Bryanston School

BRYANSTON ST 80 NE BRYANSTON

5/26 Bryanston School

• I

Country house, now school, 1889-94, by R Norman Shaw for Lord Portman. Red brickwork in English bond with Portland stone ashlar dressings. Hipped slate roof. Banded brick and ashlar stacks symmetrically disposed along and behind the ridge. A very large loosely neo-Baroque mansion. Symmetrical. 2 storeys with basement and double attics. Entrance facade of 11 bays (7 to the main central block) with flanking service wings at right angles. Main block disposed 2:3:2 with outer bays defined by banded brick and ashlar. Most windows with rusticated ashlar surrounds and keystones. Outer bays of central block have elongated staircase windows. Sashes with glazing bars. Central bays of service wing have large 3-bay segmental pediments containing roundels. Central doorway to main block has Gibbs surround and segmental pediment. Range of 7 dormers with alternating segmental and triangular pediments. Flanking wings have first floor plat band. Moulded and dentilled cornice. Garden front has broadly similar detailing. 23 bays: 5:3:7:3:5.

Interior features: central spine corridor running the length of the house and passing straight through the central saloon. The saloon is open through the whole height of the house and is lit through a central hidden cupola. It is surrounded by a first floor balcony supported on giant Ionic columns. Heavy late C17 style staircase. Double apsed entrance hall. The main rooms contain rich plasterwork mainly in a neo-baroque or neo-Adam style and classical chimney- pieces some perhaps reused from an earlier house by J Wyatt. The house exhibits many early technical advances having been lit from its date of building by electricity and retaining its original hydraulic lifts. (Newman, J. and Pevsner, N. The Buildings of England: Dorset, 1972, p,l18-120. )

Listing NGR: ST8703907370