Description

John A Carfrae, 1911. Long 2-storey, E-plan Queen Anne school (rear section now community centre) with later alterations and additions to sides and rear. Bull-faced coursed sandstone, squared and snecked at base and sides; cream polished ashlar dressings. Narrow cill course at ground floor level; eaves cornice. Tall banded corniced chimney stalks dividing bay groups.

S (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: symmetrical; 8-bay advanced piend-roofed centre section with finialled, scroll-pedimented ventilator/lantern; regularly fenestrated at 1st floor; each pair of windows flanked by tall banded chimney stalks; single storey projecting 8-bay entrance vestibule with splayed corners and large round-arched glazed openings (prominent keystones); glazed timber doors in 3rd bays from right and left; flanked by banded pilaster strips topped by pineapple finials. Outer bays arranged 1.3.3; narrow stone-mullioned 2-light windows to inner bays; penultimate groups of three windows flanked by tall banded chimney stalks with hood-corniced blank tablets at 1st floor level. Eaves cornice arched over broader, banded windows in 2nd and 5th bays from right and left.

N (REAR) ELEVATION: projecting 2-storey gabled bay to left; modern rendered extension to ground, 4-light canted window to 1st floor. 2-storey timber glazed extension to rear elevation of main block. Asymmetrical 3-storey 3-bay projecting block to centre with eaves cornice and blocking; stone-mullioned 2-light windows to ground and 1st floor, 3-light stone-mullioned oriels at 3rd (small leaded panes), in outer bays; broad corniced stacks at corners; entrance in W elevation of this block; timber panelled door in moulded surround with arched moulding over; windows in splayed corner at ground and 2nd, stone-mullioned bipartite and flanking single windows to 3rd floor. 5-bay 2-storey gabled projecting arm adjoins to right; 3 windows to ground and 2nd floors; banded corner pilasters; 2-storey timber glazed extension (1950's) to E elevation of projecting arm, W elevation echoes S elevation of main block (banded chimneys divide 5 bays, eaves cornice raised over 3 centre bays etc). Projecting 2-storey single bay ogee-roofed bay to outer right.

W ELEVATION: gabled end of main block to right; 2-storey timber glazed extensions to centre; 2-storey ogee-roofed 2-storey bay to left (modern windows).

E ELEVATION: gabled end of main block to left; single windows to right at ground and 1st floors; banded chimney at right. E elevation of eastern projecting arm to right; 3 single windows at ground and 1st floors to left, modern window and banded chimney to right.

Predominantly 24-pane glazing in timber sash and case windows. Grey slates; stone skews. Tall corniced and banded stone wallhead stacks with circular cans.

INTERIOR: not seen (1999).

GATEPIERS AND RAILINGS: cast-iron railings mounted on low stone coped boundary wall. Ashlar gatepiers with arched panels and dentilled corniced caps. Decorative cast-iron gates.

Statement of Interest

Built on the site of the former Municipal Slaughterhouse.

A typically imaginative design by Carfrae (whose style has been described as 'Board School Baroque'), making good use of a relatively small budget. Carfrae was Architect to the Edinburgh School Board.

The school stands on a site between Fountainbridge, West Tollcross and Ponton Street. The statutory address was previously given as West Tollcross and was amended in 2007.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Tollcross Primary School at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q7814363

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

• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The Victorian House Manual (2nd Edition): How They Were Built, Improvements & Refurbishment, Solutions to All Common Defects - Includes Relevant ... ... Properties (Haynes Manual) (Haynes Manuals)
• 
  Period Property Manual (New Ed)
• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of History Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  Hampshire: Winchester and the North (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)