Downside School

Downside School is a large independent school complex whose buildings span three centuries, from the early 18th century to 1968. The ensemble comprises the Old House (early 18th century, architect unknown); chapel and first school building (1820-1823, HE Goodridge); school extension (1853-1854, CF Hansom); refectory and kitchen buildings (1872-1879, AM Dunn and EJ Hansom); south and west school ranges (1910-1912, LA Stokes); science wing (Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, 1932); Barlow House (Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, 1939); health centre (Brett, Boyd and Bosanquet, 1957-1958); and Pollen classroom wing (F Pollen, 1968), along with various alterations to each phase.

The buildings are constructed principally of Mendip and Bath-stone rubble and ashlar. CF Hansom's phase uses white lias walling, whilst Stokes' ranges employ dressed Combe Down limestone and local rubble with plain clay tile roofs. The science wing has a Cotswold tile roof. Roofs elsewhere are of Welsh slate or tile. Stokes' ranges and the post-war buildings incorporate elements of structural reinforced concrete.

The buildings form three sides of a quadrangle. The northern range comprises the Old House, chapel, and Goodridge building; the western range consists of CF Hansom's phase, Roberts Tower, and Stokes' west range; and the southern range includes Stokes' south range and Barlow House. To the north of CF Hansom's phase stand the refectory and kitchen buildings, whilst the Pollen classroom wing extends to its east. The science wing, with ranges running north and west, lies west of Roberts Tower, with the health centre to the north. The school's boundary with the monastic buildings is located in the north-west corner of the refectory block.

The Old House

The reconfigured early 18th-century manor house stands three storeys tall with attics and is five window bays wide, with a double-depth plan. Built of dressed and coursed limestone with ashlar dressings, it has a hipped slate roof with three 19th-century gabled dormers and a timber bracketed eaves cornice. The main south-facing elevation has a central porch with chamfered rustication and a keystone to the arched entrance. Timber sash windows are set within two-light stone mullion openings, with a continuous drip-mould on each storey. To the right of the porch, below the first-floor windows, a teak sundial was installed in 1997. The east elevation has a timber sash window on each floor and a single dormer, but is largely obscured by a three-storey 1920s extension, two bays wide on the south side and three bays on the east. This extension is of dressed and coursed limestone with a single large red-brick chimney stack on the south side of the pitched slate roof. The north elevation is a mixture of phases, featuring three 19th-century gabled roof-dormers, scattered fenestration with stone surrounds, and continuous drip-moulds interrupted by staircase windows in the central bay. The ground floor is hidden behind a mid-20th-century glazed range. The west elevation adjoins Goodridge's chapel.

Inside, the Old House has been largely reconfigured for administrative offices. A timber open-well staircase with splat balusters rises on the north side of the building, but few other features of special interest remain. From the entrance hall a pointed stone archway leads to the ground-floor rooms below the chapel.

Chapel and Goodridge School Building (1820-1823)

These buildings are of Bath-stone ashlar with Welsh-slate roofs. The south elevation comprises the grand chapel front with tall buttresses and a large triple window with a carved stone shield above. Below are four gabled niches with carved foliate decoration to their canopies. To the left stands a single-storey porch, and further left six bays contain lancet windows with a continuous hood-mould, above which a clerestorey has lancets with drip moulds. At the west end, an octagonal corner tower with lancet niches and a crenelated parapet terminates this building phase. Further west, a Bath-stone ashlar open passageway has chamfered Tudor arches and a flat-roofed upper storey. The rear elevation of the chapel has undecorated lancet windows, and the Goodridge building presents a plain window elevation with a mid-20th-century glazed range obscuring the ground floor.

On the ground floor of these buildings, an east-west spine corridor and some chimneypieces, including that in the Fasenfeld Room (formerly the Petre Library), are the principal features of interest. The chapel is accessed via a stone cantilever staircase with a cast-iron balustrade featuring decorative quatrefoil and cruciform decoration in panels. The sanctuary to the north is lit by lancet windows with clear glazing, with plasterwork arcading on the walls below and to the ceiling. Below the organ loft to the south stands a marble statue of the Virgin and Child by AB Wall (1883), but most other furnishings and fittings have been removed.

CF Hansom Phase (1853-1854)

The first extension to the school is of white lias with Bath-stone dressings under a pitched slate roof with decorative ridge cresting. The inverted L-shaped block is attached to the west of Goodridge's building and stands two storeys with attics and roof-dormers to the north wing. The south elevation of the north wing is five bays wide, divided by buttresses. The projecting central bay has a stepped gable above a niche with a statue of St Gregory on the first floor and a four-light window to the ground floor. The east elevation of the west wing has six paired bays divided by buttresses and two chimney stacks. Within the angle of the two wings stands a cylindrical stair-turret with a louvred conical roof. The west elevation of the west wing is also of six bays: the left-hand bay is gabled with a canted two-storey bay window below; a central external stack rises in the middle; and the right-hand bay is gabled with a three-light window to the ground floor and stack above. Unless otherwise described, all windows to the two wings are paired pointed-lights with mullions and transoms. A further wing to the north of the north wing projects towards the kitchen yard; it is two storeys with a clay tile roof, dressed limestone walls, ashlar quoins and dressings. This is in turn attached on its east side to a mid-20th-century dormitory wing.

Inside, the ground floor of the north range has a wide east-west corridor with substantial timber ceiling beams on carved stone corbels, and a broad stone staircase to the dormitories on the upper floors. The east range has a double-width east-facing corridor on the ground floor with beams and corbels as above, two ashlar pointed-archways leading from the south end of the Gasquet Passage into a lobby, and two further archways into the main corridor, with classrooms to the west. The corridor has oak dado panelling and herringbone woodblock floors. Adjacent to the west of the first pair of arches is a circulation space, inserted in the 1960s to give access to the Pollen classroom wing; it has a steel cantilevered staircase. At the south end of the corridor are two round-headed archways with 20th-century firebreak doors leading to the Roberts Tower lobby and staircase, which provides access to the upper floors of the CF Hansom block. The Petre Library on the first floor is a large double-height hall, divided into six bays by arched trusses with dormer windows to the west and pointed-arch windows to the east. At the north end are the remains of a carved-stone fire surround designed by EJ Hansom in 1871. The double-doors at the south end of the library are part of Stokes' 1912 scheme.

Gasquet Passage and Hall

The passage is a plain single-storey range connecting the school with the refectory. It is largely obscured externally by 20th-century extensions and a dormitory range added to the first floor in the later 20th century. To the west is Gasquet Hall, a single-storey rubble-stone building with three large windows with top-hung casements and a replacement slate roof.

Inside, the passage links CF Hansom's range with the refectory block to the north. On its east side are three three-light mullion and transom windows with cusped heads and leaded lights. A range of dormitories was added above the passage in the later 20th century. Gasquet Hall comprises two classroom spaces on the west side of the passage. They have a timber trussed roof and rooflights.

Refectory Block (1872-1879)

This high-collegiate Perpendicular three-storey block was designed alongside the kitchen yard buildings by Dunn and Hansom and completed in 1876. It is of Bath-stone ashlar with a steeply-pitched slate roof. The north elevation faces the monastic library courtyard and is six bays from east to west. The ground floor projects slightly and has a flat roof and small rectangular windows; lion gargoyles feed into lead rainwater hoppers. The six windows above are rectangular with a continuous hood-mould and a carved stone shield between each pair. Each window has cusped tracery with a dentilled transom. The second floor is slightly set-back and has full-dormer windows with plate tracery, each topped with a small finial. A short wing projects to the north, connecting the school to the monastic buildings. The east elevation is two bays wide, with two windows (as above) on the first floor, and a five-light window above with plate tracery. The south elevation has an ashlar post-war extension, three bays square, single storey and flat roofed, at ground level. Above this on the first floor are three two-light mullion and transom windows with a continuous hood-mould. A tall, twin-shafted chimney stack rises from the first floor, through a stringcourse with a carved Tudor-flower frieze, and between two large second-floor gables above. Each gable has a paired window with trefoil heads, and the right-hand gable has a grotesque finial whilst the left-hand gable has two further gargoyles. To the east of the gables is a prominent tower with a castellated parapet, stepped windows to the stair, and mullion and transom windows with diamond leaded glazing to the top floor, above which is a gargoyle at each angle. The west elevation is three bays wide with a central stair-turret. Windows have plate tracery with mullions and transoms and continuous hood moulds. Both east and west gables are surmounted with a statue of an angel, and the kneelers have dog grotesques.

Inside, steps at the north end of Gasquet Passage lead up to the refectory corridor, which turns to the west and then north to the boundary with the monastic buildings. The corridor has an encaustic tile floor, ashlar skirtings, a boarded timber ceiling, and doorways with ashlar surrounds. To the south are two square-headed doorways and borrowed lights to the corridor with leaded glazing. The doorways flank a pointed arch to a stone spiral staircase with a ramped handrail up to the Bede Centre. On the west wall of the corridor is a two-light Second World War memorial window. On the north side of the corridor two doorways lead to the refectory; that to the left is square-headed, whilst that to the right is a pointed arch with Tudor-rose decoration and an inscription. Its timber double-doors are panelled and have foliate carving to the spandrels. The refectory is a double-height space, six bays from east to west and with pitch-pine panelling to cill level. The ceiling is boarded and coffered with substantial north-south beams on brackets with armorial shields and carved corbels. On the south wall is a large stone chimneypiece with a carving depicting the attempt by St Benedict's monks to poison him, flanked by saints in niches, carved by William Farmer (1825-1879). The windows contain armorial glass. The former dormitory above the refectory was refurbished in the early 21st century as the Bede Centre; no historic fittings remain. To the east the refectory is attached by a single-storey servery with rooflights to the double-height kitchen, which has a timber trussed roof, dormer windows on the west side, and a large chimneybreast to the south.

Kitchen Yard Buildings (1872-1879)

This group of buildings primarily comprises a two-storey range attached to the east of its contemporaneous refectory, but also two single-storey buildings, one of which is a former laundry. Designed with a domestic character, the principal building is of limestone ashlar with a red-tile roof and tri-shafted gable and axial stacks. It faces east and is five asymmetrical bays from north to south: the central three bays have half dormers; the bay to the right has a large gable with a finial, a five-light bay window with hipped roof to the ground floor and five-light window above; and the bay to the left has a full hipped-roof dormer. All windows have mullions and transoms with metal or timber casements. To the west of this is a single-storey rendered lean-to, attached by a 20th-century extension to two three-storey buildings which connect to the refectory. The easterly block is of rock-faced limestone with half-dormers, whilst the western block has a gable end and is of dressed ashlar. Connected to the north is a post-war concrete loading bay and ancillary buildings. To the south of the kitchen block, connected to the Gasquet Passage, is a 19th-century single-storey building of coursed limestone ashlar with a clerestorey and a slate roof. It has a range of ten small rectangular windows with ashlar surrounds on the south elevation, and paired arched window openings to the east, above which are decorative timber bargeboards; this was probably the former laundry. Opposite this, to the south, is a further single-storey ancillary building of rock-faced limestone with a red-tile roof and single dormer. The west elevation is rendered and has a semi-circular timber window and steps up to the entrance which has a semi-circular bracketed porch hood. This building was probably associated with and may be contemporary to the tall, square, rock-faced limestone chimney to its south, built around 1910 to Stokes' designs. To the east of the kitchen yard is a detached post-war single-storey building with a two-storey bay at the east end.

The spaces within the kitchen yard buildings are functional in character, and some historic joinery remains.

South and West School Ranges and Roberts Tower (1910-1912)

Stokes' two coursed Combe Down rubble-stone ranges are in a stripped Jacobean style and join CF Hansom's range on the west side of the quadrangle with the five-storey Roberts Tower. The tower is square in plan with corner buttresses and the principal elevation faces east. On the ground floor are two arched entrances with paired windows above and a four-light window between; the foundation stone, laid in 1910, is to the right. Above this within an ashlar panel are a further four windows, and statues of St Ambrose Barlow and St John Roberts carved by Abraham Broadbent (1868-1919). The second and third storeys each have five small windows, with a carved inscription at the top below a cornice. Above this is a further cornice with carved modillions. The tower's parapet is stepped and is decorated with festoons. The two ranges are three storeys with attics. The west range is of four bays and the south five bays; on the north and east elevations each alternate bay comprises a four-light mullion and transom window with iron-framed windows to the ground and first floors, set in ashlar panels. Along the second floor is a range of two-light windows, and the attics have long ranges of windows with gabled dormers. The west and south elevations are broadly similar but have five-light windows and an additional slim bay to the right of the western gable end on the south elevation. At the centre of the south elevation at first-floor level is a statue. Window frames throughout the two ranges and tower are of iron, although some have been replaced with aluminium.

Inside, the west and south ranges both have a wide tunnel-vaulted corridor on the quadrangle side with fluted timber dado-panelling inset with seats below each window. The classroom doors from the corridors have simple timber cornices with historic painted inscriptions in the frieze giving the room name, for example 'Roberts Day Room'. Doors are panelled with glazing above. Within the angle of the ranges is the Sligger Library, which also has dado panelling and decorative lead glazing to the windows. The classroom spaces on the ground floor have been modified but retain joinery and floors: all joinery is of unpainted African walnut, and floors are laid with herringbone woodblock. The lobby within Roberts Tower is divided from the corridors by 20th-century fire-break doors, which also divide the corridors at intervals. To the west of the lobby, a wide timber staircase with dado panelling leads up to a large landing leading west to the first floor of the science wing and up a further flight to the Petre Library and up again to the dormitories above. The Roberts dormitory retains historic mirrors and drawers and a statue of St John Roberts above the entrance door. The upper floors have a range of alterations including subdivision.

Science Wing (1932)

Scott's science wing runs from the west side of Roberts Tower, and then south with a lower range. The walls are of coursed rubble-stone and the pitched roofs are tiled. The three-storey section adjacent to Roberts Tower is part of Stokes' design and has the same window arrangement as his classroom ranges; both elevations have a carved figurative panel above the first-floor windows. To the west of this is a crenelated four-storey tower with a square-headed ground-floor tunnel opening with a moulded surround; a five-light mullion and transom window above flanked by pilaster buttresses with carved shields; and two and three paired windows to the floors above. To the west of the tower the ground level rises, and the rest of the range is two storeys high, divided into four unequal bays by pilaster buttresses, a two-light mullion and transom window in each bay, and nine paired windows on the upper floor. At the west end, from a further crenelated tower, a single-storey range extends south and is terminated by a further tower with two five-light mullion and transom windows. The west side of this range is framed by the south and north towers and has six four-light mullion and transom windows (one to the south tower). The north tower has a ground floor three-light mullion and transom window, a pair of windows to the left, and entrance to the right; a paired window above; and seven windows to the upper floor. Most of the windows in the science wing have many-paned leaded casements and are in pairs with mullions unless otherwise described.

Inside, the ground-floor corridors face east and south and have fluted oak dado-panelling and herringbone woodblock floors. In the central window over the tunnel is a stained-glass Second World War memorial window. Doors to classrooms are oak, with slender panelling and four slim glazed panels to the upper half, and plain architraves with the historic names of their uses, for example 'Biology Laboratory', inscribed across the top. Other doors are to the same pattern but unglazed. The classrooms have borrowed lights to the corridor, herringbone woodblock floors, and have a mix of mid- and later 20th-century fixtures such as wall benches.

Barlow House (1939)

This extension is attached to the east end of Stokes' south range and is similar in design-intention but differing in detail. It is four storeys with attics and of coursed rubble-stone. The two bays adjacent to the end of Stokes' range on the north and south elevations have four iron-framed windows to each storey set in ashlar panels; a range of two-light windows to the fourth storey; and paired dormers above. The end bay on each elevation is gabled, three bays wide, with three windows within ashlar panels on each storey flanking two-light windows above an entrance doorway. Above this are three sets of paired windows on the north side, and a pair of four-light mullion and transom windows to the south. To the left of the gable on the south elevation is a slim bay, similar to Stokes' design to the west, but with small, paired windows. The east elevation is of five bays, alternating two-light and three-light windows within ashlar surrounds, with two-light windows to the third storey and a continuous attic dormer above. Some of the iron window-frames have been replaced by aluminium.

Inside, the ground-floor spine corridor has timber matchboard dado-panelling and boarded timber floors. Doors have plain timber architraves and the staircases also have dado panelling. The rooms are functional throughout and have been subject to some alterations and changes of use.

Health Centre (1957-1958)

This post-war coursed rubble stone extension is attached to the north of Scott's science wing. The west elevation is two storeys and has a shallow pitched roof with box-profile sheet-metal covering, and the east elevation has a double-height window with eight vertical lights which sits in the centre of a single-storey range with two paired windows to the left and the entrance door on the right-hand return. The arrangement of windows on the west and north elevations is modernistic with bands of small rectangular openings and blind panels of the same size set within ashlar surrounds.

Inside, the building is entered into a double-height atrium with the large window with vertical lights to the east and a stone dogleg staircase to the west. The staircase is framed within an ashlar and timber arched surround, within which a balcony with a steel baluster overlooks the atrium at first-floor level; this also acts as a half-landing. The ground floor has a herringbone woodblock floor. The treatment rooms have later 20th-century finishes and fittings.

Pollen Classroom Wing (1968)

This wing was constructed with a flat roof; the upper floor was added in the later 20th century and has a pitched slate roof. The six-bay building extends westwards from CF Hansom's range, and the lower storeys are of coursed rubble stone. The first floor is sandwiched between massive horizontal concrete beams and has large horizontal windows on the south side and narrow vertical openings at regular intervals on the north side; a slim clerestorey runs along both elevations. The lower storey is partly underground but to the east it has a tunnel aligned with that to Scott's science wing, as described above. The later second storey has walls of squared coursed stone and tripartite windows. On the north side is a later 20th-century enclosed spiral-staircase tower with a conical lead roof.

Inside, the ground-floor corridor faces north and has a narrow clerestorey above the window range. A timber hand-rail runs the length of the corridor. The south wall to the classrooms is clad in horizontal timber boarding with a range of horizontal internal windows and a narrow clerestorey above. The classrooms have black-brick partition walls, and the floors to the corridor and classrooms are laid with herringbone woodblock.