Description

SU 9949NE & TQ 0049NW GUILDFORD C.P. HIGH STREET
(South Side)
5/117 & 6/117
1/5/53 The Grammar School

GV I

Grammar School. First range to south (rear) 1557, west wing 1569, east wing begun
in 1571 with floors and stairs complete by 1581 and windows inserted in 1582 and
north wing (front range) completed in 1586. Remodelled in 1889 and south wing
refurbished, following a fire in 1965. Brick with flint panels and clunch dressings
on rear wings, rubble stone on remainder, limewashed on street front with timber
framed gallery across rear of front range; stone roofs. Quadrangular plan around
central courtyard 29' 3" x 36 feet. Original schoolhouse in south wing with Master-
house in west wing(since converted to more classrooms). Ushers house in east wing
and library/gallery across front. Three storeys and attics on entrance front with
lower two storey gate lodge to left, remainder two storeys with attics. Prominent
and decorative stacks with paired shafts on common offset plinth to left, multiple
stacks to right. Offset stone and brick stacks to side wings and three stacks
across rear wing. Entrance front: Diagonal angle buttresses to ends rising
through three storeys with offsets, plain buttresses either side of centre. String
courses over ground and first floors rising up to form label mouldings over windows
and door. Three gables on front each under spherical finial and with two arched
light attic window in chamfered surround and under label moulding. Outer gables
each have paired two arched light leaded casements in common chamfered surrounds
and with labels above. 6 round-arched mullioned and transomed leaded casement
window under label moulding on second floor of central gable, square Coat of Arms
below in guilloche band and panel underneath reading "SCHOLA REGIA GRAMMATICALIS
EDVARDI SEXTI 1552". Central oak panelled door with studs and shell pattern arched
top panel approached up small flight of steps and with chamfered surround and label
moulding over. Blocked first floor window in left hand gateway and simpler
panelled door below in plain chamfered surround. Left and right hand return fronts
have very irregular leaded casement fenestration, larger mullioned and transomed
arched head casements on gable ends of rear wing. Rear - South elevation (facing
garden):- decorative tile and stone quoining and patterning. 7 gabled casement
dormers in roof, each of two arched lights. Three 3-light mullioned casements
across the first floor, 4 below. C19 canted bay to left end with leaded windows
on the first floor, casement doors in flanking lights below and tile hanging
between. Mullioned and transomed window ground floor left of centre, pointed-
arched recess to centre under stack with arched doorway in chamfered surround.
Courtyard:- Timber framed gallery to rear of front range, with timbers exposed,
on pedestalled posts. Stone dressed arched-head windows in side wings with gabled
dormers above, two windows with ogee moulded jambs on gallery. Pedimented entrance
to centre of south range.
Interiors:- badly damaged in south wing by fire but re-instated. Original plan
was of two long rooms 65' long by 22' wide. Queen post roof in "The Big School"
with painted texts on the beams, butt-purlins and dado panelling on walls,
panelling in Austin Room and fine chained library in front range. Some chalk
fireplaces in headmasters lodgings and schoolrooms, that in "The Big School" with
Decorated style panel above.
The original bequest for the school was left by Robert Beckingham in 1512 and the
buildings were sponsored by John Austen and William Hamonde, two trustees. The
first charter for "The Free Grammar School of King Edward" was granted in January
1552/3. An important historical landmark in the upper part of Guildford High Street.

V.C.H. (1967 EDN) VOL III pp.551-2.
PEVSNER: BUILDINGS OF ENGLAND, SURREY (1971) p.278.
G. C. WILLIAMSON: ROYAL GRAMMAR SCHOOL, GUILDFORD (Bell 1924)
AUSTEN MSS: GUILDFORD MUNIMENT ROOM(Early History of School)
O. MANNING & W. BRAY: HISTORY AND ANTIQUITIES OF THE COUNTY OF SURREY (1804).

Listing NGR: TQ0000549572

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Royal Grammar School, Guildford at Wikipedia
• Royal Grammar School, Guildford official website
• Wikidata Q7374230

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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