Charter Street Mission (formerly Charter Street Ragged School and Working Girls' Home)

Charter Street Mission is a former working girls' home, ragged school and mission hall built in two phases, in 1892 and 1900, designed by the architectural firm Maxwell and Tuke. The building is constructed of red brick with slate roofs and reinforced concrete floors. It has a trapezoidal plan arranged around a central courtyard, which is now infilled at ground level.

The building occupies a highly visible corner site adjacent to a railway viaduct. The Dantzic Street frontage, dating from 1900, faces north-west and rises to three storeys. It is built in header-bond common bricks, with Flemish-bond fair-faced brick used for decorative elements including the slightly recessed upper floor below the ground-floor sill level, a two-course first-floor sill band, a ground-floor four-course lintel band, and the chimney breast. The corners are also quoined in fair-faced brick.

The main Dantzic Street frontage is four bays wide, with paired windows in each bay. The right-hand bay is wider and incorporates a corner entrance. The left-hand bay is crowned by a shouldered gable with stone copings, while the right-hand bay has a larger Flemish gable with a truncated central chimney breast. Between these gables, the eaves project with a cast-iron ogee gutter and a central downpipe, which is accommodated by the moulded terracotta sill bands of the upper two floors. The roof ridge features crested tiles, a flagpole and a small brick ventilator tower.

To the left of this frontage stands a low, single-storey modern brick infill, which is blind and has a monopitch corrugated metal roof. Set back above this is a lavatory tower, largely built in English Garden Wall bond common brickwork. This tower is separate from the main frontage but connected by a part-glazed link set back at the top floor. Its Dantzic Street elevation has a hipped roof, a top-floor window with a segmental arch and stone sill, inserted windows and grilles at lower floors, and a blocked doorway at ground floor. The right return of the tower has segmental-arched windows with stone sills to the upper three floors. The left return of the main frontage is in header bond and shows short returns of the terracotta bands.

On the main frontage, bay 1 from the left has a taking-in door at first floor, and its upper windows are taller than those in bays 2 and 3. At second floor, bay 3 is blind and features a terracotta dedication plaque with a broken semi-circular pediment, inscribed "THIS STONE WAS LAID BY THOMAS JOHNSON ON THE EXTENSION OF THE WORKING GIRLS' HOME DEC 17TH 1898". Thomas Johnson, who had been a pupil at Sharp Street Ragged School, was the master and driving force of the institution for many years. Below the sill band is a reset date plaque from the original building, bearing the date "OCTOBER 6TH 1866" and the inscription "THIS STONE RELAID 17TH DECEMBER 1898 BY THE RIGHT HONOURABLE EVELYN ASHLEY.P.C." in the upper and lower margins.

Bay 4 has taller top-floor windows flanking the chimney breast, which is corbelled and rises from the first floor. Within the gable, the chimney breast has four projecting vertical ribs. To the left of the chimney breast, breaking the second-floor sill band, is a terracotta oval oculus stair-light with stepped circumference and swan-neck pediment. The first and second floors of bay 4 are otherwise blind.

The ground-floor windows have terracotta sills and interlocking-block terracotta lintels. First-floor sills are terracotta, with segmental brick soldier heads, the upper course projecting. The second floor has segmental gauged-brick heads with terracotta console keystones and projecting aprons below the sill band. The upper floor windows have segmental gauged-brick arches. The timber windows are vertical-hung casements, mostly paired and with transoms and upper glazing bars.

The right-hand corner entrance is splayed with a terracotta surround, now painted blue. Above the lintel is a relief strapwork panel with barley-twist margins and a cornice above, with swan-neck scrolls flanked by pinnacles. Above this, the brick splay has a large semi-circular, three-stage corbel supporting a pyramidal soffit to the angle of the upper floors. The strapwork panel is inscribed "WORKING GIRLS HOME". The entrance has panelled timber double doors and an overlight with glazing bars and leaded glass surrounding a central strip of glass bulls' eyes.

The Little Nelson Street frontage is in two parts. At the left, angling away, is bay 1 with the corner entrance at the left. This is detailed similarly to the abutting Dantzic Street frontage, but the single window and stair window at ground floor have segmental brick soldier heads, the single first-floor window has a console keystone like the three second-floor windows, and the two upper-floor windows immediately below the eaves have no heads. The first-floor window has been replaced in brown plastic.

To the right, angling away, is a six-bay frontage in English Garden Wall bond. The four left-hand bays (bays 2 to 5 overall) are under projecting eaves with a cast-iron gutter, and have moulded terracotta sill bands to the first, second and third floors. Each floor is slightly set back from the one below. The roof has crested ridge tiles and a lead ventilator cap. Bays 2 to 4 each have one narrow window at each of the four floors, with stone sills to the ground floor, and flat gauged-brick heads with terracotta keystones to the ground, first and second floors. Ground and first-floor windows are plastic replacements. Bay 5 is wider, with paired entrances under stacked three-light windows, the middle two floors having segmental brick arches with terracotta keystones.

The two symmetrical right-hand bays (6 and 7) are under a large Flemish gable with crow-steps. The bays are separated by a full-height projecting chimney breast, truncated at the top of the gable. These bays are of three tall storeys, each with two windows at ground and first floor, and a timber three-light canted oriel at second floor. The two upper floors have moulded terracotta sill bands and are slightly set back from the ground floor. The chimney breast has a stone panel at first-floor level, inscribed "RAGGED SCHOOL & WORKING GIRLS HOME", and above this are three projecting vertical ribs.

The Aspin Lane frontage is also in two parts. At the left are six bays of three storeys, separated by sill bands. The left-hand bay has a crow-stepped gable with terracotta 1891 datestone and copings. The pedimented entrance is at the left with a pair of windows to its right. Above are a first-floor pair and a second-floor timber canted three-light oriel. Bays 2 to 5 are identical, with paired windows to each floor. Bay 6 has another pedimented entrance with single windows above. Bays 2 to 6 are under projecting eaves with cast-iron rainwater goods, crested ridge tiles and lead ventilator cap. The upper windows are directly under the eaves. All the ground-floor windows have stone sills, and all windows at ground and first floor have flat gauged-brick heads with terracotta keystones.

To the right is a three-bay extension under a wide, crow-stepped gable, in header-bond brickwork except for fair-faced brick in Flemish bond below ground-floor sill level, and in sill bands at second and third floors, plus a third-floor transom band. The eaves line of the earlier part is continued by a moulded terracotta band. The upper two floors each have three windows, closer-spaced in the gable, with segmental header-brick arches. The ground and first floor each have three-light windows in bay 7 (lighting the club rooms), with segmental header-brick arches. Bay 8 has two toilet windows at ground floor and a two-light stair window above, under a moulded terracotta band which continues on the far side of the adjacent bay's first-floor window. Bay 8, the caretaker's house, is framed by pilasters rising to a terracotta band and cornice above the first floor. The windows at ground and first floor each have four lights with two mullions and a transom with smaller panes above, and a segmental arch to the first floor. All windows have stone sills.

The north wall comprises a four-bay, four-storey section under a duo-pitched roof with crested ridge; a blind four-storey wall set back on the ridge line of the four-bay section; and the largely blind north wall of the lavatory tower, set back again but with some modern infill in the angle at ground floor. The four-bay section is in header-bond brick. The two upper floors are slightly wider than the lower two, with brick corbelling, and each has four windows with stone sills. The first floor has a single-light window over the caretaker's house entrance, and the entrance has a window to its right. The lavatory tower has two stair windows.

The interior courtyard walls have timber windows above the hipped roof of the infants' room, with simple stone sills and segmental heads. The east wall of the Dantzic Street range is clad in white glazed tiles to reflect light and has two truncated chimney stacks rising from the eaves. The projecting coal-hoist tower also pierces the eaves.

The interior plan-form and principal spaces survive well, albeit with some minor subdivision and removal of historic partitions. Original joinery such as panelled doors and skirting survives well throughout, and there are some remains of the gas lighting system. The 1892 phase on Aspin Lane has original entrance doors, cupboard and glazed partitions at the foot of the stairs. The mission hall has a coffered ceiling and retains its stage with balustrade, missing some balusters. The school hall has moulded joinery around the ceiling beams and the original librarian's office. Some boys' classrooms retain their timber and glazed partitions and the associated toilet cubicles with plank doors.

The girls' living spaces remain, including the timber stairs from the first floor with a suspended gas light, the sitting room with its three large bay windows, and the dormitory with its exposed roof structure, although the cubicles have been removed and a small foyer inserted at the northern end. The infants' room in the courtyard retains its roof structure although this is externally covered and has a suspended ceiling below it. The office on Little Nelson Street retains its vaulted brick ceiling, and there is an original chimneypiece.

In the northern extension, the girls' playroom has some partitioning for the current school use. Within the 1892 building, the timber stair of 1900 from the dormitory up to the playroom survives with some alteration. The classrooms below the playroom survive but have lost their chimneypieces. The club rooms retain dados and chimneypieces in glazed tiles.

The western extension workrooms now have modern kitchen fittings. The former kitchen, partly within the 1892 building, retains a cast-iron range in its 1900 extension. The laundry room has tiled walls with modern partitioning. The main girls' home entrance has panelled doors, a floor mosaic, and timber partition with leaded and coloured glass. The mosaic floor continues beyond the partition into the stairwell, where the timber matron's stair survives with simple stick balusters but an elegant curving rail. The matron's accommodation is largely intact, with panelled doors, chimneypieces, fireplaces and decorative plasterwork. The upper floors retain herringbone wooden block flooring and some of the bathroom and lavatory cubicles, one retaining a cast-iron bath. The coal hoist is also in situ with its winding gear.

The basement and caretaker's house were not inspected in 2018. This entry was subject to a minor amendment on 10 September 2019.