Reigate Priory

Reigate Priory, Bell Street

This building, purchased by Reigate Corporation in 1945 and now a Council School, has a complex history spanning from the medieval period to the 19th century. The medieval Priory was founded prior to the death of William de Warrenne in 1240. Following the dissolution, the property was granted to William, 1st Lord Howard of Effingham, who built a house incorporating parts of the 13th-century Priory. His son Charles, 2nd Lord Howard of Effingham (later 1st Earl of Nottingham), who defeated the Spanish Armada, lived here and is buried in Reigate Parish Church. John Foxe, author of the "Book of Martyrs", lived in the house for a time as tutor to the family. Archbishop Usher died there in 1656, and James II, Duke of York, occasionally occupied the house between 1662 and 1672.

The house was substantially rebuilt in 1766–1779 by Richard Ireland, who entertained John Wesley there in 1771. The exterior is predominantly of this date, though some parts of the Howard Tudor house remain visible at the back facing the courtyard, including a 5-light mullioned and transomed window in an internal wall.

The main building is half H-shaped, south-facing, of two storeys with eleven windows. It is constructed of Reigate stone, stuccoed, with a wood modillion eaves cornice and central pediment. The pediment holds an achievement of arms in a panel surrounded by three busts in shell-headed niches. The roof is tiled with lead ridges, hipped above the two-bay wings, which have angle pilasters. Sash windows with glazing bars are on the first floor, with casements with transoms and glazing bars below, all set in moulded wood architraves. The central doorway has a curved pediment containing a cartouche in the tympanum. In the angles made by the wings are small curved bays containing tiny windows.

The north front has been cemented but shows its Tudor origin in two gables containing casement windows with small square leaded panes. Other windows on this front are sash windows with glazing bars intact.

The interior contains a magnificent carved chimney piece designed by Holbein, brought from Blechingley Place, and two other 17th-century fireplaces brought from Castle Ditch near Ledbury. There is a fine early 18th-century staircase with wall and ceiling decorations by Verrio and Corinthian screens at top and bottom, as well as a back staircase of late 17th-century type.

At right angles to the main front is a red brick wing of three storeys with five windows and three gables, added or rebuilt by Isabel Caroline, daughter of the 3rd Earl Somers (Lady Henry Somerset), in 1895.

A further building at right angles to this wing and parallel to the main house, presumably stables, though resembling a real tennis court or riding school, dates to the 18th century. It is constructed of red brick with a stringcourse, coved cemented eaves cornice, and hipped tiled roof. It has seven modern windows at ground floor level, little round openings above them, and bull's eye windows at first floor level with an elliptical window in the centre. A doorway with moulded architrave surround sits below this window.

The courtyard is completed on the west side by a red brick wall with fine crested wrought iron railing and three pairs of stuccoed gate piers brought from the Bell Street entrance. The outer pedestrian piers are rusticated and surmounted by vases; the centre piers, flanking the carriage entrance, are panelled and surmounted by figures of eagles.