Margaret Beavan Special School

Margaret Beavan Special School

A school building, formerly a villa named Eddisbury, dated 1884. Designed by J. Francis Doyle, architect of Liverpool. The building is constructed in smooth red brick with sandstone dressings, tall clustered shaft chimney stacks, and a Westmorland slate roof laid to diminishing courses. The architectural style is Free Renaissance.

The building has an irregular linear plan, with the main range extending north-east to south-west and a small wing extending south-westwards to form an L-shaped layout.

The north-east front elevation comprises six bays across two storeys and attics, with an advanced off-centre entrance bay. The doorway is set back within an open porch supported by paired Tuscan columns rising from a tall plinth, with a wide porch canopy featuring a railed balustrade. Double three-panel doors are positioned beneath a semi-circular fanlight within a moulded surround with strapwork enrichment. Above the doorway canopy, set back, is a tall three-light mullioned window flanked by paired pilasters supporting a moulded cornice band. An attic gablet with segmental pediment crowns this feature. The left-hand end has an advanced gable containing a tall ground floor four-light mullioned window, with three-light windows to upper floors. To the right and left of the entrance are recessed bays with wide crenellations to the parapet. To the right of the set-back entrance is a gabled bay with an oriel window to the first floor above a three-light window. The end bay sets back at attic storey level. The right-hand end return contains secondary stair windows, with a set-back service bay at the right-hand end.

The rear south-west elevation displays the main range with advanced bays at positions one and five. The left-hand bay features a wide Dutch gable and 1:2:1 proportioned windows to ground and first floors, separated by narrow pilasters. Set-back centre bays contain a centre doorway with four-centred arch-headed surround, now enclosed within a late twentieth-century covered way. Above the doorway is a stepped four-light mullion and transom stair window, flanked by two and three-light windows to each floor. An advanced canted two-storey bay window with crenellated parapet occupies bay five, with a gabled dormer set above. A lower two-bay service range to the left connects via a twentieth-century covered way to a hipped roofed single-storey range extending south-westwards, with an advanced wide centre bay altered in the late twentieth century with insertion of glazed double doors. The south-west gable has been remodelled.

The interior retains significant original features. A spacious stair hall has square panelled walls with a substantial turned baluster stair, moulded handrail, and carved newel posts with elaborate finials. Wainscot panelling flanks the staircase walls. One room with a canted bay window displays elaborate ribbed ceiling plaster and a sculpted plaster frieze. A marble surround with decorative tilework surrounds the hearth, and a sculpted plaster overmantel with broken pediment is positioned above. The south-west end of the main range contains a panelled room with a panelled inglenook housing a massive stone hearth surround with carved mantle cornice and carved heads to the jambs. Other rooms retain original fittings, including stone hearth surrounds, decorative hearth tilework, and timber panelling.

Architect J. Francis Doyle worked with Norman Shaw on the White Star Shipping Line Offices in Liverpool and designed the Royal Insurance Building on North John Street, Liverpool. Eddisbury represents one of his more modest suburban projects, designed for the Cunningham family.

The building underwent late twentieth-century alterations and additions. It forms a group with the entrance lodge at No 20 Haymans Green and boundary walls, gatepiers, and a wall post box.