Description
William Gilliespie Lamond, draughtsman, for J H langlands, School Board Architect, 1906, completed 1907. Arts and crafts art nouveau manner school that pioneered technical and domestic education. 2-storey, basement and attic, central hall-plan. Snecked hammer-dressed rubble with ashlar dressings.
E ELEVATION: central 3-storey, 2-bay gable, windows 4-light mullioned and tronsomed, round-arched at 3rd, with art nouveau-decorated aprons. Gable inscription in Jugendstil lettering with apex open segmental pediment. Basement janitor's house fronted by ornate wrought-iron railings. Flanking recessed 5-storey towers with ground floor semi-circular canopied and consoled doors approached by railed steps. Flanking cylindrical dome-capped piers, those to right carrying lamps. 3 tiers of bipartites over, and top oculus. Octagonal scrolled and dome-capped pagoda. End bays gabled and set back with curved ashlar janitor's bothies in ground floor and basement re-entrant angles.
N ELEVATION: from E: 2-dome-capped gatepiers to railed basement area. Twin cloakroom and stair towers with curvilinear parapets, 3 tiers of 5-light horizontal windows to left, canopied entrance with 4 tiers of 4-light horizontal windows over, round-arched at top. Central 2-storey and basement classroom range, windows grouped in 3s. 3 large mullioned and transomed dormers with small pediments. Stair bay to W similar to that to E, with classroom windows 1/2/1 to right; 2 attic windows beneath eaves. S ELEVATION: similar except that the twin gabled Housewifery Department occupies the W 2-bays with domestic-scaled single and bipartite windows and mini wrought-iron balconies. Unfortunate toilet block added to E stair bay.
W ELEVATION: central advanced 2-bay gable with 4-light mullioned and transomed windows, 2nd floor round-arched. Segmental apex to gable. Ground floor air intake for Plenum Heating System, upper part now boarded, with swept lead roof and projecting eaves.
Slate roof, piended at NW, pyramidal over cloakrooms, and 3 main gables aligned E-W with tiled ridges and overhanging eaves. 6 louvred dome-capped ventilators. Wallhead stacks in W and E galbes. Top-hopper and casement windows with horizontal astragals, except Housewifery Department: sash and case windows with 6 and 8-pane upper, 2-pane lower, cases. INTERIOR: of exceptional quality. Central arcaded walled, full height hall at ground floor with borrowed light from classrooms, timber balustraded E and W mezzanines. 1st floor similar but with oval light-well. 2nd floor balustraded rails with original light fittings at intervals and encircling display cases. Elliptical arch-braced roof on big corbes. Concealed timber King posts. Timber pedimented doorpieces within arcaded glazed surrounds, original door furniture. Dado panelling and slim 'cupboards' housing the ventilation ducts.
BOUNDARY WALLS: E entrance flanked by ashlar cylindrical dome-capped gatepiers and low walls with modern railings.
Rubble-built boundary walls to N, S and W.