Hymers College

Hymers College is a school building constructed between 1889 and 1893, designed by the architects Botterill, Son & Bilson. Further additions in matching style were made in 1897, 1907, and 1932, with an adjoining Memorial Hall added in 1923.

The main building is constructed in brick with ashlar dressings and features plain tile roofs with four side wall stacks. It is executed in the Jacobean Revival style, with decorative elements including a plinth, string courses, lintel and sill bands, shouldered coped gables with flanking piers and finials, and polychrome bands. Windows throughout are fitted with stone mullions and surrounds.

The main block rises to two storeys plus attics and comprises a 13-window range arranged in a 3:7:3 pattern. The symmetrical front features a hall flanked by projecting gabled wings, with the ground floor brought forward in line with them. The central hall has a first floor with buttresses topped with pinnacles, and contains seven Perpendicular style triple lancets with double transoms. Above this are four gabled dormers with 2-light casements, and a square clock turret topped with a gallery and a round cupola bearing an ogee lead dome and cross finial.

The ground floor has shallow buttresses and a coped parapet, with a polychrome porch featuring a segmental broken pediment, coat of arms, and a lintel bearing a Latin inscription. A round-arched entrance with keystone is flanked by strapwork panelled double doors with a glazing bar overlight. On either side of the entrance stand three cross-mullioned 3-light windows. The wings have a jettied first floor with a triple lancet flanked by double lancets, and a 3-light mullioned window with glazing bars on the floor below.

The rear elevation is symmetrical, with a projecting central gable containing two tall double lancets. On either side stand two tall gabled through-eaves dormers with triple lancets, interspersed with four cross casements of varying sizes. The floor below features two 2-light windows in the central gable flanked by six double-mullioned windows of 2 and 3 lights.

The north end features a 2-storey corridor with string courses and a coped parapet, together with two 3-light cross-mullioned windows. Below these are two similar windows of 3 and 2 lights, and a segment-arched carriage opening with a keystone. The south end contains a central through-eaves dormer with a triple lancet, flanked by single 3-light windows and three 2-light windows below. To the left is a projecting jettied gable with two double-mullioned 2-light windows and two similar windows beneath. To the right stands a square canted 2-storey projection with parapet and a 3-light mullioned window above the corridor to the Memorial Hall.

A parapeted single-storey corridor features a round-arched opening to the left and three triple lancets to the right. The Memorial Hall, executed in a similar style to the main building, has a buttressed south front with a coped parapet. Its south front displays five flat-headed triple lancets, with the central lancet being shorter. A central square porch contains a Tudor-arched doorway. The west gable has a triple lancet flanked by double lancets, all with elliptical arches and double transoms. The rear features a single-storey hipped projection with a porch.

The northern block, added in 1897, rises to two storeys across a 6-window range. It features a 3-light cross casement flanked by through-eaves dormers with triple lancets with double transoms. To the left stands a 3-light cross casement, and to the right two similar windows. The floor below contains six three-light cross casements with double transoms.

The 1907 addition to the east comprises two storeys across an 8-window range, with paired wooden glazing bar sashes and eight wooden glazing bar cross casements below, one of which has been altered and one blocked. The 1932 addition to the north-east rises to two storeys across a 14-window range, featuring a projecting gable to the left and regular fenestration with cross casements, with an off-centre pedimented doorcase below.

The interior of the main block features a central full-height open hall with an arch-braced king post roof with wind braces and traceried spandrels. On the east side stands a 2-storey arcade of seven bays with hexagonal ashlar piers with shafts and elliptical arches with fleurons. A balustraded wooden gallery runs through the arcade and is returned across each end of the hall. At each end are square 9-pane windows and doors with similar overlights on each floor. Beneath the arcade is a central moulded elliptical arch to the stairs, with a similar arch opposite containing glazed double doors. On either side are various segment-headed doors and windows.

The corridor to the Memorial Hall features moulded wooden wall panelling and a cross beam ceiling with enriched panels. A pedimented wooden war memorial panel flanked by Corinthian columns occupies this space, with side panels flanked by Corinthian pilasters and containing five bronze tablets and a coat of arms.

The Memorial Hall itself features an arch-braced king post roof with wall shafts and traceried panels. Wooden panelling extends to three-quarter height, and panelled double doors with cornices are positioned on the long sides.