Wirral Education Centre

BIRKENHEAD

SJ3288NW CONWAY STREET 789-1/13/60 (North East side) 28/03/74 Wirral Education Centre (Formerly Listed as: CONWAY STREET (North side) Conway Secondary School)

II

School. Dated 1903. By T. W. Cubbon. Brick with gold terracotta dressings and Westmorland slate roof. Free classical style. Long 3-storeyed 18-bay building composed of a series of 7 blocks, loosely symmetrical about a central projecting entrance block. This central block has doorway with banded pilasters and balcony over carried by Caryatids. Giant segmental pediment above, over Venetian window. Mansard roof and wood turret with lead octagonal cap. Paired windows on each floor flanking this entrance, and terracotta panels with raised lettering reading "Birkenhead School Board Higher Elementary School". Symmetrical flanking blocks each of 3 bays with segmentally arched windows and banded brick and terracotta detailing to first storey. Second storey articulated by pilasters dividing the windows. Each block terminated by wide angle pilasters with terracotta panels incorporating monograms and terminating in turrets with statues in niches. The rest of the building is articulated as a series of elements, the varied fenestration expressing internal plan, all enriched with a similar range of decorative detail (eg the large 1st-floor round-headed window under segmental pediment breaking the cornice, to left). Return elevation to Burlington Street is similarly detailed, and incorporates the original Girls Entrance. Boys entrance towards the left of the main front.

Listing NGR: SJ3218688784