Education Committee Distribution Centre office (Ouseburn Schools)

NZ 26 SE 12/73

NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE ALBION ROW (west side) Education Committee Distribution Centre office (Ouseburn Schools)

17.12.71

GV. II* School, now offices. 1893 by F.W. Rich. Four-and-one English garden wall bond brick with ashlar and moulded brick dressings; Welsh slate roof. Three ranges almost enclosing yard. Eclectic style with C17 and C18 elements.

Two storeys and attics in three-bay north range; three-storey wings return inwards from corner towers and enclose two-storey sections. Four-stage towers have keyed brick open arches, that at right blocked; long window above in Gibbs surround; two sashes under flat brick arches in third stage and blank fourth; very wide modillioned eaves; ogee-hipped roof with hipped dormers; and on top, three tiers of eaves, the lower two octagonal and the top round, to parabolic roof with low-hipped dormers and ball-and-spike finial, like a Burmese temple roof.

Wings have arched entrance porches, GIRLS inscribed at left and BOYS at right, flanked by pedimented pilasters; elliptical and flat brick arches and moulded sills to sashes with glazing bars; keyed oculi on second floor above porches; hipped roofs. North range has double-chamfered stone mullioned and transomed windows; high shaped gable with swan-neck pediment; over centre section flanked by six-light windows under lower dormers with shaped gables. Moulded brick floor strings; brick and ashlar pilaster and quoin strips. Tall corniced chimneys with strings.

Listing NGR: NZ2651764248