Caversham Grove (Now Highdown School, Emmer Green) Highdown School

Highdown School, located in Caversham Grove, is an 18th-century building that was altered and extended between 1878 and 1880 by the architect Richard Norman Shaw in the Queen Anne style. The original part of the building is two storeys tall with an attic, featuring segmental-headed windows. It is constructed of red brick with a stucco string course at the first-floor level, flanked by brick piers with rusticated bands. The building has a stone-moulded eaves cornice and consists of five bays with glazing bar sashes and bracketed cills, while the centre of the first floor is blind. The central door and porch, likely designed by Norman Shaw, have a moulded cornice and an eared rubbed brick entrance. The roof is tiled and hipped, with gabled dormers added as part of Shaw's work.

Inside, the building is richly panelled and features lavish plaster decorations on the ceilings, also likely by Norman Shaw. There is a stone staircase in a central well, adorned with richly carved eared doorways, panelling, and a bold modillion cornice. The extensions made by Norman Shaw nearly doubled the size of the house, maintaining the red brick construction and Queen Anne style. The south-facing garden front includes a loggia, and the interior is decorated in the 'Adam' style. The building has an irregular plan with a two-storey gatehouse projecting to the east, and it features casement windows with glazing bars. The work by Norman Shaw is significant as an early example of his Queen Anne revival, and some interior details in the original early 18th-century house are faithful replicas of that period.