St Andrews Centre

The St Andrew’s Centre, originally St Andrew’s Church Hall, is a community centre and school built around 1872 by R J Johnson of Newcastle. It is constructed of coursed sandstone rubble with an ashlar plinth, quoins, and cornice, and has a roof of Welsh slate. A wooden spirelet tops the building. The layout is a long rectangular block with wings at the rear corners and adjacent classrooms. The building is in a Gothic style. It has two storeys and six bays, featuring rectangular three-light windows on the ground floor. Gothic two-light windows are set within gabled dormers above. Original entrances are located in the extreme left and right bays; the right-hand entrance retains the original “Girls School” inscription. Saddleback staircase towers adjoin the rear corners, each with Gothic windows facing forward. The roof has dormers in every bay, both front and rear, with the rear dormers alternating with wide chimneys, most of which are now truncated. There are two end chimneys, all corniced. Stone gable coping is flat, and a central louvred timber spirelet rises from the roof.