Passmore Edwards House at the National Society for Epilepsy

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 4 July 2025 to amend the language in the description and to reformat the text to current standards

208/6/27

CHALFONT ST PETER CHESHAM LANE Passmore Edwards House at the National Society for Epilepsy

(Formerly listed as: CHESHAM LANE, PASSMORE EDWARDS HOUSE, CHALFONT CENTRE FOR EPILEPSY)

30-JUL-84

GV II Administration block for the National Society of Epileptics. 1903-1904 to the designs of Charles Grieve. Red brick with tile hanging to first floor, tiled hipped roof with projecting timber-framed gables. The original plan was an L-shaped, two-storey building with offices and stores on the ground floor and bedrooms above; since extended. Three bay front with projecting windows and central entrance porch. This has a segmental pediment projecting from the bay above with squat columns and a frieze bearing the date 1904. Central door under arched head in timber and glass surround. Timber casements to ground floor, uPVC units above. Extensions to side and rear not of special interest.

The administrative block was named after Passmore Edwards, a noted architectural patron in the 1890s and the principal benefactor of the former Chalfont Colony founded in 1894 to give a normal, healthy village life to people with epilepsy. The colony pioneered the concept of a village community for patients with mental conditions, which was widely adopted, firstly for other epilespsy hospitals and in the inter-war period for other mental conditions. Passmore Edwards is best known as the proprietor of the Building News, a magazine that supported the Arts and Crafts Movement, and for building public libraries.

Passmore Edwards House lies in a prominent, central position at the core of the site, as befits its status. The buildings at the Chalfont Centre form an important group, for their historic interest in the treatment of epilepsy and as examples, if altered, of Arts and Crafts architecture designed to give a domestic feel to a hospital institution.

Source Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England, unpublished report NBR no.100291.