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Summary

Description

Robert Wilson, 1889. 2-storey with basement and attic Neo-Jacobean symmetrical H-plan school for Edinburgh School Board. Polished ashlar with bands of squared and snecked sandstone to principal S elevation; squared and snecked sandstone with polished dressings elesewhere. Base, cill and eaves courses; dividing and eaves cornices (dentilled to S and to advanced central bays at N); mullioned and transomed basket-headed windows with chamfered reveals; pilasters dividing each bay carried through all floors and capped with small ball-finials above eaves to S elevation; timber framed bellcote.

S (SCIENNES ROAD) ELEVATION: 2-storey with attic; 9 bays to main block at centre with lower 2-storey single bay entrance blocks and single storey flat-roofed extensions adjoining to outer left and right. Tripartite windows at ground and 1st floors to entrance blocks, those at 1st floor breaking eaves in stone finialled pedimented gable. 3 central bays advanced and gabled; tripartite windows in central bay; blinded oculus between floors; aproned tripartite window set in gablehead with blinded oculus above; single windows in flanking bays; bipartite windows to returns. Tripartite windows in 2nd and 8th bays, those at attic breaking eaves in finialled pediments with square blank tablets inset. Single windows in flanking bays.

N (MILLERFIELD PLACE) ELEVATION: 2 principal storeys, basement and attic; 11-bay symmetrical. 3 central bays advanced and gabled with angle pilasters; tripartite windows in central bay; tripartite window set in gablehead with louvred slit above; single windows in flanking bays; bipartite windows to returns. Slightly advanced bays with tripartite windows to outer left and right; parapets and pediments with louvred slits above. Bipartite windows in 3rd and 9th bays. Single windows in remaining bays. Single round-arched windows to basement, paired in 3rd, 6th and 9th bays with single window to each return of advanced bays.

W ELEVATION: advanced M-gabled 2-storey entrance block with single windows to outer right; 2 single windows in gablehead of main block behind. Advanced 2-storey and basement piend-roofed wing with bipartite windows to outer left (2 pairs of round-arched windows at basement). Bipartite windows in remaining bays of main block, including mezzanine and attic; 2 single round-arched windows at basement.

E ELEVATION: mirror of W elevation.

INTERIOR: not seen 1990.

Small pane sash and case windows (detached from transoms). Grey-green slate pitched roofs with red ridge tiles and finials: birdcage bellcote (bell missing) with pilastered and keystoned round-arched painted timber frame, pyramidal roof, and weathervane finial; corbelled and deeply corniced gablehead stacks; moulded eaves guttering.

PLAYSHELTERS: 2 single storey piend-roofed playshelters abutting boundary walls to W and E, both supported on the open sides by 7 cast-iron columns.

GATEPIERS, BOUNDARY WALLS AND RAILINGS: 4 panelled ashlar gatepiers with cornices and coping to Sciennes Road; saddleback coping with replacement railings to Sciennes Road; high rubble boundary walls to W and E; low coped rubble wall with original spearhead railings at N entrance from Millerfield Place (replacement gates and gatepiers).

Statement of Special Interest

Sciennes Primary School, opened on 1st March 1892, appears to have been exceptionally well equipped for its date, with a gym and swimming pool built into the basement, and drawing, science, and cookery classrooms on the top floor. Pupils ranged between 5 and 14 years old. As is usual for the period, girls and boys were rigorously kept apart, girls entering from the W and boys entering from the E. The playground too was divided by a wall, with each half containing 2 playshelters (only those to the S remain). The infants were accommodated on the ground flo or and juveniles on the floors above. The highe proportion of window to wall, particularly to the S, demonstrates the School Board's concern with the healthy effects of light and ventilation. Sciennes Evening School for Adults began simultaneously with the day school. Its emphasis on practical, comemrcial, and technical skills proved to be extremely popular.

References

Bibliography

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