Cleveland College of Art and Design, Former Municipal Buildings

The Cleveland College of Art and Design, formerly known as the Municipal Buildings, was constructed between 1886 and 1889 by architect R. Knill Freeman from Manchester. This building is designed in the Northern Renaissance style and features smooth red brick with ornamental terracotta dressings and plain clay tiled roofs. It stands two storeys high and has seven bays.

Notable architectural elements include six-panelled double doors with a fanlight featuring glazing bars in the fifth bay, set beneath a three-centred opening and a canopy or balcony supported by consoles. The ground-floor windows are mullioned, with glazing bars in the upper lights, while the first-floor cross windows are separated by simple half-lozenge pilasters that extend through the parapet to small ball and urn finials. Each window is framed by a three-centred arched opening adorned with moulded ornamentation at the top.

The building has shaped gables at the front, positioned between the first and second bays and between the sixth and seventh bays, although the upper parts of these gables are missing. Each gable displays plaques of achievements of arms. There are dentil cornices at the first-floor sill level and at the eaves, with a banded ground floor and quoins at the first floor.

To the rear and left, there are lower two-storey wings that were built slightly later but maintain the same architectural style. Inside, the building features a stone staircase with terracotta balusters and an oak handrail, as well as a coved and panelled ceiling in the first-floor council chamber. The building was disused at the time of the survey.