Broadfield House, Crawley
Encyclopedia
Broadfield House is a 19th-century villa
-style house in the Broadfield neighbourhood of Crawley
, a town and borough
in West Sussex
, England
. Built in 1830 on the extensive land of the Tilgate Estate south of the small market town of Crawley, it was extended later in the 19th century and converted into a country club
. After World War II, Crawley was designated a New Town
and had to prepare for rapid, strictly planned growth. Broadfield House was chosen as the headquarters of the Development Corporation
, and became the base where all the decisions that shaped Crawley's future were made. The house, which is still set in parkland, was refurbished and converted into a school in 2011. It has been listed at Grade II by English Heritage
for its architectural and historical importance.
of Crawley—founded six centuries earlier on the ancient London
–Brighton
road, about halfway between the two places—was thriving as a centre of population and commerce. The conversion of the road to a turnpike
in the late 18th century had made both London and the fashionable seaside resort of Brighton much more accessible, and Crawley was the natural stopping-off point during the journey. Rich families and gentry
who needed easy access to London began building estates and mansions in the Crawley area. One of the largest was the Tilgate Estate, which covered 2185 acres (884.2 ha) of woodland and open land south of Crawley around the Brighton Road.
The main building on the estate was Tilgate Mansion, demolished in the 1950s, but in 1830 a villa-style house was built in the grounds just west of the Brighton Road. Broadfield House, which was decorated in the Greek Revival style
inside, had bow-fronted façades and a columned verandah
facing a lake. In the 1860s, another wing was added on the west side to provide a hall with a gallery
. For many years, the building—large, surrounded by parkland and in a semi-rural setting—was used as a hotel and country club
, as Crawley developed into a slowly growing, prosperous small town.
In 1945, as soon as World War II ended, government ministers and regional planning committees began to address the problem of London-centric living and employment. London was considered to be overcrowded and affected by slum
development, made worse by extensive wartime damage. New Towns
—planned, self-contained communities on sites in southeast England with plenty of room for expansion—were proposed. The Ministry of Town and Country Planning's southeast office reported that the Crawley area had suffered haphazard, poorly planned development since the estates were divided up and sold off in the early 20th century, and would therefore be an appropriate candidate for properly planned high-density development. Rapid progress was made: the decision to designate Crawley as a New Town (Britain's second) was made public on 12 July 1946, a preliminary planning committee was set up in September of that year, the New Towns Act 1946
was passed shortly afterwards to give the government authority to carry out the planning and building of New Towns, a 6000 acres (2,428.1 ha) area around Crawley was legally defined in January 1947, and the Crawley Development Corporation
was established in February 1947. Architect Sir Thomas Bennett
was appointed chairman of the committee of financial officers, engineers, technicians, surveyors and other professionals.
The Development Corporation needed somewhere to work from. They did not want to build new offices; instead they waited for suitable premises to come up for sale in Crawley. For the first few months, they used temporary offices in London; but at the end of 1947, Broadfield House (still in use until then as a country club) was closed down and put up for sale. On 23 August 1948, the building reopened as the official headquarters of Crawley Development Corporation, which at that time had 90 employees. More buildings were constructed in the grounds, to house architects and engineers; Crawley-based building firm James Longley & Co. started work on the extension in March 1949 and finished a few months later.
Crawley Development Corporation was dissolved in 1964. It had successfully developed nine residential neighbourhoods, shopping and civic space and an industrial estate and increased Crawley's population from about 9,000 to 59,000 in 17 years. Broadfield House was converted into offices for Crawley Urban District Council, the local authority created in 1956 to govern the town. (This became Crawley Borough Council when the borough
was incorporated in 1974.) In 1984, the building was acquired by newly formed FM radio station
Radio Mercury, which began broadcasting to West Sussex and Surrey on 20 October of that year on 102.7 FM. The radio station later relocated to offices on the Manor Royal industrial estate, and by 2008 the building was mostly vacant. At that time a planning application
was lodged with Crawley Borough Council to convert the building into 12 flats
. Permission was granted a few months later.
Broadfield House was restored in 2011 and was scheduled to open as a Montessori Free school
in September 2011. Funding for the refurbishment included grants from central government
. The initial intake of 48 pupils will cover ages four to seven (Reception class
to Year Three
inclusive). In the future, up to 112 pupils are expected to attend the school.
with lakes and landscaped gardens. It is a stucco
ed, bow-fronted building with two storeys. The Welsh slate
roof has prominent eaves
. A verandah
supported on columns runs around the east and north sides and faces the lake in the park. The entrance is on the north face, but the main façade is on the east side, fronting a driveway leading to the Brighton Road. The 1860s single-storey extension is on the west side, and has three bays
with round-arched windows. The north side also has three bays. Most windows in all parts of the building are jalousies.
Villa
A villa was originally an ancient Roman upper-class country house. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the fall of the Roman Republic, villas became small farming compounds, which were increasingly fortified in Late Antiquity,...
-style house in the Broadfield neighbourhood of Crawley
Crawley
Crawley is a town and local government district with Borough status in West Sussex, England. It is south of Charing Cross, north of Brighton and Hove, and northeast of the county town of Chichester, covers an area of and had a population of 99,744 at the time of the 2001 Census.The area has...
, a town and borough
Borough status in the United Kingdom
Borough status in the United Kingdom is granted by royal charter to local government districts in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The status is purely honorary, and does not give any additional powers to the council or inhabitants of the district...
in West Sussex
West Sussex
West Sussex is a county in the south of England, bordering onto East Sussex , Hampshire and Surrey. The county of Sussex has been divided into East and West since the 12th century, and obtained separate county councils in 1888, but it remained a single ceremonial county until 1974 and the coming...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. Built in 1830 on the extensive land of the Tilgate Estate south of the small market town of Crawley, it was extended later in the 19th century and converted into a country club
Country club
A country club is a private club, often with a closed membership, that typically offers a variety of recreational sports facilities and is located in city outskirts or rural areas. Activities may include, for example, any of golf, tennis, swimming or polo...
. After World War II, Crawley was designated a New Town
New towns in the United Kingdom
Below is a list of some of the new towns in the United Kingdom created under the various New Town Acts of the 20th century. Some earlier towns were developed as Garden Cities or overspill estates early in the twentieth century. The New Towns proper were planned to disperse population following the...
and had to prepare for rapid, strictly planned growth. Broadfield House was chosen as the headquarters of the Development Corporation
Development Corporation
In England and Wales, Development Corporations are bodies set up by the UK government and charged with the urban development of an area, outside the usual system of Town and Country Planning in the United Kingdom...
, and became the base where all the decisions that shaped Crawley's future were made. The house, which is still set in parkland, was refurbished and converted into a school in 2011. It has been listed at Grade II by English Heritage
English Heritage
English Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...
for its architectural and historical importance.
History
By the early 19th century, the market townMarket town
Market town or market right is a legal term, originating in the medieval period, for a European settlement that has the right to host markets, distinguishing it from a village and city...
of Crawley—founded six centuries earlier on the ancient London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
–Brighton
Brighton
Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...
road, about halfway between the two places—was thriving as a centre of population and commerce. The conversion of the road to a turnpike
Turnpike trust
Turnpike trusts in the United Kingdom were bodies set up by individual Acts of Parliament, with powers to collect road tolls for maintaining the principal highways in Britain from the 17th but especially during the 18th and 19th centuries...
in the late 18th century had made both London and the fashionable seaside resort of Brighton much more accessible, and Crawley was the natural stopping-off point during the journey. Rich families and gentry
Gentry
Gentry denotes "well-born and well-bred people" of high social class, especially in the past....
who needed easy access to London began building estates and mansions in the Crawley area. One of the largest was the Tilgate Estate, which covered 2185 acres (884.2 ha) of woodland and open land south of Crawley around the Brighton Road.
The main building on the estate was Tilgate Mansion, demolished in the 1950s, but in 1830 a villa-style house was built in the grounds just west of the Brighton Road. Broadfield House, which was decorated in the Greek Revival style
Greek Revival architecture
The Greek Revival was an architectural movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in Northern Europe and the United States. A product of Hellenism, it may be looked upon as the last phase in the development of Neoclassical architecture...
inside, had bow-fronted façades and a columned verandah
Verandah
A veranda or verandah is a roofed opened gallery or porch. It is also described as an open pillared gallery, generally roofed, built around a central structure...
facing a lake. In the 1860s, another wing was added on the west side to provide a hall with a gallery
Long gallery
Long gallery is an architectural term given to a long, narrow room, often with a high ceiling. In British architecture, long galleries were popular in Elizabethan and Jacobean houses. They were often located on the upper floor of the great houses of the time, and stretched across the entire...
. For many years, the building—large, surrounded by parkland and in a semi-rural setting—was used as a hotel and country club
Country club
A country club is a private club, often with a closed membership, that typically offers a variety of recreational sports facilities and is located in city outskirts or rural areas. Activities may include, for example, any of golf, tennis, swimming or polo...
, as Crawley developed into a slowly growing, prosperous small town.
In 1945, as soon as World War II ended, government ministers and regional planning committees began to address the problem of London-centric living and employment. London was considered to be overcrowded and affected by slum
Slum
A slum, as defined by United Nations agency UN-HABITAT, is a run-down area of a city characterized by substandard housing and squalor and lacking in tenure security. According to the United Nations, the percentage of urban dwellers living in slums decreased from 47 percent to 37 percent in the...
development, made worse by extensive wartime damage. New Towns
New towns in the United Kingdom
Below is a list of some of the new towns in the United Kingdom created under the various New Town Acts of the 20th century. Some earlier towns were developed as Garden Cities or overspill estates early in the twentieth century. The New Towns proper were planned to disperse population following the...
—planned, self-contained communities on sites in southeast England with plenty of room for expansion—were proposed. The Ministry of Town and Country Planning's southeast office reported that the Crawley area had suffered haphazard, poorly planned development since the estates were divided up and sold off in the early 20th century, and would therefore be an appropriate candidate for properly planned high-density development. Rapid progress was made: the decision to designate Crawley as a New Town (Britain's second) was made public on 12 July 1946, a preliminary planning committee was set up in September of that year, the New Towns Act 1946
New Towns Act 1946
The New Towns Act 1946 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which allowed the government to designate areas as new towns, and passing development control functions to a Development Corporation. Several new towns were created in the years following its passing...
was passed shortly afterwards to give the government authority to carry out the planning and building of New Towns, a 6000 acres (2,428.1 ha) area around Crawley was legally defined in January 1947, and the Crawley Development Corporation
Development Corporation
In England and Wales, Development Corporations are bodies set up by the UK government and charged with the urban development of an area, outside the usual system of Town and Country Planning in the United Kingdom...
was established in February 1947. Architect Sir Thomas Bennett
Thomas Bennett (architect)
Sir Thomas Penberthy Bennett KBE FRIBA was a renowned British architect, responsible for much of the development of the new towns of Crawley and Stevenage....
was appointed chairman of the committee of financial officers, engineers, technicians, surveyors and other professionals.
The Development Corporation needed somewhere to work from. They did not want to build new offices; instead they waited for suitable premises to come up for sale in Crawley. For the first few months, they used temporary offices in London; but at the end of 1947, Broadfield House (still in use until then as a country club) was closed down and put up for sale. On 23 August 1948, the building reopened as the official headquarters of Crawley Development Corporation, which at that time had 90 employees. More buildings were constructed in the grounds, to house architects and engineers; Crawley-based building firm James Longley & Co. started work on the extension in March 1949 and finished a few months later.
Crawley Development Corporation was dissolved in 1964. It had successfully developed nine residential neighbourhoods, shopping and civic space and an industrial estate and increased Crawley's population from about 9,000 to 59,000 in 17 years. Broadfield House was converted into offices for Crawley Urban District Council, the local authority created in 1956 to govern the town. (This became Crawley Borough Council when the borough
Borough status in the United Kingdom
Borough status in the United Kingdom is granted by royal charter to local government districts in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The status is purely honorary, and does not give any additional powers to the council or inhabitants of the district...
was incorporated in 1974.) In 1984, the building was acquired by newly formed FM radio station
FM broadcasting
FM broadcasting is a broadcasting technology pioneered by Edwin Howard Armstrong which uses frequency modulation to provide high-fidelity sound over broadcast radio. The term "FM band" describes the "frequency band in which FM is used for broadcasting"...
Radio Mercury, which began broadcasting to West Sussex and Surrey on 20 October of that year on 102.7 FM. The radio station later relocated to offices on the Manor Royal industrial estate, and by 2008 the building was mostly vacant. At that time a planning application
Planning permission
Planning permission or planning consent is the permission required in the United Kingdom in order to be allowed to build on land, or change the use of land or buildings. Within the UK the occupier of any land or building will need title to that land or building , but will also need "planning...
was lodged with Crawley Borough Council to convert the building into 12 flats
Apartment
An apartment or flat is a self-contained housing unit that occupies only part of a building...
. Permission was granted a few months later.
Broadfield House was restored in 2011 and was scheduled to open as a Montessori Free school
Free school (England)
A Free school is a school in England funded by the taxpayer, non-selective and free to attend but not controlled by local authorities. The concept of free schools is based upon a similar model found in Sweden as well as US charter schools....
in September 2011. Funding for the refurbishment included grants from central government
Government of the United Kingdom
Her Majesty's Government is the central government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The Government is led by the Prime Minister, who selects all the remaining Ministers...
. The initial intake of 48 pupils will cover ages four to seven (Reception class
Reception (school)
Reception or Primary 1 or FS2 is the first year of primary school in the United Kingdom and South Australia. It is preceded by nursery and is followed by Year One in England and Wales or Primary 2 in Northern Ireland and Scotland.Pupils in Reception are usually aged between four and five...
to Year Three
Year Three
Year Three is an educational year group in schools in many countries including England, Wales, Australia and New Zealand. It is usually the third year of compulsory education and incorporates students aged between seven and nine.-Australia:...
inclusive). In the future, up to 112 pupils are expected to attend the school.
Architecture
Broadfield House stands in Broadfield Park, a nature reserveNature reserve
A nature reserve is a protected area of importance for wildlife, flora, fauna or features of geological or other special interest, which is reserved and managed for conservation and to provide special opportunities for study or research...
with lakes and landscaped gardens. It is a stucco
Stucco
Stucco or render is a material made of an aggregate, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as decorative coating for walls and ceilings and as a sculptural and artistic material in architecture...
ed, bow-fronted building with two storeys. The Welsh slate
Slate
Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. The result is a foliated rock in which the foliation may not correspond to the original sedimentary layering...
roof has prominent eaves
Eaves
The eaves of a roof are its lower edges. They usually project beyond the walls of the building to carry rain water away.-Etymology:"Eaves" is derived from Old English and is both the singular and plural form of the word.- Function :...
. A verandah
Verandah
A veranda or verandah is a roofed opened gallery or porch. It is also described as an open pillared gallery, generally roofed, built around a central structure...
supported on columns runs around the east and north sides and faces the lake in the park. The entrance is on the north face, but the main façade is on the east side, fronting a driveway leading to the Brighton Road. The 1860s single-storey extension is on the west side, and has three bays
Bay (architecture)
A bay is a unit of form in architecture. This unit is defined as the zone between the outer edges of an engaged column, pilaster, or post; or within a window frame, doorframe, or vertical 'bas relief' wall form.-Defining elements:...
with round-arched windows. The north side also has three bays. Most windows in all parts of the building are jalousies.