Blacklers No 1 Boarding House

DARTINGTON DARTINGTON HALL SXB6SW No 1 Boarding House 2/141 (Blacklers) 28.1.71

GV II

Boarding house at Dartington School 1933 by W E Lescaze of Howe and Lescaze of America, assisted by R Hening. Rendered brick with plain concrete coping to the parapet concealing a flat roof. 2 Small rendered stacks on the roof. Plan: Long rectangular plan with a single storey projection with a balcony over the left at the back. The entrance and staircase rear the left (north) end of the front gives access to a longitudinal passage off which there are playroom/classrooms, a cloakroom, a kitchen, a dining room/;playroom and at the left (north) end the housefather's flat. At the right (north) end the first floor is carried over a covered playground area; a longitudinal spine corridor gives access to the childrens' bed- sitting rooms and washrooms at the rear. International Modern Style. Exterior: 2 storey. Asymmetrical west front; recessed porch towards the left with flush doors with small round lights; above the doorway a large rectangular stair window with a dripcourse continuing to the left and right over long horizontal bands of windows of 2, 4 and 3-lights, each light divided by a concrete pier, the centre band much shallower. The ground storey is similar but has deeper window bands, the right-hand classroom window is the deepest and continues around the right-hand end to the back under the projecting first floor of the right-hand end which is carried on 6 very slender steel tube posts and forms a covered playground area with access from a doorway in the classroom. There is a large rendered fire escape staircase on the right-hand end which was added recently. The rear (east) has a continuous first floor window band, the right end had access to the balcony over the projecting ground floor room below. The ground floor windows are deeper. Some of the original steel window frames have been replaced with aluminium windows. To the left of the entrance on the west front date 1933 on the wall in raised figures without serifs. Interior: the stairs are in an open well with a solid balustrade with a broad oak handrail cappings. The rooms at the left end have fireplaces faced in marble above and to one side only. Flush doors throughout. Small desks in the bed-sittingrooms. Blacklers is the first of 3 similar boarding houses to be built at Dartington School by Lescaze, cf No 2 (Chimmels) and No 3 (Orchards) Source: Architects drawings in the Dartington Hall archive.

Listing NGR: SX8017562968