NE Quadrangle at Howell's School

Cadw's description

Location

Linked to the main school building immediately adjacent to the great hall.

History

Howells’s School (with its sister foundation in Llandaff) owes its origins to a bequest made by Thomas Howell, d1540. The Drapers Company of London administered the bequest until 1818, when a Charity Commission Enquiry was initiated. An eventual consequence of this Enquiry was the passage of an Act in 1846, requiring the Drapers’ Company to pay the bequest: It was intended that building would commence in the spring of 1857, and plans were apparently drawn up by Decimus Burton of London. In fact, building work took place 1858-9, the school opened in 1860, and the architect was Herbert Williams. This original building was successively extended, first by a NE wing of 1914 (the basis of this NE quadrangle), and then by symmetrical wings advanced from the original building to its NW (entrance) front, in 1929-30. The NW range of this quadrangle, of 1914, was designed by Heaton Commyn and Lesley Moore. The SE parallel range may be a still-later addition. There have been minor subsequent changes, but the building retains a strong collegiate character overall, unified by the use throughout of collegiate Tudor gothic styles.

Exterior

Comprises two principal ranges (Science Block to NW and parallel Drapers Wing to SE) linked by full-height SW wing, and lower NE range.

NW range: 3-storeyed range in gothic of elegant simplicity: smooth render with stone dressings and steep slate roof with ridge cresting recessed behind parapet. Long range between advanced outer gables, each with full-height canted bay window with mullioned lights. Long range has storeys stepped back, thus breaking up its height when viewed from the NW: ground floor has outer Tudor arched doorways then alternating paired 2 and 5-light mullioned and transomed windows; pierced parapet; first floor has similar windows with continuous hood mould, and plain parapet; recessed attic storey with simple 2-light mullioned windows. 3x5-light mullioned and transomed windows in gable return to NE. SW return has paired 5-light windows then an irregular 2-window range linking to a 4-bay cross wing closing the quadrangle on this SW side: this has small paned timber mullioned and transomed windows, and some sashes.

SE range: remains gothic in character, though with classical simplicity. Rendered with stone dressings and banded slate roof. 2 storeyed over stone basement. Symmetrical elevation to SE in which outer gables flank central 6-window range: composite windows formed as 12-pane sashes with 3 fixed lights above; this arrangement followed in the wider central windows of the tripartite arrangement in the outer gables. Lower 3-window range set-back links this block to the (possibly later) range to the right; a severe neo-Georgian, 3 storeyed, 1-5-1 bays with 8 and 12-pane sash windows; minimal detail of string course over ground floor and very plain cornice. Parapet to flat roof. An apparently contemporary 2-storeyed flat-roofed range links this to the rear of the Science Block, thus forming a quadrangle.

Interior

Not inspected on resurvey.

Reason for designation

Listed as an integral part of the complex at Howell’s School, and as elegant C20 interpretations of the collegiate gothic style which gives the main school buildings their stylistic integrity.