Description

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 31 August 2023 to update the name and address, amend description due to change in building use and to reformat the text to current standards

TQ3303NW
577-1/50/247

BRIGHTON
EASTERN ROAD (north side)
Former St Mary's Hall School and attached railings, terrace walls and piers

20/08/71

II
Former boarding school for girls. 1836, closed in 2009. Designed by George Basevi and founded by the Rev. Henry Venn Elliot, Curate of St Mary's Church, St James's Street (qv) on nine acres of land given by the Marquess of Bristol. Stucco scored to resemble coursed ashlaring and quoins. Roof of slate, double span to the main block and gable facing to the dormers. Tudor Gothic.

EXTERIOR: two storeys with gabled dormers flush with the front wall to centre block; three storeys with facing gables to end pavilions. Seven window range. The block is symmetrical about the entrance which is Tudor arched with recessed spandrels, moulded jambs and chamfered surround; to either side is a single Tudor-arched light set in a flat-arched surround. All other openings on the ground and first floor are flat arched with Tudor hood mouldings which, on the ground floor of the centre section, are connected by a continuous springing band. Panelled door and hardware in sympathetic style date from the late C19 or early C20. The window ranges at either end are treated as projecting pavilions with facing gables; these pavilions are built on a larger scale than centre block, project above its roof, and are articulated by corner quoins. Storey band between ground and first floors. Above entrance an elaborate first floor window composed of five pointed lights which are gathered together in a single flat-arched surround. To the left of the centre range, just above first floor windows, is a timber bell cote. The centre block is topped by three gabled dormers symmetrically disposed, each pierced by a pair of Tudor-arched, double-light windows. Finial at peak of each gabled dormer, that over the centre treated as a floriate cross. Cross windows to the first floor of the end pavilions; each end pavilion gable has a first floor window composed of four Tudor-arched lights with a common transom and hood moulding which forms a springing band continuous across the pavilion; each end pavilion gable pierced by a three-light, Tudor-arched window; the gables themselves are stepped in their lower halves, becoming pointed above. The strong symmetricality of the elevation is broken by one peculiar feature of these pavilion bays: the left pavilion gable has gabled returns while the right pavilion gable has a gabled return to the right only. These gable returns are themselves pierced by double, Tudor-arched lights. The right return has a full-height chimney breast; four two-stepped gable dormers flush with the wall plane. All windows on this return have Tudor hood mouldings, although original openings have in many cases been altered. The left return is similar to the right, but even more altered. The full-height projecting chimney breast has an elaborate brick stack, however.

INTERIOR: the entrance hall has a noteworthy open-well wood stair with cast-iron balusters; the wood elements are simply chamfered and frankly assembled.

Also included in this designation are the cast-iron railings to the area at the foot of the main elevation and the complex of brick, flint and stone piers, parapets and walls which enclose and embank the west side of the two terraces immediately to the south of the school. The entrance foyer and hall has early to mid C19 tile paving.

HISTORICAL NOTE: when first opened the school was intended solely for the daughters of clergymen. Admission was extended to the daughters of the laity in 1920. At the time of resurvey (1999) St Mary's was the oldest school in Brighton in continuous use.

Listing NGR: TQ3301103785

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26660680

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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  For the Record
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  Surrey (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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