Portsmouth Grammar School and Attached Railings

PORTSMOUTH GRAMMAR SCHOOL AND ATTACHED RAILINGS, HIGH STREET

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Overview

Heritage Category:
Listed Building
Grade:
II
List Entry Number:
1333199
Date first listed:
30-Oct-1969
List Entry Name:
Portsmouth Grammar School and Attached Railings
Statutory Address:
PORTSMOUTH GRAMMAR SCHOOL AND ATTACHED RAILINGS, HIGH STREET
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Date:
2004-10-07
Reference:
IOE01/12755/33
Rights:
© Mr Glyn Edmunds . Source: Historic England Archive

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:
Listed Building
Grade:
II
List Entry Number:
1333199
Date first listed:
30-Oct-1969
List Entry Name:
Portsmouth Grammar School and Attached Railings
Statutory Address 1:
PORTSMOUTH GRAMMAR SCHOOL AND ATTACHED RAILINGS, HIGH STREET

The scope of legal protection for listed buildings

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

The scope of legal protection for listed buildings

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:
PORTSMOUTH GRAMMAR SCHOOL AND ATTACHED RAILINGS, HIGH STREET

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

District:
City of Portsmouth (Unitary Authority)
Parish:
Non Civil Parish
National Grid Reference:
SZ 63530 99543

Details

PORTSMOUTH

SZ6399 HIGH STREET 774-1/12/48 (South East side) 30/10/69 Portsmouth Grammar School and attached railings

GV II

Formerly known as: Cambridge Barracks HIGH STREET. Barracks officers' quarters and mess, now grammar school. c1855-60, by the Inspector-General of Fortification's office; school since 1926. Yellow stock and grey bricks. Shallow pitched Welsh slate hipped roof, brick stack with moulded stone cap on left of bays 4/5, 8/9, 13/14, 18/19. Late Georgian style. PLAN: double-depth plan of 4 room units divided by chimneys and separated by transverse passages with rear doorways; former mess in deeper section at left-hand end. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys and basement. 40-window range. The 2 flanking bays on each side of the central open archway, and 5 bays at each end, project slightly. At centre is a wide splayed stone-framed round archway with impost, vermiculated keystone and plinth, similar lower and narrower arched openings each side, to a vaulted through passage. On each side are eighteen 6/6 pane sashes each set under a flat-gauged brick head with stone sills; 40 similar first-floor sashes. Stone plat band, cornice with ornate stone brackets and stone coped parapet. At centre above parapet is a royal cartouche in stone with supporters. Rear has steps across basement areas up to doorways, and flat-headed 6/6 pane sashes, as the front. Officer's mess set forward with a central round-arched doorway with radial fanlights and tripartite window above. INTERIOR: has large former mess, now library, on first floor, with an axial central stair with cast-iron balusters to a central axial passage; contains original doors and plasterwork. SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: attached cast-iron spear-headed forecourt railings. HISTORY: contained officers' and servants' rooms, with kitchens and mess rooms. Portsmouth Grammar School, founded in 1732, took over the former officers' barracks in 1926. With the other sections of the old Cambridge Barracks (qqv), this is a good and complete mid C19 example. It is the only remaining one from an area just inside the old Portsmouth Lines with a large concentration of barracks in the C19, and the irregular layout is a rare survival reflecting the former

cramped location of the old barracks. (Lloyd DW: Buildings of Portsmouth and its Environs: Portsmouth: 1974-: 44,47,82,83,106; The Buildings of England: Pevsner N & Lloyd DW: Hampshire and the Isle of Wight: Harmondsworth: 1967-: 448, 449).



Listing NGR: SZ6353399541

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:
474784
Legacy System:
LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Lloyd, D W, Buildings of Portsmouth and its Environs, (1974), 44,47,82
Lloyd, D W, Buildings of Portsmouth and its Environs, (1974), 83,106
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, (1967), 448,449

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.

Ordnance survey map of Portsmouth Grammar School and Attached Railings

Map

This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 05-Jun-2026 at 18:13:19.

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© Crown copyright [and database rights] 2026. OS AC0000815036. Use of this mapping is subject to Terms and Conditions.

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.

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