Aberdeen House, 68 Ellington Road

Aberdeen House, 68 Ellington Road

A former school, now converted to offices and a Registry Office, designed around 1880 by architect Alfred Robert Pite for Reverend George Simmers. The building was constructed by Martin's of Ramsgate in a vernacular revival style.

The structure is built in bands of Gault and red brick laid in Flemish bond with a tile roof and stone and timber dressings and decoration. It comprises two storeys with a basement and attic. The site occupies a corner position between Ellington Road and South Eastern Road. Published plans from The Builder in 1882 reveal no clear architectural separation between the master's house and boys' accommodation, except for the cloister and lavatories positioned adjacent to the schoolroom on the eastern side. Service areas were located to the west of the entry, with the dining room, drawing room and staircase hall forming the building's centre.

The south-west facing entrance front features a prominent projecting section to the left and a lower, recessed portion at right that connects to an earlier terrace of houses to its south-east. The left-hand projection has a central gabled bay with a canted bay window at ground floor level surrounded by stone. Above this are two first-floor sash windows and a three-light casement in the attic. The gable displays prominent carved bargeboards with a sceptre finial. Adjacent to this is a gabled porch with a moulded Gothic arch and timber bargeboards, surmounted by a two-light casement with gabled head and fishscale hanging tiles. A projecting chimney stack to the left has a moulded brick head and stone, shield-shaped plaque at first floor level inscribed 'ABERDEEN / HOUSE / 1880'. To the right stands a bay with a square bay window at ground floor level in stone surround with hipped roof, topped by two sashes with segmental heads. The half-hipped gable roof carries decorative bargeboards. The recessed right portion has brickwork to ground floor level and an overhanging timber-framed first floor. An arched doorway with moulded stone surround sits left of centre, flanked by three-light windows with arched tracery heads. The first floor features small framing with arched braces and casements.

The north-western flank displays a gabled wing at right with timber framing and decorative bargeboards. At left is a projecting wing with central chimneystack rising into the gable. The projecting ground-floor outshut covering two sides of this wing has a hipped roof with tile hanging to its upper walls.

The rear elevation has three gabled projections at left and a two-bay block to the right. Ground floor sash windows feature cambered heads and the gables are timber-framed with decorative bargeboards as elsewhere.

The interior plan appears to retain its original school design configuration, though fire doors have been inserted and some fireplace surrounds removed. The dogleg staircase has chamfered newels with inset quatrefoil panels, knops and pendant bosses. Balustrade panels to the lower flights feature quatrefoil and trefoil cut-outs with chamfered balusters and a moulded hardwood handrail. The attic flights have heavy turned balusters. The back stairs incorporate similar newels with stick balusters. Six-panel doors at ground floor level and four-panel doors to the first floor all appear original, as do the deep fitted cupboards in the attic corridor.