Listed building or place reference: HE0732

Historic site reference
Property: Beaulieu Convent School
Road name: Wellington Road
Parish: St. Helier
Location: View on map
Grade: Listed Building Grade 2
Category: Education building
Statement of significance: A fine example of 1820s villa-style house with unusual Greek decorative elements and retaining its integrity with high quality interior features - with associated 1892 chapel. The building is also of historical interest for its associations with French religious orders, and as Beaulieu Convent School since 1951.
Context: n/a
External Description: 1820s villa-style house with southeast annexe and 1892 chapel to north. The house has a square plan with 3 bays to each elevation, 3 storey (the upper storey a later addition). Hipped slate roof with rendered chimneys. Built of granite with walls finished in early-pattern roughcast render with ornamental cement work string courses and cornice (now between the first and second floors). Double height panelled pilasters between each bay - the decorative heads with Greek motifs. Replacement windows. Principal (west facing) elevation has eared architrave to window openings, those on ground floor with moulded hood. Central entrance with finely dressed granite steps leading to doorway with moulded architrave, brackets and canopy. Double-doors (as with many doors, a 2011 copy of originals in store), with Greek fret moulding on lower rail above reeded panels. Fanlight with geometric glazing bars. The rear (east) elevation has an original Regency ironwork balcony, now covered-in with timber and glazing and utilised as a corridor, with an upper corridor formed on the former balcony roof framework. A granite paved courtyard runs to the stone boundary wall. Features of most note that have been lost are the original windows and external window shutters, and the decorative French-style oeil-de-bouef dormer windows shown on early photographs. A narrow spire / belfry has also been removed from the chapel. The southeast annexe, with its bow-fronted south front, is rendered to match the house. The external entrance is flanked with alcoves likely intended for figures of saints. The chapel is in traditional Gothic style, constructed of Mont Mado granite with different colour facings. There are side and corner buttresses, and gable copings with a cross at the apex. The west end has a pointed Gothic arch doorway with rose window above. There is a rounded apse to the east. Bar tracery windows of 'two lancets plus oculus' pattern, with leaded stained glass. A 2-storey, single bay wing links the chapel to the house.
Internal Description: The interior of the house, although with some alterations for use as a school, retain its integrity with a good survival of early 19th century features including some of rare quality in Jersey. The principal staircase is of rare design in Jersey - cantilevered and rising with a gentle sweep curving to the first floor, with Caen stone steps, cast and wrought iron balustrade, continuous wooden handrail with whorl end, and arched niches. The house retains a full set of quality marble chimneypieces with cast iron grates - the marble colour and varying designs reflecting the original status and function of the particular rooms. The grandest example is in the drawing room (now boardroom) - a large white marble chimneypiece with thick mantelshelf ornately carved with Greek motifs, supported by a pair of marble female figures reminiscent of Greek Caryatids. Throughout the house are good quality original joinery features. The door and window frame interiors have impressive reeded architraves with unornamented bosses and stops, with internal window panelling and shutters throughout. With a couple of exceptions (such as one in the entrance hall and opposite the top stair landing), the doors are copies (2011) of the originals (most kept in storage) - the ground floor doors with a Greek fret design which is rare in Jersey, and of heavy 6-panel design, the first floor doors with lesser architraves and omitting the Greek fret moulding. There are deep panelled reveals to the principal doorways, and a pair of original screen doors to entrance lobby with matching overlight to front door. In addition the two principal ground floor reception rooms have Greek overmantels above the doors, and the drawing room (now boardroom) has rare dado panelling. To the rear of the boardroom is the headmaster's room (originally a study) which has an unusual octagonal plan. It has library cupboards with reeded architrave with bosses, and arched recesses above - the soffits with inset plaster Patera rosettes. The circular vaulted ceiling is of fine moulded plasterwork, with inset panels and a centre rose, and acanthus leaf frieze. There is quality ceiling plasterwork to the other principal rooms including ornate friezes, cornices and centre roses to the entrance hall, staircase well and boardroom. There are also rare vaulted plaster ceilings to the first floor landing and the entrance lobby - which has additional plaster mouldings with a central rose and lion's mask stops. An unusual feature of the first floor corridor is a small inset cupboard containing a zinc sink with tap. The basement to the house has limited interior interest with the exception of a set of original integral cupboards and the servants' entrance corridor with 6-panel door (the outer face with inscribed panels) leading onto the rear courtyard. The later second storey to the house and the southeast annexe (now a drama studio) have no interior interest. The chapel interior is lit by number of bar tracery stained glass windows, with a large west rose window. There is a vaulted plaster ceiling with curved ribs supported on clustered-columns, and a gallery with pierced panelled front and pair of supporting corbels carved as 'Helpers'. 9-panel doors lead from the south wall into the sacristy and adjoining room, contained within a small link building to the main house. The link building retains its late 19th century integrity and features, including a continuous newel-post staircase, simple marble fireplaces, panelled doors and windows panelling to the ground floor and first floor archive room.
Special interest: Architectural,Historical

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29/04/2015

Schedule Schedule Listed Building Grade 2

1.35 MB

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