Elm Street School (County Primary School)

Elm Street School, also known as Middleton County Primary School, was built between 1908 and 1910 by Edgar Wood and J. Henry Sellers. The building is constructed of brick with stone dressings and concrete roofs. The design centres around a nine-bay hall with towers at each end, and cloisters extending forward to meet Elm Street on both sides, enclosing a formal garden and a suite of offices with a concave single-story facade. Parallel classroom ranges are located beyond the cloisters, with a long range adjoining the hall to the rear. The building is compactly planned along formal lines.

The hall features nine round-arched windows with impost blocks and keystones to both the front and rear elevations. A hipped roof is concealed behind a coped parapet that steps above a recessed brick panel in each bay; this detail is repeated elsewhere on the building. The towers, one on each side, are prominent features with stone top stages. The cross-vaulted cloisters have entrances from Elm Street, framed by rusticated segmental arches and banded corner pilasters. Some arches have been blocked, and only one set of cast-iron gates remains. The concaved office front displays flat-faced stone mullion windows, though many leaded casements have been removed, flanking a central pair of double doors. The classroom ranges, to the sides and rear (6 and 21 bays respectively), have segmental-arched windows with stone sills, and are articulated by advanced bays featuring a higher parapet level. Later additions have been made to the left and right sides of the building.

Inside, many original features remain, including doors and a moulded plaster ceiling in the hall. The school was designed to establish new standards of hygiene in education, and was the first municipal school in Middleton, alongside Durnford Street School. The building demonstrates advanced technical and architectural features, particularly the use of reinforced concrete which allowed for greater flexibility in planning.