Description

Old Hall Green
TL 32 SE STANDON CAMBRIDGE ROAD
(west side)

1/6 Main School Buildings at
St Edmund's College (RC)
(formerly listed as Douglass House
24.1.67 under St Bdmum's R.C College,
Old Ball Green)
II

GV

College. Main block 1795-9, refectory building 1805, both by
James Taylor of Islington for the new St Edmund's College formed
in 1793 by the amalgamation of the Old Hall Green Academy (RC)
with the refugees from the famous English College at Douai
founded in 1568. John Sone (d. 1795) gave 10,000 pounds for the
New College at 'Old Hall as was heretofore at Doway College'.
Low wings c1845 for former chapel to N, and library to S linking
to refectory. Yellowish grey brick with stone plinth and 1st
floor band. Hipped slate roofs. Darker grey brick refectory and
dark red brick low wings. A severe symmetrical building of 3
storeys and attics, 15 windows long, facing E. The projecting 3
windows centre carries a dentilled pediment with oculus and is
fronted by a C19 3-bay arched brick portico with glass roof.
Composite pilasters and a cornice with 4 balls on pedestals.
Similar balls on pedestals in the pierced brick parapet above the
dentilled cornice to the main block.

The block is further articulated by the 3 round headed sash
windows of the ground floor at each end being set a round headed
panels having keystones and alternate voussoirs of vermiculated
Coade stone rustication matching the three openings of the
centre. The upper floors have recessed sash windows with
segmental arches but the central window and the penultimate
window at each end have also heavy moulded surrounds. Plainer W
elevation of 3 storeys and attics with a central pediment with
clockface crowned by a cupola, and projecting rear wings leaving
a 9 window frontage. Low wing on N of a high single-storey, 4
windows long with steep slate roof behind a high parapet. Gothick
style with 3-light mullioned windows with labels. Matching S
wing raised to 2 storeys with similar windows. Refectory at
right angles to W front adjoining S wing of 2 storeys and attics
with a lofty ground floor partly sunken. 6 sash windows with
round headed windows below the stone floor-band and segmental
headed windows above with 6/6 panes. The rear half of the whole
ground floor of the original block is occupied by a stone-floored
circulation space or ambulacrum with a procession of painted
medieval figures to designs said to be by Fuhrich of Vienna. The
building of the college was an enterprise comparable in scale
only with college work at Oxford and Cambridge, but far exceeding
what English public schools did at that time (Pevsner (1977) 266-
7).

Listing NGR: TL3716522073

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26396447

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.

Recommended Books

• 
  [(Shropshire)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1958)
• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Surrey (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide
• 
  Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)