Love Street School (St Werburgh Middle School)

Love Street School, also known as St Werburgh Middle School, is a school building constructed in 1909 by H. Beswick for Chester City Council. The structure is made of hard red brick with yellow terracotta dressings and features grey slate roofs.

The building is two storeys high on the south side facing Union Street and three storeys on the north side facing Forest Street, with an attic. The south elevation showcases four pedimented gables, each containing two 20-pane hopper windows per storey, with flush sillbands, moulded sills, and staggered voussoirs above the windows linked by double floor bands. The gables are made of banded brick and feature blank shields and triangular pediments on the two central bays, while the end bays have broken pediments that project unequally.

There are separate entrances for boys and girls, each consisting of a one-storey pavilion with an attic. These entrances have round-arched terracotta doorways with banding, pediments, and decorative dressings, along with a pedimented gable above the attic window. The three-storey block on the north side rises behind and includes a furnace chimney designed to resemble a campanile, topped with a timber-framed cantilevered bell-cote. The gable facing Love Street has a terracotta apex inscribed with "CITY OF CHESTER COUNCIL SCHOOL: AD 1909".

The north elevation facing Forest Street features 20-pane hopper windows on the ground and first floors, along with a large round-arched window at the front gable end of each flanking bay. The stairwell is expressed on the facade, with end pavilions enhancing the overall composition. The building was vacant at the time of the survey, and its elements are well-composed, creating an appealing asymmetrical grouping when viewed from Vicar's Lane and Love Street.