Churchfield Centre

The Churchfield Centre is a technical institute dating from around 1912, designed by Jarvis and Richards for Surrey County Council. Constructed of red brick in English bond, it features ashlar dressings, yellow and blue engineering brick to the rear, and has hipped plain tile roofs with swept eaves and brick stacks. The building is arranged in a U-shape, open at the east end. It is two storeys high, with a partial cellar.

The design is in the Arts and Crafts style, with rusticated quoins, and wooden mullion-and-transom windows with leaded casements. Most windows are two-light, those on the ground floor being taller, set on a cill band, and incorporating arches linked by an impost band with tile-on-edge to the tympana. A brick cill band runs along the first floor. Tall chimneys have pilaster strips and moulded caps.

The west elevation, which serves as the main entrance, has three wide, asymmetrical bays, with the outer bays projecting, the left bay projecting more prominently. A wide, single-storey porch, possibly an addition, spans the centre and part of the right bay, featuring two stone steps leading to a panelled and part-glazed double-door set within an ashlar architrave, accentuated by an elaborate console keystone and cornice. Decorative side windows and a downpipe dated 1912 are also present. An ashlar band sits below a deep parapet with moulded ashlar coping. A five-light window is above the porch. The left bay features a single window to each floor, with an oculus to the return. The right bay has a single window and a smaller one-light window on the ground floor, flanked by oculi above. A ridge stack is positioned between the left bays.

The south elevation (right return) has five bays, with six ground-floor windows. The first-floor windows of bays one, three, and five rise through the eaves under segmental pediments with herringbone tilework in the tympana; paired one-light windows are present in bays two and four. A chimney is located at the right end. An octagonal wooden cupola at the centre of the roof incorporates segmental-arched sides, a deep moulded cornice, and a dome surmounted by a ball finial and weather-vane.

The north elevation (left return) has six ground-floor windows. On the first floor, a large, paired three-light window is centrally positioned, rising through the eaves under a flat roof with a moulded eaves cornice. Flanking this are four-light windows, the one on the left with a three-light flat-roofed dormer above. A lead rainwater pipe is on the right, and a stack is at the left end.

The rear features a single-storey toilet block at the centre with a clerestory, alongside large windows and some small-pane sashes.

Inside, panelled and part-glazed doors, including entrance doors with fanlights and archivolts, are noteworthy. A large dog-leg staircase has decorative panels to the balustrade, a heavy moulded handrail, and newels. Other features include boarded wainscots, panelled cupboards, simple cornices, decorative window-latch terminals, and terrazzo flooring on the ground floor. The Churchfield Centre represents a good-quality example of an early 20th-century Technical Institute built in the Arts and Crafts style.