The Cloisters, Oundle School

The Cloisters form part of Oundle School, a complex of buildings dating from the 18th century to the late 19th century, with 20th-century additions. The New Street elevation, dating from around 1880 and designed by John Sebastian Gwilt, is built in a Tudor style, displaying an asymmetrical design featuring a gatehouse and turrets at the south end. The construction utilizes coursed rubble stone.

The left wing is gabled, with a mullion and transom window containing six lights on each floor. This section projects forward, featuring smaller windows with four lights on either side. A finial tops the gable. Wings flanking the gatehouse have a heavily carved cornice and five irregularly arranged windows, each containing two or four lights with mullions and transoms, and displaying coats of arms.

The central gatehouse, three stories high, has a crenellated parapet and a heavily carved cornice. A turret on its left side incorporates an animal gargoyle waterspout. Two single-light windows, protected by dripmoulds, flank a statue of Laxton within a niche, situated beneath a carved canopy and above a canted oriel window. The oriel has a stepped base and crenellated parapet. The entrance features a four-centred arch with carved spandrels, covered by a rectangular dripmould. The right wing mirrors the left, with all windows containing four lights. Horizontal bands run along the first-floor cill levels. An octagonal turret with a crenellated parapet and gargoyle spouts rises to the right, featuring a single light on each face within a lantern, with the central cusped heads blocked.

The curtilage includes a low stone wall accompanied by gatepiers with lamps. The courtyard elevation showcases buildings of varying ages. The west side contains a seven-arched cloister in stone, with modern additions. The north side is comprised of buildings dating from 1934, constructed in coursed stone with a parapet and plinth, in a Tudor style. These buildings have plain windows except for one arched window with a date in the spandrels and a right-side oriel with a ramped base, a small clock, and a gable with a finial. An arched entry is sheltered by a rectangular dripmould with shield terminals. A corner block from the late 19th century features a stone slate roof, end stacks, and three semi-dormer windows with six lights each, breaking the eaves. Ground-floor windows also have similar lights.

Adjacent to this is a house from 1790, constructed in ashlar with three modern dormers, and featuring two hung sash windows with glazing bars on both floors. The exterior to Church Yard exhibits dentilled eaves and a platband at first floor level, with four windows on the first floor, flat-arched heads, and late glazing. A door is located on the left side. The next house has a gable end to Church Street, presenting a symmetrical façade of five hung sash windows with glazing bars and a central entrance with a wooden doorcase and fanlight. A porch and plain buildings in a Georgian style, dating from 1960, occupy the south side, along with a parapet. The remaining portion of this side displays a late 19th-century Tudor style with a Welsh slate roof, three gables, and irregular mullion and transom windows on the ground floor. There is also a modern door and two moulded doorways with arched heads.

The listed buildings along New Street are considered to form a group.