Details
GODALMING HURTMORE ROAD
SU 94 SE and SU 9645 SW
(south side, off)
2/146 and 5/146
Charterhouse School
(main building) (formerly
23.2.70
listed under General)
GV
II
School building. 1872 by P C Hardwick with later additions, principally the
Great Hall, 1884, by Sir A Blomfield (Seaborne and Lowe, p42). Bargate
rubblestone with ashlar dressings. Plain tile roofs, with red and blue tile
banding to elements of main elevation (Saunderite House re-tiled 1988), Plan:
quadrangle, open on west side, having bell-tower to centre of central range,
original school chapel (now concert hall) forming right (south) wing, and
boarding accommodation (Saunderites) in left wing; right side of central range
extends to rear, having boarding accommodation (Gownboys) and linking, on south
side, to another boarding house (Verites) which is in line with former chapel;
to rear of left side of central range is a cloister, linking to T-shaped
classroom addition of c.1900; to rear of cloister and Gownboys house a cloister
links to former Great Hall of 1885, now library, museum and hall. 1872
buildings 2 storeys with attics, with 4-storey water towers; Great Hall and
c.1900 addition of 2 storeys. In French Gothic style having: chamfered plinths;
quoins; offset buttresses; mullioned and transomed windows with quoined
surrounds, relieving arches and pointed-arched lights, or cusped-headed lights
to windows of most important elements; attic windows rising through eaves under
gables with trefoils in apexes and cross-finials; chimneys quoined with multiple
octagonal flues; water towers with lst-floor oriels, moulded surrounds and
hoodmoulds to windows and pyramidal roofs with lucarnes and wrought-iron weather
vanes. Main (west) elevation: central range: 3 bays: central 4-stage tower
has angle buttresses rising into octagonal piers with crocketed spirelets;
entrance with 2-storey oriel above; decorated band below belfry stage which has
paired, louvred, 2 - light openings; arcaded parapet with central statue;
pyramidal roof with zig-zag leading, lucarne band and wrought-iron finial with
cross. Flanking ranges each have one wide, projecting, gabled bay; bay on left
of tower has polygonal tower with lucarne to roof. Left wing (Saunderites) has
9-bay courtyard elevation with wide near-central, projecting gabled bay, 2
bay-windows to ground floor, and entrance at right end; west elevation, of 4
bays, has water tower on left and gabled right-hand bay with 2-storey,
crenellated, canted bay window. Right wing has 9-bay courtyard elevation, the
left bay with entrance and linking to former chapel which has gableted finials
rising into crocketed spirelets, windows mostly of 3 lights with geometric
tracery, cusped-traceried parapet, crested ridge tiles; 4-bay west elevation has
2-bay chapel end on left, 3-stage clock tower with paired, louvred belfry
windows and pyramidal roof with clock faces in crocketed, gableted surrounds
with spirelets, and right-hand bay of one-storey, being the end of the South
African cloister, added 1901 as Boer War Memorial. South elevation: former
chapel, on left, fronted by South African cloister of 10 bays with
heavily-moulded entrances to end bays, wide 4-light windows, parapet and 2nd
storey under hipped roof to bays 6 and 7. To right, set back, is gable end of
Gownboys range, and then 11-bay range (Verites) which has a water tower at
either end, entrance in bay 5, gabled projecting bay 7, and 2 bay-windows to
ground floor. The Great Hall by Blomfield is a well-lit, 7-bay open hall
flanked by single-storey ranges (each under several roofs) in perpendicular
style. The east end of hall has tripled windows of 2, 4 and 2 lights, the gable
of ashlar with angel corbel and blind tracery rising into stack; central ridge
spire with louvred lucarnes at base, corona and delicate wrought-iron finial.
Returns have close-set windows those of hall alternately rising through eaves
under gables with roll-moulded coping and cross-finials. At west end of hall is
earlier lower-roofed range (now library and museum) with long, flat-roofed
dormers, and gabled ridge louvre. Interior: Great Hall has hammer-beam type
roof with king posts and blocked 3-bay arcade (which formerly linked to
library). 1872 block has panelling, and stone surrounds to some fireplaces.
South African cloister has a number of memorials, including a fine Boer War
memorial in bronze with angel holding fallen soldier and figures of St George
and Joan of Arc in architrave. From cloister is throughway to quadrangle, the
lobby having rusticated archway and walling with boys' names and dates (C18 and
C19) brought from the former school in London. The school was brought down from
London in 1872 by the then Headmaster,William Haig-Brown.
M Seaborne and R Lowe, The English School, Its Architrecture and Organisation,
Vol.II 1870-1970 (1977)
V.C.H. Vol.III (1911), p26
Listing NGR: SU9637945043
This List entry has been amended to add sources for War Memorials Online and the War Memorials Register. These sources were not used in the compilation of this List entry but are added here as a guide for further reading, 27 February 2018.
