories extension faces west and has a slight gabled break with a three-bay deep projection linked to a further block to the north by an arch with a passage. This extension is also two storeys high with a basement, built of grey brick with red brick quoins, dressings, and lacing bands. It has a red brick plinth capping and stepped verge to the gables, along with segmental-headed plate glass sash windows and a slate roof. There is a small extension to the east that features a tile-hung lavatory oriel.