Description

This entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 16 November 2022 to update the name, to change numbers to words and to reformat text to current standards.

CHELTENHAM

SO9423SE

630-1/5/846

ST PAUL'S ROAD (South side)

05/05/72

Former Francis Close College Old Practising School

(Formerly Listed as: ST PAUL'S ROAD Old Practising School)

GV

II*

School, now college. 1854-58. G F Bodley, architect. Stone over brick with steeply-pitched tiled roofs; half-hipped gables, gables, gambrel and mansard roofs; tall stone chimney stacks. Gothic style. Irregular U-plan.

EXTERIOR: single tall storey school room with single bay to gable end and four-bay return; range to rear with two storeys with attics, three first-floor windows, then a further two-storey, single-bay range with attic to gable. School room: gable end has set into it a three-light mullion and transom window with cusped rectangular heads to the lights, Gothic arch above with tile-filled spandrel. Entrance to right return in gabled porch has plank door, then three two-light windows with shaped heads; off-centre projecting stack. Attached behind a taller block with Gothic windows, those to ground floor are four-light mullion and transom windows with quatrefoil type decoration to heads and relieving arches over, inserted entrance at right a plank door in pointed surround; upper stage has three-light cusped window and two two-light straight-headed windows. Straight-headed roof dormers; feature off-centre stack. Further gabled range has two cusped lights to ground floor with buttress between, first floor has two-light window in cusped surround; attic has three-light window with colonnettes between and decorative arches over with impost band. Part to right has mansard roof.

INTERIOR: dogleg staircase with stick balusters and newel posts to right part; otherwise not inspected.

HISTORICAL NOTE: originally designed to link with St Paul's Training College (qv), Swindon Road.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17535776

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

• 
  London 6: Westminster (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England): Westminster v. 6
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House