Listed building or place reference: HE1201

Historic site reference
Property: Victoria College
Road name: Le Mont Millais
Parish: St. Helier
Location: View on map
Grade: Listed Building Grade 1
Category: Education building
Statement of significance: An outstanding example of a Victorian school, in Gothic Revival style, with rare and sophisticated mid-C19 grounds, incorporating features from a former estate, particularly the fine temple in its dramatic position on the edge of cliff. The Picturesque, or possibly Sublime, layout survives largely intact although with some damage from later C20 buildings, particularly the large and prominent Science Block. However, the design at its most developed by the early C20 is still very strong and retains its original character. It is comparable with other Public School layouts of the mid-C19 in the UK, and although more compact is sophisticated in its design and the manner in which the difficult topography is used to best advantage. This site would be of national importance in England and is of the highest significance as a sophisticated Picturesque institutional landscape in Jersey.
Context: n/a
External Description: The principal building, by John Hayward of Exeter, is in Gothic Revival design - a tall medieval hall framed with hexagonal turrets - predominantly faced in grey and pink granite with sandstone tracery. It is castellated with tall 5-pot chimney stacks. The porch has armorial shields and there are three-light windows with tracery divided by heavy buttresses. The upper floor of the main block contains an impressive school hall with hammer-beam roof. The main 1852 building was supplemented with a new entrance range in 1911, by architect Edmund Berteau. It incorporates a large archway with Gothic mouldings and crockets and a quadrangle of single storey buildings castellated with Gothic openings, terminating in a 2-storey classroom block - all in La Moye granite. A WWI memorial, a bronze statue of Sir Galahad (1924) by Alfred Turner with a quotation from Tennyson, stands in the quadrangle. There are other post-war additions of note in a style marrying contemporary with the mid-19th century. Facing the main entrance is the Howard Davis Memorial Hall - built in 1935 with the benefactions of T B Davis to commemorate his son, Howard Davis, who died during WWI. It is built of granite from Ouaisné and is in Gothic Revival style with castellated parapet to match the older parts of the school. The clock replicates that at the Greenwich Observatory. Adjacent is an octagonal music block. On the hillside overlooking the town is a former summer house of c.1810 - surviving from the earlier house on the site - in the form of a Doric temple. The site also includes wooded college grounds and a pair of imposing granite gateways opening onto Pleasant Street, as well as decorative boundary railings on Mont Millais. Inside the main entrance gate is a small lodge with overhanging canted gable with dormer supported on 2 rustic columns cemented to imitate bark-covered tree trunks. The core school buildings overlook a large sloping, informal lawn with extensive Picturesque woodland walks on the adjacent cliffside. The landscape is focussed on the original school building which stands on a platform towards the centre of the site. The site overlies a plateau to the north-east which drops away to the west as a steep cliff and to the south as a smooth slope. The site is bounded largely by public roads and lanes, with the Prep School adjacent to the south-west and housing to the south-east and north-west. The road-sides with Pleasant Street to the west and College Hill to the south are bounded by high granite retaining walls. The main entrance lies at the south-west corner of the site. It gives direct access from St Helier off Grosvenor Street. It is framed by a large dressed granite gateway with a stepped arch and a shield as a cartouche. The gateway supports large ornate C19 iron gates. Adjacent in the south wall off College Hill is a pedestrian gateway, with an angled flight of steps framed by granite walls which leads up to the drive. From here the broad drive leads east past the Prep School to the north (the site of the previous principal building, the house). As it reaches Lower Lodge it then turns north up a slope. As it rises from here a dramatic view opens up of the Main Building at the top of the hillside, framed by the broad sloping lawn and mature trees. The route continues as a broad path up the west side of the great lawn. Originally it continued straight up, passing below the west wing of the Main Building to swing round to the north side (1907 map). This route is known as the Prefects' Path, and is lined on the west side by deciduous oak. It seems to have been the original main scholars' approach as it extends the line of the entrance drive directly up to the Main Building. At the north end it has been re-routed around the south-east corner of the late C20 Science Block. It turns east in front of the Main Building along a broad south-facing promenade on a terrace. This gives access to the large central porch on the south front of the Main Building, and beyond this to New Building to the east and buildings beyond via an archway to the north. The south terrace enjoys spectacular views south over Havre des Pas and Fort Regent. The upper slopes of the lawn also enjoy views west to St Aubin's Bay. Formerly the terrace enjoyed a similar extensive view west over the town and Bay until the late C20 Science Block was built. A spur east off the drive at the bottom of the lawn curves up the hillside on the east side of the lawn. The path is lined on the west, lawn side with mature holm oak planted on a distinct bank. At the top of the hill the path runs between the original Main Building (1850s) and the New Building through the Quad to a covered archway in a link wing which gives access to both buildings. This path is used now mainly as the scholars' approach directly from the town. The archway between Main and New Buildings leads to the main vehicle entrance, the service areas and further school buildings beyond. The vehicle entrance is from the top of Mont Millais, north-east of the main school buildings. The gateway has large iron gates and a single storey early C19 lodge to the north. The lodge overlooks the gateway via a verandah or porch oversailed by its hipped roof which is supported by concrete faux timber beams. The lodge and position of the gate survive from the previous house. The historical core of the College is Main Building. This comprises two original wings at right angles to each other, built as an imposing Gothic Revival composition which is highly prominent in views from St Helier. The south wing is the most prominent. It contains the hall whose large Gothic windows enjoys views south over Havre des Pas. The west wing contains the library and enjoys views of St Helier to the west and the ring of hills surrounding it. This was one of the seminal buildings in C19 panoramic views of St Helier, set at the top of the hill. The New Building was built in similar style to enclose the Quad. This is prominent in the view from the south of the site including the lawns, lower paths and drive. Further buildings in similar style were constructed to the rear, including the octagonal Music Block and Howard Davies Theatre. These are not prominent in views except on entering from Mont Millais. Further low-level modern buildings of no architectural interest extend to the rear, north, of these and are largely screened. The impressive and extensive pleasure grounds occupy the steep cliff on the north-west of the site below the buildings. The area is laid out with 3 broad, roughly parallel zig-zag paths stepping down the cliff. Their focus is the c.1820s neo-classical Temple which projects on a promontory above the centre of the walks below. This was the focus of the former landscape for Mount Pleasant (later Victoria College Prep School) which was incorporated into the College layout, also forming the focus of the ornamental design. It is a fine two-storey classical box set against the cliff, rendered with pediments to either end of the pitched roof. The west elevation overlooks the town and the College walks from a window in the upper floor which leads out to a colonnaded balcony/verandah, dramatically hanging over the cliff in Sublime manner. The main room, giving onto the verandah, has a domed ceiling with fine plaster work, with to the rear an entrance lobby and stairs down to the lower room. In style it is reminscent of Flitcroft's Temple of Flora at Stourhead (1745) (although this is single storey), but its position is far more dramatic than building which stands a short distance above the lake divided from it by a grassy slope. Small as it is, the commanding position of this temple and its classical excellence rank it among Jersey's most prestigious buildings. However, the temple is hardly visible from the walks because of screening by mature trees. The entrance is to the rear, east elevation, with the spectacular views of the town and St Aubin's Bay screened by vegetation until seen from the west window and verandah. From the temple the Upper Path leads north down to a 4-way junction at the north end of the site with three other paths. One path leads east up steps to the school buildings on the plateau and back along the east boundary to the lodge and gateway. From the 4-way junction the other two paths, Middle and Lower Paths, lead more or less parallel south-west back down the cliffside. The paths follow the contours as far as possible to avoid steep gradients. The Upper Path formerly followed an approximately parallel route south-west from the Temple above the lower two paths but this has partly been blocked by the Science Block immediately below the Temple. The three paths follow the contours as far as possible to make easy slopes, and enjoy dramatic views west of the town and the cliffside. The cliff is planted with many mature trees, including beech, oak, holm oak, lime, sycamore. Some of the maturing trees are self-sown. A flight of walled and angled steps leads off the Lower Path to a pedestrian gate to Pleasant Street. The gateway is framed by a granite archway in similar style to the main archway to the south, but is smaller and less imposing. The upper paths are bounded above the cliff with iron railings. The lowest path is bounded by modern metal panel fencing, but a short stretch of a low granite parapet wall survives, indicating that this ran along the edge of the path north of the pedestrian gateway. The three paths join at a broad promenade which runs south past the Prep School to link with the main drive near Lower Lodge. East of Mont Millais is the school playing field (apparently added later). While this is not included as part of the ornamental design surrounding the college it forms a key part of the setting of the school grounds.
Internal Description: n/a
Special interest: Architectural,Historical

Documents

Terms and conditions for downloading documents

The plans, drawings and material provided have been submitted to the Chief Officer for permissions in respect of the Planning and Building (Jersey) Law 2002. They are protected by copyright under the Intellectual Property (Unregistered Rights) (Jersey) Law 2011 (Article 70 of the 2011 Law).

The material is being provided to make available for public inspection the Register of Planning and Building Applications and must not be used for other purposes without the prior permission of the copyright owner.

The Minister for the Environment makes every effort to maintain the accuracy of the information on this website but cannot accept responsibility for and disclaims all responsibility for any loss or damage which may arise from the use of the information provided.

For applications approved during or after July 2016 approved documents are available from within the ‘Approved Documents’ section. For applications approved from 15 May 2012 - July 2016 approved documents are available under the ‘Plans’ section.

I understand and agree with the terms and conditions. Please agree with the terms and conditions before submitting comments.

09/02/2015

Schedule Schedule Listed Building Grade 1

507.46 KB

Back to search results