Description

HENLEY-IN-ARDEN

SP1465 STRATFORD ROAD
652-1/11/119 (West side (off))
02/08/72 Ardenhurst Preparatory School
(Formerly Listed as:
HENLEY-IN-ARDEN
Ardenhurst)

GV II

Formerly known as: Arden House STRATFORD ROAD.
Private lunatic asylum, now school. c1820, with c1880
addition. Stuccoed brick, rusticated to ground floor with
painted brick returns; hipped Welsh slate roof with internal
and return lateral stacks. Double-depth plan.
EXTERIOR: 2 storeys; symmetrical 3-bay range. Plat band over
ground floor; top frieze and wide eaves soffit; bays
articulated by large fielded panels supporting paired
fielded-panelled pilaster strips to first floor.
Entrance in recess behind 2 Doric columns, doorcase flanked by
pilasters, overlight with decorative glazing bars to paired
2-panel doors.
Ground floor has tripartite windows with 2/3:8/12:2/3 sashes;
first floor has windows with 8/12 sashes. 3-window left return
(garden front) has central bow with 3 small-paned windows and
wrought-iron balcony above; entrance with paired half-glazed
doors to right; windows have 8/12 sashes.
Rear wing has brick flat arches over 8/12 sashes and 4/8
first-floor sashes; small re-entrant block to right and
stuccoed end cross-wing with gable over 8/12 sash to ground
floor and large panel above. Rear has sashed windows and
attached single-storey late C19 classroom range with gableted
round-headed windows; similar windows to 2-storey cross-wings.
Left return has glazed single-storey connecting block to late
C20 wing in similar style. Cross wing has some margin-light
sashes.
INTERIOR: stair hall has cornice in form of soffit to Greek
Doric cornice and cantilevered staircase with cut string and
bobbin-turned balusters with central cubes; landing has
architraves to plain doors, and ceiling with fluted coving to
octagonal lantern with plaster frame with Vitruvian scroll and
anthemion corner motifs.
Some rooms with early C19 fireplaces, one front room has mid
C19 oak fireplace with rich carving, applied half-balusters,
enriched frieze with raised central panel and overmantel with
relief scene of a Civil War incident and flanking foliage and
linenfold panelling, possibly the work of Willcox of Warwick.
HISTORY: the house was built as a lunatic asylum for TJP
Burman (d.1840) and was used as such until 1876, when it
became a school. Henley in Arden, with Wootton Wawen, was an
important centre for private asylums in Warwickshire, and is
connected with the work of Dr John Conolly (1794-1866),
pioneer of humane treatment of the mentally ill, who was
visiting physician from 1823.
(Cooper: Henley-in-Arden: 98-9).

Listing NGR: SP1484865188

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26662433

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

• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects by Harwood, Richard (2012) Paperback
• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House
• 
  Drawing up a Local Listed Building Consent Order: Historic England Advice Note 6
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Buildings of England)
• 
  London 4: North: North v. 4 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)