The Manor House School

LITTLE BOOKHAM MANOR HOUSE LANE TQ/15/SW (west side) 5/197

7.9.51 The Manor House School

GV II

Manor house, now school C18, altered and enlarged in early C19 (plus recent additions which are not of special interest). Orange hand-made brick in Flemish bond, the south front stuccoed and painted white, red tile roof. L-shaped plan formed by rectangular double-depth house and associated service wing to the rear, with a wing at the south-east corner which appears to be an addition. Three-storey main block, 2-storey rear wing; the principal facade to the south is a symmetrical composition of 3 storeys with prominent semicircular 3-bay bows flanking a 2-bay centre, a 1st-floor balcony, and a parapet; the centre has a very wide elliptical-headed doorway with glazed double doors and side windows under a fanlight with radiating glazing bars, under a loggia with 2 pairs of fluted Doric columns in antis, a triglyph frieze and thin cornice; 12-pane sashes at 1st floor and 9-pane sashes above. The loggia has a balcony which is continued round both bows as a very thin platform on brackets and protected by a delicate balustrade of latticed wrought-iron. The bows have tall 15-pane sashed windows at ground and 1st floors (rising from the ground and the balcony respectively), and 9-pane sashes at 2nd floor. The level of the upper floor inside the left bow does not match the windows, the upper panes of the 1st-floor windows being blind-glazed, and the hipped roof covers only this bow and the centre, suggesting that the right-hand bow was an addition to the original building and that the left was added in symmetry with it. Part of the 4-bay left return wall is covered by a recent 2-storey wing (which is not of special interest), but the rest has 12- and 9-pane sashed windows with gauged brick heads, and a brick dentilled cornice. The right-hand return wall (the entrance front) has a large inserted doorway, a round-headed window above, a 12-pane sash to the left of this, and a similar cornice. The rear wing, of 2 storeys and 5 bays, has mostly 12-pane sashed windows with gauged brick heads, some at the rear blocked or blind. Attached to the north-east corner of this wing is an L-shaped single- storey service wing enclosing a courtyard: Interior: the principal feature of interest is an imperial staircase with stick balusters.

Listing NGR: TQ1230753968