Burton Park St Michael'S School

Country house, built about 1828 by John Biddulph following a fire that destroyed the previous house designed by Giacomo Leoni in 1739. The architect was Henry Bassett. It is a three-storey mansion faced with Roman cement. The west front, which serves as the entrance front, has five windows. The ground floor is rusticated and forms a podium with two stringcourses above it. The central doorway is set within a moulded architrave surround, featuring a rectangular fanlight and a flat pediment supported on four console brackets with a fluted frieze between them. The two windows on either side are flanked by pilasters. Above the ground floor, the outermost window bays on each side are flanked by pilasters, topped with a cornice and blocking course. The central portion is recessed, creating a loggia or portico with four fluted Ionic columns and flanking pilasters. Ornamental panels of rosettes are located below the columns. A high balustraded parapet extends above, featuring anthemium cresting in the centre. All windows retain intact glazing bars. The south front is similarly rusticated, with five windows, and projecting end window bays. Pilasters rise through the first and second floors, flanking each window bay. A cornice, blocking course, and balustraded parapet (without cresting) are also present. Windows are set in moulded architrave surrounds, with those on the first floor featuring cornices above. Glazing bars remain intact. The east front has ten windows, with the four southernmost ones projecting. Modern school additions have been constructed to the north. The interior includes a Grecian hall, potentially a remodelling of a hall from Leoni’s earlier house, and a magnificent staircase purportedly brought from Michelgrove near Arundel when it was demolished in 1828. This staircase is made of cast and wrought bronze, with a figure of a greyhound sejant on alternate steps, originally built for Richard Walker in 1800. Major J S Courtauld moved it to its present location in 1919, during alterations to much of the interior. The staircase is of Group Value and would warrant a Grade II* listing on its own. An article about the house appeared in Country Life on 11 July 1936.