West Block and Chapel at St Bernard's Convent

Details

SU 97 NE
4/12

SLOUGH
LANGLEY ROAD (north side)
West Block and Chapel at St. Bernard's Convent

II

House and chapel, now convent school and chapel. Circa 1850 with chapel to west after 1869 by Alfred Waterhouse in a Neo-Gothic style.

House: gault brick with Bath stone ashlar dressings and hipped slate roof. Three storeys and basement. Gauged window heads, ground floor egg and dart moulded frieze and dentil cornice, frieze with paterae and egg and dart moulding, deep eaves cornice with carved brackets and paterae on soffit, and truncated end stacks. Six bays; sashes without glazing bars, those on ground and first floor with blind hoods. Small second floor windows with carved cill brackets, cill railings and flanking Corinthian half columns; first floor windows with carved cill brackets, cill balustrading and flanking Corinthian half columns supporting pulvinated frieze, dentil cornice and triangular pediment; two ground floor canted bays with ground floor frieze and cornice carried round, and parapet; two inner windows flanking entrance. Two central one-panelled doors with side lights, dentil cornice and three-light rectangular overlight. Three steps to Greek Doric porch with single columns to rear and coupled columns to front supporting triglyph frieze with guttae, egg and dart mouldings, dentil cornice, and balustraded parapet with rusticated square corner piers. Egg and dart mouldings in porch soffit. Basement balustrade consists of Greek Doric colonettes. North front: similar to entrance front but with three ground floor canted bays and entrance off-centre to left consisting of four-panelled door with top two panels glazed and blank semi circular fanlight with carved swags in spandrels; stone doorcase comprising architrave, imposts with fluted frieze, and two horizontally divided fluted pilasters with acanthus capitals supporting half architrave, carved frieze, and cornice.

Chapel: gault brick with ashlar dressings and slate roofs. North-south axis, nave and chancel under one roof with lower south end, west aisle with three cross gables, south-west gabled porch and north-west vestry. Parapeted gabled ends and gabled south bellcote. South end: large west window consisting of stepped triple trefoiled lancets under large arch with returned hoodmould. Porch to left with shafted and moulded arch, two boarded doors, and hoodmould. Square headed window to west with two trefoil headed lights, plate tracery and continuous hoodmould. Vestry and chancel with one lancet to west. North end: stepped triple lancets with continuous hoodmould and cill string with carved stops. Interior: entrance hall with rich panelled plaster ceiling, bifurcating three-flight staircase with wrought iron balustrade, three bay arched Corinthian arcade to north, and landing with three bay arched Ionic arcade. Well executed detailing throughout including panelled doors, doorcases, cornices, plaster ceilings and fireplaces. Chapel with three bay west aisle arcade. Known as Aldin House when built this building became St. Michael's School in 1869, two famous pupils of which were Sir Paul Waterhouse, one time president of the R.I.B.A, and former Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin. The school moved in 1883 and the building later became a Jesuit College for eight years before becoming St. Bernard's Convent in 1897. The quality of the detailing throughout is notable in a building of this date.

Listing NGR: SU9902879527

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

38719

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Maxwell, F, The History of Slough, (1973), 93-4

Websites
British Geological Survey, Strategic Stone Study, accessed 3 February 2020 from https://www.bgs.ac.uk/mineralsuk/buildingStones/StrategicStoneStudy/EH_atlases.html

End of official list entry

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