Description

ST JOHN'S ROAD
(East side)
656-1/31/1568
Bathwick C of E
Junior School (former)
(Formerly Listed as:
ST JOHN'S ROAD, Bathwick
St Mary's Bathwick C of E Junior School)
28/04/86

GV II

Former school, now vacant. 1840-1841 by John Pinch the Younger, extended c1868; further C20 additions.
MATERIALS: Limestone ashlar (south, later C19 block of machine cut rough surfaced rangework), slate roofs.
EXTERIOR: School building in Tudor Gothic style, originally of two parts behind forecourt, with schoolmaster's house to left and taller school house to right; 1868 Gothic extension to right, or south. Original three storey building with irregular front: schoolmaster's house (to left) plain to first floor below eaves, with label mould to blocked window to ground floor; left return gabled with similar window. Schoolhouse, (formerly to right, now at centre) stepped slightly forward with forward-facing gable. Both gables similar with moulded coping and moulded kneelers. Stacks flanking schoolhouse have moulded cornices to octagonal shafts, paired to left and four to right. Gable has octagonal finial, blocked slit to apex, label mould over paired cinquefoil-headed two-light first floor windows with diagonal leading to upper part of left hand light. Tall ground floor has moulded string course over central scrolled banner with `GIRL'S SCHOOL¿ carved in raised Gothic lettering. C20 double doors and blocked overlight set under label mould and Tudor arch with sunk spandrels, and flanked by small blocked windows with label moulds. c1868 block attached to right has plain openings to stone mullioned and transom three-light windows in narrow set back range, that to ground floor blocked. Ground floor string course higher than that of original building. Main three storey c1868 block set well forward to street level, left return has one window to each upper floor with shallow pointed arched hoodmoulds over two trefoil ogee headed lights, steps up to shouldered arched recess and double oak panelled doors. Moulded string course continues over front and rises and terminates hoodmould over blocked three-light window to ground floor, to left another small window, between them, above string course small square cinquefoil-headed window. To second floor left-of-centre two-light window similar to that of left return, to second floor right-of-centre similar flat arched window at eaves level. Slightly higher range to right has pavilion roof, blank front wall, plain stack at corner. Right return has large four-light stone mullioned and transomed windows to half dormer and to ground floor (blocked).
INTERIOR: Not inspected.
HISTORY: School was founded by the Rev. Edward Boyle, Curate of Bathwick, in 1838; inscription in former classroom states 'Bathwick Parochial Schools for the education of the poor in the principles of the established church. Erected 1841. Enlarged 1846... Enlargement of Boys' School 1868'. The school closed in c.1980, and is currently empty. The school shows, in microcosm, the development of the Gothic Revival, from its initial picturesque Tudor Gothic period (much used for institutional buildings of the 1820s and 1830s), to a freer, more boldly conceived idiom.
SOURCE: Howard Colvin, `A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1660-1851¿ (3rd ed. 1995), 757, citing S.D. Major¿s `Notabilia of Bath¿ (1879), 103].

Listing NGR: ST7522565295

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26673114

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

• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Surrey (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects, Supplement 2014
• 
  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings
• 
  Derbyshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  County Durham (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England) by Elizabeth Williamson Nikolaus Pevsner(1983-03-11)