Abbey Gate School

Former British School built in 1870 with late 19th-century and early 20th-century additions, designed by T M Lockwood. Constructed in brown and red brick with light-coloured brick banding and diaper work, under a slate roof. An asymmetrical Vernacular Revival style building with gabled elevations, two storeys, and multipaned casement windows.

Plan and Setting

Originally built with a C-shaped footprint comprising a rear range and two front projecting wings. Now rectangular following infilling of the former central courtyard and extensions to the north and south ends. Yard areas lie to the north of the site and in the southwest corner; these were enlarged in the mid-20th century and late 19th century respectively. The northern yard contains a detached mid-20th-century timber dining room which is not of special interest and excluded from the listing. The site is enclosed by a high brick wall with sandstone copings.

Internally, an off-centre corridor runs the length of the original 1870 building, with large classrooms to the rear and smaller cloakrooms, toilets, and an office to the front. The south extension contains a large classroom and cloakroom at right angles to the corridor, accessed through the rear classrooms (all interconnected) and the front office. The north extension contains one large classroom accessed through an adjoining rear classroom. This plan is replicated on the first floor.

Exterior

The brown brick sections are laid in Flemish Bond, whilst the red brick uses English Garden Wall Bond. Small capped ventilators sit on the ridge lines, with one ridge stack and one external stack on the southwest elevation. Ground floor windows have segmental arched heads; first floor windows have square heads.

The main front elevation features a central brown brick section with two projecting two-storey gabled sections flanking a three-bay section with a hipped roof, all displaying light-coloured banding detail incorporating simple diaper work. The gabled section to the right is late 19th-century infill (probably around 1877) in the same style as the original 1870 sections to the left. It has a partly glazed doorway on the ground floor left, mock half-timber framing to the gable, and a spire (open at its lower part) surmounting the ridge above.

To the immediate right stands a red brick block (the stair tower) with a corner stone reading 'THIS CORNER STONE WAS LAID BY THE MOST HONOURABLE THE MARQUIS OF WESTMINSTER PATRON OF THESE SCHOOLS ON THE FIRST OF AUGUST AD 1870'. This section has two small ground floor windows to the left, a single large first floor window, and a large brick bell cote surmounting the roof. A door with multipaned overlight and flat porch above is positioned on the right return, with a large stair window above. A larger early 20th-century red brick extension, set back to the right, has its gable facing north and is blank to the front elevation.

A late 19th-century red brick extension at the south end features a first floor Venetian window and dentil band, with a projecting single-storey block of the same date in front having windows to the front and left side, and a panelled door to the right side with a segmental arched head and lamp above. Both extensions have gables with timber framing detail.

The rear elevation comprises a seven-bay 1870 brown brick range with six full-height buttresses and windows to each floor (those to bays three and six are paired on the ground floor). A later inserted door appears in bay seven with a window to the left. Extensions to both north and south ends see the former blank whilst the latter has an external stack with a small ground floor window to the left and three first floor windows flanking the stack. A fire escape leads down from a first floor door into a small rear yard area, which has a late 19th-century outdoor toilet and storage area in the southwest corner.

The south end elevation shows two two-storey gable ends (the left projecting slightly forward) with two windows to each ground floor and a dentil band above. Three windows appear on the first floor of the left gable end with stone lintels and sills; the centre window is horizontal and raised. One large window sits to the left of the first floor in the right gable end.

The north end elevation has bargeboards with decorative bracing to the gable apex, three large ground floor windows, and a large Venetian window above with a keystone to the centre light. Two later small single-storey brick lean-tos are positioned to the right.

Interior

The building retains an enclosed arched brace roof structure. The floor plan remains relatively intact, though a couple of walls near the circa 1877 ground floor entrance have been knocked through. The original dog-leg stair survives in the northeast stair tower, featuring a glazed brick dado (now mainly painted over).

Movable partially glazed partition screens in each classroom (one removed from the ground floor centre classroom), possibly installed in 1910 by P H Lockwood, are present on both floors. These allowed classroom spaces to be enlarged or a hall created. A glazed brick fire surround (painted over with hearth removed) survives in the south extension classroom. Original timber board flooring, panelled doors, and radiators survive throughout.

Historical Background

The British and Foreign School Society was formed in 1808 under the name The Society for Promoting the Lancasterian System for the Education of the Poor (also known as The Royal Lancasterian Society) by Joseph Lancaster, a Quaker who first established a school for the poor in Southwark in 1798. He developed a method of non-sectarian education involving older pupils, having first been taught by the schoolmaster, teaching younger children and acting as 'monitors'. The society changed its name to the British and Foreign School Society in 1814. After the government took over responsibility for education in 1870, the society continued to sponsor teacher training institutions. The society still exists today, though its work now solely relates to administering trusts and funds in the advancement of education.

The Chester branch of the British and Foreign School Society was established in 1867 in temporary premises on Windmill Lane. Victoria Road was originally named Windmill Lane, as it had provided access to the Abbot's windmill in medieval times. As the lease for the temporary premises expired in 1870, construction of a new school called Victoria Road British School began on an adjoining site in March 1870 (the lane became known as Victoria Road in 1871) to the designs of Chester architect T M Lockwood. T M Lockwood has 24 listed buildings to his name in Chester and also undertook remodelling and extension works on six other listed buildings in the city.

A corner stone was laid by the Marquess of Westminster (the school's patron) on 1 August 1870. William Gladstone also presided over several of the Chester British School Association's annual meetings. The school opened in 1871 with three departments for boys (first floor), girls, and infants (ground floor), and was extended in 1873 to Lockwood's designs. Further extensions were added in 1877, 1886, 1895/6, and 1905.

Chester did not establish a School Board, and the school remained as a British School until it was transferred to the City Corporation in 1909 (following the 1902 Education Act), when its name changed to Victoria Road Council School. The infants' and girls' departments were amalgamated in 1927, and in 1948 the school became a mixed primary school with the older pupils transferred to Love Street and Chester College Schools. The school remained in council use until 1973 when it moved to new premises on Cheyney Road and the building was closed. The building subsequently reopened as an independent primary school called Abbey Gate School and remained in use until the school moved to new premises on Clare Avenue in 2006.