Building record 1511800000 - Rayners House, Penn

Penn School occupies Rayners, built for Sir Philip Rose, in 1847; architect unrecorded. The original gabled Elizabethan-style house is unaltered but was much added to before 1900, including work in 1868 by David Brandon. It looks institutional in red brick, with black diapering and with a large number of encaustic tiles in the conservatory, on the garden gateways etc. To the N, the school buildings begun for London County Council in 1959 and designed by Stillman & Eastwick-Field. They are grouped round a small courtyard. There is a two-storeyed range with classrooms and dormitory and, at r. angles to it, the Hall and Dining Room. Red brick, like the old house, cedar-facing and glass (B1).
Grade II. A country house of about 1847, possibly designed by Edward Buckton Lamb, with additions built in the 1850s and from 1867-1868 by David Brandon with further additions dating from the 1960s.
Rayners House is listed for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest: - the house is a richly detailed example of picturesque Tudor revival design blended with French Renaissance elements, near seamlessly evolved from 1847;
- the series of interconnecting reception rooms at ground-floor give a good example of a Victorian house designed for entertaining.
Historic interest: - Sir Philip Rose, for whom the house was built, was a man of some distinction in Victorian England, the founder of Brompton Hospital, Disraeli's 'confidential man of business' and the first agent of the Tory party, who helped to bring about political and legislative reform in the mid-C19 and whose handling of sensitive government business and role as Disraeli's executor, is reflected in the planning of the house with its joined study and secure strong room for storing documents.
Group interest: - with Rayners Lodge and Gardeners' Bothy, both Grade II.
The house was initially used as a summer retreat from London by the family, but it became a more
conventional country estate which eventually extended to 550 acres. The second baronet died in 1919
and the estate passed to his grandson, whose trustees decided to sell. The house and land were sold
off in thirty-seven lots in 1920. The house and twenty-two acres were bought by London County
Council who turned the house into a school for deaf children. It remained as a school, with a large
classroom block and gymnasium added to the east in the mid C20. The school closed in 2016. See listing description for history and further detail (B2).