Cavendish primary school including detached annexe and front boundary wall, gatepiers, gates and railings, Chorlton Park, Manchester

Summary

A local authority education committee primary school begun in 1904, by Ernest Woodhouse, in Jacobean Revival style.

Description

A local authority education committee primary school begun in 1904, by Ernest Woodhouse, in Jacobean Revival style.

MATERIALS: steel beams, concrete floors, Ruabon brick, buff terracotta dressings, blue slate.

PLAN: forming a landmark as one of the largest buildings in the Albert Park Conservation Area, the school has a H-plan with longer rear wings to the side ranges, and a detached annexe in the playground.

EXTERIOR:. The building faces north-east, but for ease the front is referred to as the north.

The school is of two tall storeys (with a mezzanine in the front of the east and west wings), in a Jacobean revival style with pedimented gables, buff terracotta head-and-sill bands to both storeys and further banding to the first floor. Windows are mostly replacements in uPVC, but some original timber windows have been internalised and survive.

The front is symmetrical with a central range flanked by projecting wings to the side ranges. The central range is of three bays divided by pilaster-buttresses; the outer bays have two lights per floor and a blocked eaves cornice, while the central bay has a wide first-floor window rising through the eaves to a terracotta semi-circular pediment, open and containing the City of Manchester’s arms in relief. The wings have triangular-pedimented, two-window centres, flanked by slightly-projecting square towers with parapets. The parapets and gables have relief cartouches. The mezzanine spandrels have Art Nouveau reliefs with cherubic faces, and there is a foundation stone at the right. At the right is a modern entrance block and set back to the left is a later attached playground block that are both excluded from the listing.

The north bays of the east and west walls match the front walls of the projecting front wings, with square towers flanking a pedimented centre. At ground-floor are the entrances (mostly obscured on the west wall by the modern entrance block). These are paired terracotta double doorways, each with an open semi-circular pediment containing a round window with festooned surround (the north door accesses the stair, the south door the ground floor). Towards the rear the bands continue and windows are grouped under further pediments with keystones in the tympana, including in the rear extensions which match the earlier work. The ground floor of the rearward end of the east wall is obscured by the attached playground block. Rainwater goods are replicas of the originals. Each wing has an ogee-domed octagonal ridge cupola.

The rear wall is of Ruabon brick in the centre, and common bricks to the inner walls of the projecting wings, with buff terracotta head-and-sill bands to both floors throughout. In the angles are flat-roofed canted two-storey bays with brick parapets. Between these are the windows of the halls, originally grouped in five pairs but now with single windows at either end, the outer windows having been replaced by the windows of the bays. The hall range has a hipped roof and a third ridge cupola. The gable end walls of the wings are blind and rendered.

The annexe is single-storey and in the same style, gabled at the east and west ends with a segmental pediment, shaped kneelers and circular window in a cross-band, above a three-light window. The ridge has a cupola and there are two tall chimney stacks on the north side. The entrances in either end have a quoined surround and a shaped hood broken by a giant keystone. The doors and windows are replacements.

INTERIOR: the school retains much of its original floor plan, with stacked halls in the rear of the cross-range and staff rooms to the front; classrooms, stairs and a mezzanine in the front part of the side ranges, and classrooms in the rest of the side ranges.

The classrooms are divided from the halls by walls with original glazing and doors, with brass fittings. Parquet floor survives throughout (covered in the classrooms). The classrooms retain tiled fireplaces and dadoes with attractive green and gold Art Nouveau flowers (although mostly painted over), and one original slate blackboard. Tiled dadoes also survive in the stairwells, corridors and in the halls, where they have been partially cleaned of paint. The stairs also retain original handrails and window-railings. The halls also each retain built-in cupboards, and a remarkable fireplace at each end, with green-glazed tile surround, pulvinated frieze and pediment, and yellow-glazed tile fireback, and their original grates. The upper hall is open to the roof, which has arched steel trusses. A service elevator survives with its mechanism in the north-west corner and descends to the basement where further original joinery survives.

The annexe retains some original doors, tiled dadoes and a gas-light fitting; its ceilings are concealed by suspended tiles. The Manchester Board Schools book states that it also has parquet floors, which may survive beneath the current coverings.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: the front boundary wall is of brick and terracotta, with decorative piers and Art Nouveau railings and gates.

History

Cavendish primary school was begun in 1904 and opened in 1906. The 1902 Education Act transferred responsibility for schools from the former school boards and voluntary organisations, to local and county authorities. The foundation stone (laid on 4 November 1904 by Councillor Margaret Ashton, the chair of Withington Urban District Council’s education committee and Manchester’s first female councillor) proclaims the inception of the school by Withington and identifies the architect as Ernest Woodhouse. However, by the end of 1904 Withington had been absorbed into the City of Manchester and when built, the school displayed the Manchester Corporation arms prominently on its main façade.

The design included a detached department for cookery and manual instruction (also serving other schools in the area), and for rear wings to be added to the original ‘U’ plan to increase the capacity when required (from 500 to 800 children); this took place in 1912, when two-storey wings were added, with flat-roofed canted bays in the angles to allow access without going through the existing rear classrooms, creating an ‘H’ plan. The absence of the block housing the cookery department from the 1907 Ordnance Survey (OS) 1:2,500 map can be explained by the fact that the survey took place in 1904, and it seems likely that this block is contemporary with the main school. The division of the playground, and the small blocks (probably toilets and covered play areas) also all first shown on the 1922 map (surveyed in 1916) were also all probably original elements of the complex. The playground division probably separated infants and juniors, who also had separate doors at each entrance.

Single-storey further rear extensions to the rear wings were added in the 1960s, and the small toilet/play blocks in the playground were demolished. Lightweight covered corridors have also been added to the inner faces of the rear wings. Late in the C20, a new entrance block was added to the west wall, and a single storey block was built in the playground, connected to the east wing by a covered corridor. Around 2012 the roof was re-covered (retaining the cupolas) and most timber windows and external doors replaced in pvc. The south ends of the rear wings were also rendered. Other minor changes have been made to create office and staff spaces in the front block, and the school remains in use (in 2022), with new buildings to the west.

(Alfred) Ernest Woodhouse (1874-1923), born in Kirkby Lonsdale, was articled to Robert Walker of Windermere in 1892 before working as assistant to Herbert Hodgson of Bradford in 1894 and subsequently for Francis Usher Holme, and the notable firm of Maxwell and Tuke. He began independent practice in 1899 and was elected a Fellow of the RIBA in 1906. He designed a number of schools for the Stretford Education Committee.

Reasons for Listing

Cavendish Community Primary School, a local authority education committee school of 1904, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* for the good-quality of the design with complex massing and modelling of facades and rich decorative embellishment including banding detail, Art Nouveau sculptural terracotta and cupolas;

* for the inclusion of a specialist block for cookery and manual instruction, which is relatively unusual for this date, and also good-quality front boundary wall, railings and gates, all with Art Nouveau detailing;

* for the good degree of survival of the complex, the interior plan form and its individual elements including a service elevator and built-in hall cupboards, and a wealth of interior features, including parquet floors, joinery and metalwork, tiled dadoes and numerous fireplaces in classrooms and most notably the halls.

External Links

Historic England Listing

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