Former John Street Cp School

SJ37NE ELLESMERE PORT JOHN STREET

389/2/10000 Former John Street CP School

II

School, latterly offices. 1911-12, with minor late C20 alterations. Attributed to Charles E. Deacon and Horsburgh of Liverpool, architects, for the Cheshire County Council. Blue, and narrow red brick with ashlar sandstone dressings, tall mid-slope chimneys and Westmorland slate roof coverings. PLAN: Rectangular plan, comprised of parallel front and rear ranges and returns, the two ranges treated differently, and enclosing a taller central hall. FRONT (north-east) ELEVATION: symmetrical front, with twin-gabled entrance, each gablet in ashlar, that to the left with the letters C.C.C (Cheshire County Council), that to the right dated 1912. Beneath the dentil course linking both, a frieze bearing the inscription 'JOHN ST. SCHOOL' in raised lettering. Below the gablets, central and outer pilasters, and between, 2 tall tripartite windows, 7:21:7 panes with pivoting upper lights. Flanking set-back bays with 2 casements of 4:12:12 panes. At each end, twin gables, each with a 7:14:7 pane window flanked by 10-pane casements. Window openings set beneath gauged brick arches. FRONT (south-west) ELEVATION: 15 bays, with advanced end bays beneath pyramidal roofs. Bays 2 and 14 are flat-roofed, and link with centre part with 5 tall through-eaves windows, 7:14:7 panes, beneath wide flat gauged-arched heads. These are flanked by 8-pane casements. Between the tall windows, mid-span chimney stacks with corbelled caps. END ELEVATIONS provided separate entrances for girls and boys, by means of a central flat-roofed porch, each with a semi-circular pediment, and set-back double doors. INTERIOR: not inspected. HISTORY: The school was built in the early years of the county council's role as education authority. The school is of an unusual plan form, and its single storeyed layout and compact spatial arrangement is in marked contrast to the architecture of late C19 Board Schools. Deacon and Horsburgh designed the near by Cambridge Road School in 1907.

Listing NGR: SJ3993576872