Art And Technical School

Former Art and Technical School, now Morecambe Community Education Centre

This is a former Art and Technical School built in 1912, designed by Henry Littler, the County Architect, and constructed by J Hatch & Sons of Lancaster at a cost of £14,000. The building is executed in Baroque style, using glazed red Accrington brick with cream stone dressings and a Lakeland slate roof. It comprises three storeys including a basement level.

The plan forms an irregular rectangle with the main entrance positioned at the south-east end, leading to a spine corridor with rooms arranged to either side on all three floors. Stairs are located to the left of the entrance hall. The roof features a classical cupola on the ridge towards the front, topped with a weather vane depicting the ship of knowledge, and two smaller cupolas towards the rear. Several tall chimney stacks with stone bands at the top punctuate the roofline. The rainwater goods are largely cast iron, with some hopper heads bearing a rose motif and others displaying the date. The site is surrounded by railings with Art Nouveau design, a design repeated internally and on balcony railings.

The main entrance front on Poulton Road features a shallow flight of steps leading to a porch with a round-headed arch opening, surrounded by ashlar Gibbs surround with stone and brick banding to the sides. A balcony above is furnished with iron railings. The main block of three storeys displays three windows at first floor level and a keyed Diocletian window within a dentilated pedimented gable above. Windows throughout are 24-panes with banded stone and brick lintels and brick aprons to ground and first floors; those at basement level have segmental arches. First floor windows are divided by banded pilasters, which are repeated as quoin strips to either side. Two-storey blocks to each side (comprising basement and ground floor) contain 12-pane windows on each floor matching the main block, with a brick parapet above an ashlar string course.

The north-east elevation rises three storeys except at the east corner where it drops to two storeys. Windows follow the pattern established on the south-east elevation with some variations. A three-window central block is defined by brick pilasters and topped with a dentilated segmental open pediment containing a keyed oculus. To the right are two further three-window blocks defined by pilasters; the first floors have three stepped windows followed by a single large window, with a raised roof line above the larger windows. To the left of the central block is a single-window block with a first-floor window having a segmental arched top, then dropping to two storeys. A keyed oculus appears at the side of the three-storey section. The south-west elevation is similar to the north-east, but features more regular fenestration to the rear and larger windows in the right-hand three-storey block, which contains the main staircase.

Internally, the porch leads through panelled external doors with glass-panelled surround (including some leaded glass) to a half-tiled entrance lobby. The staircase with wooden rail and balusters rises from here to the first floor, while a door with glass panel and semi-circular fanlight above provides access to the basement. Double glass-panelled doors with glass panels to either side and above open to the main corridor. This corridor, with rooms off to each side, is tiled to half height with glass-panelled screens dividing the rooms and half-glazed doors retaining original door furniture.

The first floor has a spinal corridor with parquet flooring and roof lights, with finely glazed fanlights above doors; one door is a later replacement. Classrooms, some subdivided with suspended ceilings, are otherwise largely intact. Two retain original fireplaces: one in the south corner with a wood and tile surround and narrow grate, the other in the room above the entrance lobby with a tiled surround. This latter room opens to the balcony via French windows. Further stairs lead up to the attic and cupola. The basement follows a similar style to the ground floor. Some modern adaptations have been made to accommodate disabled access.

The school opened on 2 October 1912 and functioned as the Art and Technical School until the outbreak of the First World War, when it was requisitioned for military use. It returned to civilian use in 1919, with the basement and ground floor becoming a Grammar School. The school gradually expanded to occupy the whole building, remaining there until a new school was constructed in 1938. The building subsequently reverted to further education provision and was transferred to the ownership of Lancaster & Morecambe College of Further Education. At the time of listing, the building faced threatened closure and disposal.

The building is of special architectural interest as a particularly well-preserved example of Edwardian Baroque educational architecture, representing a specialist Art and Technical institution built by an educational authority clearly committed to investing in high-quality educational provision.