Details
BRIGHTON
TQ3204SW EASTERN ROAD
577-1/42/240 (North side)
20/08/71 Classroom, Dining Hall and Head
Master's House, Brighton College
(Formerly Listed as:
EASTERN ROAD
Brighton College)
II
Private school. Main classroom range, 1848-1849 by George
Gilbert Scott, who designed the headmaster's house and
dormitory to the east in 1853-54, and added the chapel and
small hall opposite (qv) in 1859; the dining hall to the rear
added in 1865-1866, architect unknown. Built as an Anglican
public school at the initiative of William Aldwin Soames;
first principal the Rev. Arthur Macleane, Bishop of Edinburgh.
Scott's original courtyard plan called for a cloister-like
arrangement of 3 arcaded ranges open to the south, all in the
Gothic Revival style; see "Illustrated London News", 13
October, 1849, page 245. Due to a lack of funds, only the
north range was constructed. The materials used in this
rectangular block, galleted flint with Caen stone dressings
(now poorly repaired in cement), were repeated in all works
through the 1860s and in Jackson's chapel extension. The roofs
are of tile.
EXTERIOR: the classroom block has a 9-window range and is
symmetrical about a 2-storey entrance porch with gable facing;
2 storeys over central cellar. The most prominent feature of
this early phase is the entrance porch, which is open to the
ground on each of its 3 projecting faces through a pointed
segmental-arch, subordered and moulded; corner angle
buttresses of 2 set backs; to first-floor, a stone canted bay
supported on massive and simply chamfered corbels, its
tripartite bay window with traceried heads; facing gable above
with kneelers, tumbled-in stone wedges, and a stone gable
coping; the 3 gable statues gone; clock face near peak of
gable. The ground-floor windows of the main range are
identical: 3-light under a segmental super-arch, each light
with a trefoiled, plate-tracery head. There are pointed
segmental arched entrances to the left and right extremes.
Between the ground and first floors can be found traces of
Scott's plan for an arcaded cloister: corbels meant for roof
rafters with a weather moulding above. All the first-floor
windows finish in gabled half dormers which project above the
eaves. To either side of the porch the first-floor windows
have 2 lights, with transom and simple "Y"-headed tracery in a
segmental, pointed arch; they, as well as their corresponding
gable dormers, are lower than the remaining first-floor
windows which are 2 light, pointed arched, having
Geometric-styled tracery heads culminating in a cusped
roundel; the high gable above each is pierced by a trilobed
attic light. To the left side of the entrance porch,
introducing an asymmetrical note, is an octagonal bell turret
ending above the eaves line in a spirelet. There are
single-setback ridge stacks between the first- and second-,
and 6th- and 7th-window ranges, the right end wall, and behind
the bell turret.
INTERIOR: inside is an entrance hall of 3 bays, lit by 3
pointed-arched windows. The entrance hall has a simple
pointed-arched arcade, to the north of which rises a stair
into a full-height stair hall covered with a boarded, pointed
barrel vault. This vault is continued in the library which
occupies the first-floor of the entrance porch and was
originally used as a chapel. The interior appointments are
modest, relieved here and there by some historiated and
ornamental carving. The boarded entrance door retains its
original iron hinges and bolts. All windows have chamfered
mullions and transoms and all are glazed with metal casement
windows. Left return has a gable facing.
The Master's House and dormitories to the right were built for
the second principal, the Rev. Henry Cotterill. These have an
L-shaped plan, and are linked to the main block by a truncated
tower, square in plan; neither the fabric nor documentary
evidence indicate whether this tower was built at the same
time as the main range, the Master's House, or added at some
other time. The Master's House has 3 storeys over basement,
the entrance elevation a 4-window range. The left-hand window
ranges are treated as a gabled bay with an attic storey. The
entrance is flat-arched with cusped quadrant corners and a
segmental, pointed-arch overlight filled with tracery. This
entrance is reached through a segmental, pointed-arch entrance
in a single-storey, square porch topped by a cusped parapet
enclosing a first-floor balcony; gargoyles to corners of
porch. To the right of the porch 2, double windows with
transoms and tracery heads. To the left of the porch 2
double-light, tracery windows. All windows, except where
stated otherwise, have hood mouldings. Between the latter pair
of windows a buttress rises to support a rectangular stone bay
to the first and second floors; each floor of bay pierced with
4, cusped lancets; the bay terminates in a crenellated parapet
and steep lean-to roof. The heads of the remaining first-floor
windows are identical to the entrance's. There is a plain,
pointed-arch, double window in the second-window range on the
second floor. The 2 window ranges to the right terminate in
gabled half dormers. Flat-arched window with tri-lobed head
lights attic of facing gable roof. There is an angle set-back
buttress to the left corner. Moulded storey bands across the
main elevation, the topmost continues across the left return.
While the left return is considerably plainer several features
contribute to the highly picturesque effect of the design:
set-back chimney breast near the corner, a full-height gabled
bay with traceried windows. Beyond the latter are 3
recently-restored dormers of timber, one occluded by the top
stage of the tower already noted. The right return is of
one-window range and steps back to a tower-like projection at
corner with the dormitory wing to the rear. On the latter the
window designs are much simplified but still Gothic in
feeling. Stacks to left-end wall, rear of the right-hand wing
and outer walls of dormitory range.
The Dining Hall at the rear was built to serve this complex by
the next principal, the Rev. Dr John Griffith and has a
timber-framed roof of 4 bays, defined by crown post roof
trusses; the crown posts omitted at north and south walls so
as not to obscure the pair of 2 light, Geometric-styled
windows; in the centre of the gable above a cusped roundel;
each of 4 intermediate bays subdivided by a hammer beam truss
formed by omitting the tie beam which, in the main bays,
carries the crown post.
The classroom range and Master's House form an important group
with the Chapel (qv) and TG Jackson's range along Eastern Road
(qv).
(Carder T: The Encyclopaedia of Brighton: Lewes: 1990-: 19; ).
Listing NGR: TQ3242704078
