Details
BRIGHTON
TQ3005NE STANFORD ROAD
577-1/20/869 (West side)
Stanford County Junior School
including walls, gate piers &
railings
II
Board school. 1893. Attributed to Thomas Simpson, and possibly
designed by his son, John W Simpson. Brown and red brick set
in English bond, with dressings of red brick, stone and
render, roof of tiles; the walls are generally of brown brick,
with quoins, dressings to openings of red brick, and bands of
red brick and stone, but the upper parts of the walls and
gables are in places entirely of red brick.
EXTERIOR: the former Junior school of 2 and 3 storeys, the
former Infants of one. Seen from Stanford Road, the school is
set out in 4 parts. There is a 3- storey entrance tower to the
former junior block, with linked cloakroom range:
elliptical-arched entrance with voussoirs of stone and gauged
red brick under a corbelled, open and broken pediment; the
window immediately above flat-arched with an eared architrave
and cornice; then 2 flat-arched windows; then a flat-arched
window with pilasters and segmental cornice; corbelled offset,
and then a clock and lantern stage, the clock set in an
aedicule with a scrolled pediment, forming part of a
balustraded parapet enclosing an octagonal timber lantern with
ogee lead roof; the cloakroom range has flat- and
segmental-arched windows of red and gauged red brick.
Immediately south of the tower and set slightly back from it
is a 5-window range which includes halls on the Stanford Road
side: round-arched windows to basement, then the first of a
series of offsets from which buttress-like strips run up
between the windows, which are segmental-arched to the ground
floor with archivolts interrupted by the strips; second
offset, above which the strip is decoratively gabled;
first-floor windows flat-arched with stone lintels and third
offset immediately above; between these windows the strips
have concave chamfers and bands of red brick and stone,
terminating in a stone moulding; embattled parapet with stone
coping. Left-hand return has round-arched window to
first-floor hall, and a bell in the apex of the gable, with
wrought-iron bracket under a gabled wooden belfry.
North of the clock tower is a projecting gabled wing with
segmental-arched windows to basement and ground floor, and
flat-arched above. These windows follow the pattern common to
classroom windows in the junior block, of 3 windows to each
classroom, the central one broader; and on the first floor the
central window is also higher, running up into the gable. Here
the first-floor windows have brick aprons and stone lintels
with floating cornices; scrolled and stepped gable with stone
bands, and louvres flanked by tiny pilasters; one corniced
stack to rear. Right-hand return has segmental-arched
'classroom' windows, and stone bands and pilastered louvres to
the gables.
At the south end is the former Infants block, with a low range
linking it to the Junior block; the south front consists of 2
flat-arched windows under semicircular gables with stone
banding and pilastered louvres, and a louvred lantern, now
incomplete, to hall; south of that is a gabled range with a
third flat-arched window, slightly set back.
The rear elevations to the Junior block have 3 sets of
'classroom' windows to each floor under identical gables, the
faces of the gables rendered, with louvres framed by pilasters
and cornices; entrance under hipped roof towards the north
end, which has a full dormer to the first floor, detailed like
its neighbour gables. 2-storey late C20 extension between the
Junior and Infant blocks. The rear of the Infants block has
'classroom' windows with 4 gables over, the 2 to the right
shouldered; the 3 gables not blocked by the extension altered
in cement where they join the eaves.
INTERIOR: the interior retains its original plan and detailed
features to a remarkable extent, the principal change being
the blocking of fireplaces and ventilation ducts. In the
Junior block there are halls on both floors to the east with
panelled dado and, on the first floor, trussed roof
(apparently of iron); there are classrooms flanking the halls,
and in the cross range at the north end; they have tiled dados
and trussed timber roofs on the first floor (though those at
the north end now have suspended ceilings on the first floor);
original tiled dados to passages, architraves, overlights and
panelled doors survive throughout the building. The Infants
block has a hall to the east, now divided, and 3 classrooms to
the west and one to the south with tiled dados and trussed
roofs.
In Stanford Road, square corniced gate piers of red brick,
recently refurbished; dwarf brick wall with stone coping;
cast-iron railings with spearhead finials and bracketed triple
urn standards; 3 surviving gates, one inscribed 'INFANTS' and
another 'BOYS'. Walls with brick plinth, piers and coping, and
panels of flint extend round the edges of the playground, and
across the playground where it changes level to the north of
the school.
Listing NGR: TQ3053805661
