Arnot St Mary Primary School

Arnot St Mary Primary School

School, formerly Board School. Built 1883–91, with 20th-century alterations and extensions. Designed by architect Edmund Kirby and constructed by Joshua Henshaw and Sons, builders, both of Liverpool. Built for the Walton-On-The-Hill School Board. The building is constructed in red Ruabon and brown brickwork with cut and moulded brick, ashlar sandstone and terracotta dressings and detailing. It features coped gables, tall brick chimneys with corbelled caps and Welsh slate roof coverings.

The school occupies a triangular site between Arnot Street and the cutting for the former London and North-Western Railway. The principal ranges were developed in several closely-spaced phases along almost the full length of Arnot Street, with wings extending northwards that enclose three yard and playground areas.

On the Arnot Street elevation, the phase development runs east to west. A long single-storey link connects to the former school board office at the west end of the street. At the east end is an arched entrance below a gablet. The principal range extends to the right with eleven bays arranged in heights of 2–2–2–3–2 storeys, with the central bays of three storeys topped by a hipped roof end carrying twin attic dormers that extend through the eaves. Behind these rises a tall fleche or bell-tower. Both the west end gable and east end hipped gable incorporate canted oriels with mullioned and transomed lights. To either side of the 3-storey bays are tall hipped dormers that extend through the eaves, a pair to the west and three separate windows to the east. Windows throughout are of 2 and 3-light mullion and transom form, with moulded brick strings to heads and sills. Further east, a short single-storey link connects to a single-storey triple-gabled central range dating from 1891. Each gable features a wide 7-light transomed window beneath a shallow pointed arch, each light with a segmental-arched head. Terracotta hood moulds crown the arches, and above are raised diaper work to the gable apexes and upper parts of the walling between gables. A further low linking range connects with the main entrance, contained within a 2-storey range formerly the headmaster's office. This comprises two bays with a gablet to the left, incorporating a 3-light transomed window above a shallow pointed doorway with a planked door. To the right is a 2-storey, eleven-bay east range with wide gables to each end and shallow pilasters defining the bays. Shallow segmental-arched window openings throughout feature stone sills on moulded brick strings and a moulded brick storey band. A tall pointed arch marks the entrance at the east end. Gable apexes are decorated with blind triple lights.

The rear elevations show a west range with a long 3 and 2-storey L-shaped wing extending north and then east from the 3-storey section of the frontage range. To the east, a hipped end to the west range adjoins the rear of the triple-gabled centre range, which has a ridge running east-west and a central gable with twin 3-light arch-headed windows to the north elevation. An entrance below the headmaster's office provides access to a covered area below a metal beam supporting the upper floor. A staircase to the east of the entrance, supported on ornamental cast-iron brackets, leads to a first-floor covered gallery connecting the frontage range to a double-pile rear range extending northward almost to the rear site boundary. This rear range is 2-storey with a wide central gable and flanking gabled dormers to the west side and triple gabled centre to the east elevation, with hipped roofs to end bays. The rear of the east frontage range carries a first-floor gallery on its western half and returns northwards at the east end, linking with open-fronted shelters defining the eastern boundary of the school site.

Interior spaces throughout the school have been incrementally altered, but much original fabric remains as evidence of the original functions of different parts of the complex, including staircases, hearths and ceiling beams. The ceiling beams were designed to carry moveable partitions by means of which classrooms could be subdivided or enlarged according to need.

The complex at Arnot Street is one of the largest surviving examples of Board school provision in Liverpool. The original plans for the site show separate provision for boys and girls, and what appears to be a crèche facility adjacent to a sewing classroom and cloakroom for girl pupils. The school was the principal site of the Walton Board and also housed the Board's office building at the west end of Arnot Street. It forms a group with Rainbow House, formerly the Walton-On-The-Hill School Board Office.

This is an architecturally distinguished and spatially complex Board School developed between 1883 and 1891. Designed by one of Liverpool's most important 19th-century architects and representing one of the largest surviving Board Schools in the city, Arnot Street School demonstrates the very high quality of school buildings provided for Liverpool's rapidly-expanding population in the late 19th century.