Description

SJ 75 SW CREWE RUSKIN ROAD
(West side)
245/5/10001
The Ruskin School
01.10.1999

GV II

Secondary school, now comprehensive school. 1909, by H Beswick, County Architect. Founded at the instigation of Or W Hodgson, and partly funded by the local railway company. Intended as a co-educational secondary school. Altered early C20, and with later C20 alterations and additions. Georgian Revival style. Red brick, with terra cotta dressings. Welsh slate roofs with square-domed octagonal cupola and wind vane, and various coped stacks and air shafts. Windows are mainly original tilting casements with glazing bars. 3 storeys; 24 windows arranged 3:3:3:2:2:2:3:3:3. T -plan. Projecting central entrance bay, defined by pilasters under a pediment, has a moulded round arched doorcase with keystone, containing original half-glazed doors, sidelights and fanlight. Above, a panelled sham balcony on enriched scroll brackets, and 2 windows. Above again, a round arched window dated 1909 on the apron, and flanked by pedimented niches. Roundel in pediment. Flanking bays have round arched windows flanked by smaller single lights, and above, 2 windows on each floor, those to the second floor round headed. Projecting pedimented outer bays have 3 flat headed windows on the lower floors, and Oiocletian windows above, with roundels in pediments. Recessed flanking bays have 3 windows on each floor, those to the second floor round headed. The end bays were originally single storey, and were raised soon after completion. Each has a projecting centre under a pediment, with 3 flat headed windows on each floor, the central second floor window mullioned. At the rear, 2 flat roofed projections, 3 storeys, containing service rooms. 2 hipped rear wings with round arched stair windows adjoining the front range on each floor, and with coped round-arched air shafts. North wing has large segment headed second floor windows and roof lights to the art room. South wing has further fenestration at the west end, and a single storey range with a canted bay window to south. Between the rear wings, a 2-storey range with clerestory roof, containing the assembly hall. West of this, a lower 2 storey hipped range with glazed canopy, formerly the gym.
INTERIOR: Most rooms have glazed brick dado and C20 suspended ceilings. Corniced entrance hall has half-glazed double doors and screens. Part-glazed side doors with eared architraves and corniced panels above, leading to offices in a similar style. Noteworthy assembly hall, with a gallery on 3 sides, carried on cast-iron columns and brackets. Segmental-arched queen post roof with clerestory. Round arched windows and doors with fanlights. Balcony has ornate cast iron balustrade. Adjoining gym has plain queen post roof, with glazing largely obscured. Former craft room to south has large segment-headed fireplace, now blocked, and corresponding room to north has segment arched domestic scale fireplace. Second floor art room has exposed principal rafters with arch braces and tie rods. laboratories, now combined, have exposed queen post trusses and some original furnishings. At each end of the main range, a lift shaft.

Listing NGR: SJ7014954884

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26561858

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Surrey (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects by Harwood, Richard (2012) Paperback
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  Cambridgeshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)