Old School House

OLD SCHOOL HOUSE

A former National School for girls, built in 1871 and later converted to offices in the early 21st century. The building stands on St Stephen's Street in Tonbridge and was constructed by John Deacon and his brother in memory of their parents. The architect is not recorded. It is designed in a Tudor style.

The structure is built of red brick laid in English bond with black diaperwork, stone window surrounds, and a renewed concrete tiled roof with three tall ribbed brick chimneystacks. The plan is roughly L-shaped, comprising an entrance lobby on the north-east side of the south-eastern wing and five former classrooms. The north-western wing contains a large hall which probably was originally subdividable by a folding partition.

The building is one storey with mullioned and transomed stone casement windows, now fitted with uPVC lights within existing openings. The south-west elevation (facing Pembury Road) features a large gable with diaperwork and a two-tier five-light casement window on the left side. The remainder of this frontage has three casement windows and two gabled dormers hung with curved tiles, each with triple windows. The south-western end displays a large gable with a datestone inscribed "THIS SCHOOL FOR GIRLS WAS BUILT IN MEMORY OF JOHN AND SOPHIA DEACON BY THEIR SONS 1871", a three-tier three-light window, and further diaperwork. The north-east side has three triple mullioned windows with diaperwork and a band in black brick. The south-east side has a lean-to porch with plank door retaining ornamental ironmongery. The L-range features a further gable facing south-west with a four-light mullioned and transomed window, and another gable facing south-east with a five-light two-tier window and cambered entrance. A late 20th-century flat-roofed extension to the left and a lean-to brick extension are not of special interest.

The interior retains several original features. The former south-east classroom has a kingpost roof, a cambered brick fireplace with brackets, and plank dado panelling. The fireplace frieze is inscribed "THE FEAR OF THE LORD IS THE BEGINNING OF WISDOM". The adjoining room to the north also has a kingpost roof, though the central section has been replaced. The north-east range comprises a six-bay hall with kingpost roof. Two fireplaces are present, identical in style to the one in the south-east room. The northern fireplace bears the inscription "WHERE NO WOOD IS THE FIRE GOETH OUT SO WHERE NO TALE BEARER STRIFE CEASETH" and the southern fireplace reads "LITTLE CHILDREN LOVE ONE ANOTHER". The provision of two fireplaces suggests there may originally have been a sliding or folding partition to divide the room when necessary. Two further classrooms lead off the south-west room, accessed down a step. These rooms also have kingpost roofs and dado panelling. The internal doors and much of the wooden floor were replaced during the conversion to offices.

The school was built as a National School for girls serving the south part of Tonbridge. The Deacon family were local benefactors and an important family in the area. Their family home was Mabledon in Southborough, a house bought in 1830 from architect James Burton. The family business was banking; they owned William Deacons Bank which later merged to become William Glyns Bank, subsequently absorbed in the mid-20th century into what is now the Bank of Scotland.

The elder John Deacon largely paid for the construction of nearby St. Stephen's Church, completed in 1852 shortly before his death. His wife Sophia had paid part of the cost of restoring the main parish church of Tonbridge. In 1870, Decimus Burton was engaged by the younger John Deacon to renovate and extend the original building at Mabledon, the same year this school was built.

St Stephen's parish was comparatively poor and rapidly growing in size. Although the National Society made grants for new schools, much money had to be raised by parish residents. St Stephen's National School for boys and girls was erected in Waterloo Road in 1854, followed in 1857 by an infants school in Pembury Road. The infants school was designed to accommodate 150 pupils and a house for the schoolmistress was built on land given by Mr Carnell, Sir I L Goldshid and others. By 1864 plans were underway to build a girls school. In 1870 John Deacon the younger gave a site for the new girls school on the corner of St Stephen's Street and Pembury Road and £100 towards construction costs. This was later altered to an offer to build the entire school at his own expense. Adjoining alms houses, completed in 1874, were also built on land donated by John Deacon.

The building does not appear on the First Edition Ordnance Survey map of 1867 but has its current footprint on the Second Edition map of 1897. Later, the school buildings were used as facilities for the Kent School of Music. The building was converted for office use by Builders Hall and Co in the early 21st century.