Random Building
1870 – Laboratory, Eton College, Berkshire
From The Builder, February 26, 1870: This is a building necessitated by the increased importance wisely given to science at Eton since the appointment of Dr. Hornby to the headmastership of the school. The arrangement is shown on the accompanying ground plan ; besides which, there U a heating-vault arranged under the end of the lecture-room gallery, vaulted over with brick, and two additional rooms on the upper floor for purposes in connexion with the laboratory, which are approached by the passage staircase, and by a door at the gallery end of the lecture-room opening on to the staircase landing.
The walls of the building are of local red brick, with Bath atone dressings ; the roofs are covered with brindle-colonred Staffordshire tiles, those of the laboratory and lecture-room being open-timbered. Special attention has been paid to the arrangement and general detail of the fittings, in order to make them as suitable and convenient as possible for their intended purposes ; and in the matter considerable thought has been given by Mr. Madan, Fellow of QueenV College, Oxford, and head of the science department at the school.
The building is heated by a boiler apparatusin the vault, and hot-water pipes in connexion therewith running throughout the building; the ventilation of both laboratory and lecture-room has been well provided for; and provision is also made by means of pipes acted upon by gas jets for the purpose of more effectually carrying off the gases occasioned by the chemicals.
The architect is Mr. William Wilkinson, of Oxford ; and the builders are Messrs. Fassnidge & Son, of Uxbridge, who are also supplying the heating apparatus. The cost of the building, exclusive of the fittings, will be about 2,0001.
Published October 14, 2009