Denomination Non-denominational Closed 1954 Founded 1906 | Established 1906 Headquarters Chatswood Ceased operations 1954 | |
Type Independent, day and boarding school Key people Lance Bavin (Founder & Headmaster)
Sandy Phillips (Co-Headmaster) | ||
Mowbray House School was an independent, day and boarding school for boys, located in Chatswood, on the North Shore of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
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History
The school was opened in 1906 as the Chatswood Preparatory School by Lancelot Bavin (1881–1956). Bavin initially ran the school with his wife, Ida, and his mother, Emma (1845–1931), the widow of Methodist Minister the Rev. Rainsford Bavin (1845–1905). In 1914 Sandy Phillips, until then a master at Sydney Grammar School, became co-headmaster with Bavin and the institution became known as Mowbray House School. Bavin and Phillips had been students together at Newington College. Phillips remained at Mowbray House until his return to Sydney Grammar in 1924, where he ultimately became Headmaster. Bavin continued as Headmaster of Mowbray House until the school closed in 1954 due to his ill-health.
Buildings
Mowbray House was built in 1906 and is a two storey tuck pointed face brick building with a hipped tile roof and cream cement render on the upper level. It displays elements of the Interwar Georgian Revival style with regular multi-paned windows and a symmetrical form. The building has timber eave brackets and unusual corner chimneys and originally contained a dormitory accommodating twenty-five boarding students. In 1917 a dining room was added to the northern end of building and modifications to the kitchen and eastern façade were made. In 1874 the Mechanics' Institute built a School of Arts on the site and from 1878 until 1903 Chatswood Council used the building as its council chambers. The building became the school chapel in 1906 and in 1957, due to public pressure, was dismantled and relocated to Beaconsfield Road, Chatswood, where it is now Holy Trinity Anglican Church.