Kingsway College Clerkenwell Centre

Details

ISLINGTON

TQ3182SE SANS WALK 635-1/73/751 (North side) Kingsway College Clerkenwell Centre

GV II

Hugh Myddelton Schools, now Kingsway College Clerkenwell Centre. Dated 1892 in a panel at fourth-floor level at the south-east corner. Designed by T.J.Bailey for the London School Board. Yellow brick set in Flemish bond, dressings of red brick and stone, terracotta, tiled roof. Three and four storeys over basement, eighteen-window range to the south. The building is H-shaped in plan, with two long wings to north and south, and a central hall block between. The south front has wings at either end of four storeys and three-window range, which read as towers in relation to the three-storey centre; the facade of the centre is divided into four bays of three-window range by buttresses; flat-arched windows to ground and first floors (one now used as an entrance) with heads of gauged red brick, and red brick dressings generally to these floors; sill band to third floor with walls covered with buff terracotta above and segmental-arched windows with chamfered reveals and moulded heads; in between the wings the middle window of each triplet is raised under a small gable; parapet, linked to storey band on fourth floor of the wings which have decorative stone panels to their south face and four segmental-arched windows to east and west returns.The wings have tall hipped roofs with gablets and metal weather vanes to the ridge; the roof between them pitched, with ridge stacks. The east and west fronts have recessed centres faced with terracotta, with three segmental-arched openings framing the ground- and first-floor windows; flat-arched mullioned windows above; stepped parapet and pedimented dormer; entrance for Girls, Infants and Boys in side wings, flat-arched with concave mouldings to stone surrounds. The north front is detailed as for the south in the four central bays; the outer bays of four-window range and without hipped towers, but with five-sided staircase towers to east and west with lead-covered ogee roofs, ball finials and pennants. The interior appears little altered in plan: central hall to three floors with classrooms off to the south, and an aisle of seven bays to the north, with classrooms beyond that; staircases and toilets in the corner wings. The hall to ground and first floors has brick piers carrying composite iron beams and round arches between; the aisle is vaulted, with very shallow saucer domes; and the classrooms have windows and glazed and panelled screens opening onto the hall or aisle; dado of green glazed tiles in all classrooms, in many cases still exposed, and wrought-iron beams to the ceiling; first-floor hall has original fitted and panelled bench to east end. In the second-floor hall there is a panelled and toplit mansard roof over a coved cornice and piers, supported by elaborate metal trusses to the seven bays; this room was used as a gymnasium; the classroom roofs are of timber, with arched braces. (Malcolm Seaborne and Roy Lowe.: The English school. Its architecture and organization..1870-1970: 1977-: PLATE 19).

Listing NGR: TQ3149082361

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

369335

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Seaborne, M, Lowe, R, The English School: Its Architecture and Organisation 1870-1970, (1977)

End of official list entry

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