Former Kent Adult Education Centre

Former Kent Adult Education Centre, Chapel Place, Ramsgate

House, later a vicarage and later in educational use. The northern part dates from circa 1820 with some later alterations, and the southern part mainly from circa 1870.

Exterior

The northern part of the front has been rendered and the southern is of painted brick. The roof is tiled with two rendered brick stacks and one end brick stack. The building is three storeys and basement with four windows to the front elevation. The three northern windows are under stone coping and on the second and ground floor are late 19th-century sash windows with horns but no glazing bars. Probably when the other windows were altered, the first floor windows were replaced by two large Gothic style square bays with moulded cornices and bases, supported on four large brackets with stone corbels and quatrefoil motifs to the spandrels. Both are decorated with chamfered timberframing with diaper and diagonal patterns. The larger bay to the right has five-lights and a cinquefoil-headed decoration to the centre under a crow-stepped gable. The smaller bay has three-lights, the end ones with trefoil heads. The rear elevation of this part of the building retains some early 19th-century multipane sashes.

The southern part of the building, apart from the doorcase, appears to be of circa 1870. It is of brick, now painted to the front elevation, but the side and rear elevations are of stock brick with red brick banding. The tiled roof has terracotta ridge tiles and a brick chimney with three stacks set diagonally. The front elevation has a gable with kneelers and two sash windows with glazing bars to the upper part. The first floor has a five-light mullioned and transomed window with stained glass to the transomes and the ground floor has a casement window, also with stained glass to the upper part. The doorcase is round-headed with a keystone and impost blocks. Two windows to the side elevation also have stained glass to the upper part.

Interior

The staircase has a mahogany handrail with balustrading covered over, which is probably of early 19th-century date. Two rooms have early 19th-century marble fireplaces with paterae and oval patterns to the top and sides (one painted) and panelled cupboards. There are at least three Victorian cast iron fireplaces with elaborate cast iron surrounds with pilasters, one with a visible cast iron grate, a later 19th-century wooden fireplace with decorative brackets and panelled pilasters, and some stained glass windows.

History

The northern part of this building is a re-working of an end house of the adjoining terrace which is shown on Collard and Hunt's 1822 map of Ramsgate. Part of the northern part may also have been part of this terrace as the round-headed entrance is similar to ones on the terrace. By the 1877 Ordnance Survey map, the building has its present form, but none of the maps through to 1938 show the distinctive bay windows. The second phase was probably complete by 1877. It has been suggested that Edward Welby Pugin (1834–1875) may have had a hand in re-modelling this building but there is no documentary evidence for this. On the 1908 map the building is shown as a vicarage. Later, and until recently, it was in use as an Adult Education Centre.