Description

TONBRIDGE

598/0/10013 ST STEPHENS STREET
15-MAY-07 (West side)
OLD SCHOOL HOUSE

II
Former school, later offices. A datestone on the south-west gable records that it was built in 1871. Converted into offices in early C21. It was built by John Deacon and his brother in memory of their parents, as a National School specifically for girls. The architect is not recorded. It is built in a Tudor style.

MATERIALS: Built of red brick in English bond with black diaperwork, stone window surrounds and renewed concrete tiled roof with three tall ribbed brick chimneystacks.

PLAN: Roughly L-shaped, comprising entrance lobby to the north-east side of the south-eastern wing and five former classrooms, including a large hall to the north-western wing which probably was originally subdividable by a folding partition.

EXTERIOR: One storey, mainly with mullioned and transomed stone casement windows with uPVC lights within existing openings. The Pembury Road or south-west elevation has a left side large gable with diaperwork and a two tier five-light casement window. The remainder of the frontage to the right has three casement windows and two gabled dormers hung with curved tiles which have triple windows. The south western end has a large gable with the date plaque inscribed "THIS SCHOOL FOR GIRLS WAS BUILT IN MEMORY OF JOHN AND SOPHIA DEACON BY THEIR SONS 1871.", a three tier three-light window and further diaperwork. The north-east side has three triple mullioned windows and diaperwork and a band in black brick. The south-east side has a lean-to porch with plank door retaining ornamental ironmongery. The L-range has a further gable facing south-west with a four-light mullioned and transomed window. There is a further gable facing south-east with five-light two tier window and cambered entrance. A late C20 flat-roofed extension to the left and lean-to brick extension are not of special interest.

INTERIOR: The former south-east classroom has a kingpost roof, cambered brick fireplace with brackets and inscription on the frieze inscribed "THE FEAR OF THE LORD IS THE BEGINNING OF WISDOM" and plank dado panelling. The adjoining room to the north also has a kingpost roof, the central section replaced. The north-east range comprises a six bay hall with kingpost roof. There are two fireplaces, identical to the one in the south-east room, the inscription to the northern fireplace reading "WHERE NO WOOD IS THE FIRE GOETH OUT SO WHERE NO TALE BEARER STRIFE CEASETH" and the southern fireplace has the inscription "LITTLE CHILDREN LOVE ONE ANOTHER". The provision of two fireplaces suggests there may originally have been a sliding or folding partition to divide the room when necessary. Two further classrooms lead off the south-west room approached down a step. These rooms also have kingpost roofs and dado panelling. The internal doors and much of the wooden floor were replaced during the conversion to offices.

HISTORY: The Old School House was built as a National School for girls for the south part of Tonbridge by the Deacon family, an important local family who were local benefactors. The family home was Mabledon in Southborough (listed Grade II), a house bought in 1830 from the architect James Burton. The family business was banking and the family owned William Deacons Bank which later merged to become William Glyns bank which was absorbed in the mid-C20 into what is now the Bank of Scotland.

The elder John Deacon largely paid for the construction of nearby St. Stephen's Church (completed in 1852 shortly before his death) and his wife Sophia had paid part of the cost of restoring the main parish church of Tonbridge. In 1870 Decimus Burton was engaged by the younger John Deacon to renovate and extend the original building at Mabledon, the same year that this school was built.

St Stephen's parish was a poor parish compared with the north end of Tonbridge and was rapidly growing in size. Although the National Society made grants for the building of new schools much of the money had to be raised by residents of the parish. St Stephen's National School for boys and girls was erected in Waterloo Road in 1854, to be followed in 1857 by an infants school in Pembury Road. The infants school was designed to accomodate 150 pupils and a house for the schoolmistress was built on land given by Mr Carnell, Sir I L Goldshid and others. By 1864 plans were being made to build a girls school. In 1870 John Deacon the younger gave a site for the new girls school on the corner of St Stephen's Street and Pembury Road and £100 towards the cost of erection. Later this was altered to an offer to build the whole school at his own expense. The adjoining alms houses, completed in 1874, were also built on land donated by John Deacon.

The school building does not appear on the First Edition OS map of 1867 but has its current footprint on the Second Edition OS map of 1897.

Later the school buildings were used as facilities for the Kent School of Music. The building was converted for office use by Builders Hall and Co in the early C21.

SUMMARY OF IMPORTANCE: A Tudor style National School, endowed by a local benefactor, unusually for girls only, which retains its characterful exterior with quality materials exuberantly applied, and a number of original internal features, including three fireplaces with improving, mainly biblical, texts which are a rarity.

SOURCES:
C W Chalklin and Kent County Library, "Education in Tonbridge 1880-1919". Article by Mrs. Dorothy Stammers.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26671897

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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