Holmewood House School

Holmewood House School

A school, converted from a house. The original building on the site, called Mitchells, was designed by Decimus Burton for C.H. Okey and J. Carruthers. It was destroyed by fire in 1837 and rebuilt to a different design. The building now includes 20th-century extensions.

The main structure is constructed of sandstone ashlar brought to course. The masonry of the principal block features diagonal rustication with contrasting rusticated borders and smooth ashlar dressings. The roof is hipped slate with chimney stacks having ashlar shafts.

The plan is organised on an east-west axis. The main block is a deep rectangle with the entrance positioned centrally on the north side. A central low service block projects to the north west of the south garden elevation. The interior arrangement includes a heated entrance hall with a corridor running along the long axis, principal rooms facing south, and a principal stair rising from the corridor to the west. Twentieth-century additions adjoin the service block at the west end.

The building is two storeys with the roof concealed behind parapets. Ashlar chimney shafts feature sunk round-headed mouldings, corbelled cornices and multiple shafts. The principal stack has moulded dividers to the flues. Original 19th-century windows survive throughout.

The entrance front on the north side is symmetrical across seven bays. The parapet has a moulded cornice and sunk panels, rising in the centre with pilasters flanking a larger panel with moulded frame. A platband forms the sills of the first-floor windows, which have sunk panels below, above a second platband with moulded stone brackets. A deep projecting central portico has paired Tuscan columns without bases to the front and pilasters to the rear with plain frieze and cornice; the roof is glazed. Patterned tiles below the porch include a Greek key border. The front door has two leaves glazed above moulded panelling with glazed panels to either side, divided by pilasters. The first-floor window above the porch is a tripartite sash with 12 panes in the centre and 4 panes in the outer lights, the lights divided by recessed stone mullions with carved consoles. Other first-floor windows are 12-pane sashes, except the left-hand bays which have blind recesses on both first and ground floors. Ground-floor windows are tall over 9-pane sashes. The left south return comprises five bays in matching style, with the two left-hand bays containing blind recesses. Stone steps descend to a cellar at the left end.

The south garden elevation extends nine bays across the main block, with the central three bays bowed. The details match those on the north elevation. A five-bay block adjoins at the left west end, probably original to the design. Three bays in its centre have a parapet and late 19th-century first-floor 4-pane sashes. A single-storey projection along the front has a parapet and early 19th-century 6 over 9-pane sashes. The left-hand bay contains a fine stone doorcase with pilasters and a cornice with dentil frieze and egg-and-dart moulding. To the right, a single-storey projecting polygonal bay with a parapet above a similar frieze and moulding is divided by engaged columns with capitals and square bases. Above the door and polygonal bay, rendered first-floor projections are probably later additions. A 20th-century addition to the far left is not of special interest. The north elevation of the service block comprises nine bays with a 1:3:5-bay front in similar but plainer style to the main block, featuring 19th-century small-pane sash windows. The masonry of the five-bay block at the right end is not rusticated and the parapet is completely plain.

The entrance hall contains an Adam-style chimney-piece with paired pilasters. A carved white marble medallion fixed to the wall above is in the style of Chantrey. Adam-style swags within panels, possibly 20th-century additions, are applied to the woodwork. The hall is top-lit from a first-floor glazed dome with a round well cut through the ground-floor ceiling, the opening bordered by a good cast-iron balustrade on the first floor. A fine late 1830s cast-iron balustrade to the stair features a mahogany handrail with balusters richly decorated with stout three-dimensional scrollwork and stylised flowers.

The dining room has decorated plaster cornices and a white marble chimney-piece. The principal room to the west, now used as the staff room, contains a good 19th-century painted ceiling including key patterns. The library is panelled with a ceiling rose and subdivided by a segmental archway with anthemia in the spandrels. The first-floor landing is panelled with a guilloche frieze. Most first-floor chimney-pieces are late 19th-century with grates and tiled surrounds; an 18th-century style chimney-piece survives in the bow-fronted bedroom. Well-preserved joinery throughout includes doors, doorcases and skirtings.