St John'S College Beaumont

This is a Jesuit preparatory school, built in 1880 by John Francis Bentley, designed in the style of a French Renaissance chateau. The building is constructed of local red brick with dressings of Monk's Park stone used for the windows and band courses. Its basic quadrangular plan incorporates wings that form an open court to the southwest, with part of this courtyard being infilled in the 1980s. The main building is two storeys high, with an attic space beneath a steeply pitched tiled roof. The northeast side of the quadrangle is single-storey, with a first floor added in the 20th century.

The entrance front, facing northwest, features a central pair of panelled doors with glazed upper panels, set within a splayed recess under a four-centred arch framed by a carved architrave. Flanking the doors are pilasters that taper downwards in the lower third, incorporating decorated carved motifs within recessed panels. An entablature with a pulvinated frieze, broken over the pilasters, and a keystone is surmounted by a pendant wreath containing busts in the tympanum. A balustrade connects to hexagonal turrets of two storeys and an attic, each capped with a steep pyramidal roof and finials. Above the entrance door, a carved coat of arms is set between corbelled pilasters under a dentilled entablature. A band course above features five pierced and carved initials “S,” separated by turned balusters under a shallow dentil cornice. A dormer window with a four-light casement, featuring leaded lights, is situated in the roof above. Broken cornices above the entrance feature a segmental centre motif and an ornate freestanding leaf motif cresting.

A central octagonal lantern rises from the main roof, spanning three storeys. The lower storey is clad in lead with featured dots, cornice, and narrow pilasters. The second storey has two superimposed leaded lights in each face, separated by a minor cornice on the transom. The principal cornice is broken at the angles, and the third storey features a single louvred panel on each face, supported by a solid plinth and voluted brackets at the angles. The lantern is topped with a lead-covered ogee roof and an ornate finial. Stone windows with leaded glazing are positioned on the ground floor of the turrets, with three lights featured on each face. First floor windows are two lights wide and two lights high, with small panes. The roof storey has a two-light casement on the front face, with brick and stone banding, a small cornice, and a steeply pitched tiled roof with a finial.

Three-storey end pavilions have brick and stone band gables topped with oeil-de-boeuf windows beneath segmental cornices, and each has a stone finial on the gable steps. A four-light casement with small panes is set within a stone window on the third floor, beneath a broken segmental cornice. Band courses run at cill and eaves levels, with a stone tablet beneath the cill. The second floor has a central coupled four-light window, separated by a brick pier, with small pane casements. On the ground floor of the right-hand pavilion, a stone-dressed window with a cornice and two transoms features a three-light central section flanked by single-light sections. The left-hand side has similar windows, but seven lights wide. A chapel is located in a projecting wing to the north corner.