Barcroft Junior School (Section Fronting Onto Lovett Street)

Barcroft Junior School (section fronting onto Lovett Street)

A boys' school with former girls' and infants' playsheds, now forming part of the Junior School. Built in 1896 by the architects Croft and Bentley of Grimsby and builder Henry Marrows, commissioned by Cleethorpes School Board. Constructed in red brick laid in English bond with sandstone ashlar and yellow brick dressings, beneath a Welsh slate roof. The building exemplifies the Arts and Crafts Northern Renaissance style.

The main range is E-shaped in plan, comprising a central two-storey five-bay cloakroom and office block with projecting side wings and a rear extension. A further wing to the rear left contains the former cookery room, caretaker's room, and playsheds. The central range is linked by a recessed corridor section to tall single-storey three-bay gabled wings.

The central range sits on a chamfered plinth with a moulded ashlar sill stringcourse and a two-course yellow brick flush impost band running across both floors. The ground floor features two-light windows beneath yellow brick segmental arches with three fluted and corniced ashlar keystones, flanked by single-light windows set beneath keyed segmental brick arches. The main entrance to the right has a segmental-headed opening leading to an internal porch. The opening is framed by moulded brick jambs below and an ashlar upper section with a triple-keyed moulded cambered arch. Above this sits a panel bearing the relief inscription "BOYS", flanked by corbelled pilasters with fluted and panelled shafts, foliate dosserets, and fluted brackets. A frieze alternates rosettes with fluted panels, and a moulded cornice with finials crowns the composition, though the left finial is missing.

The first floor of the central bay displays a large cross window and an ornate ashlar relief panel set in an oval medallion and flanked by scrolled foliage, positioned beneath a triple-keyed brick basket arch. The central key supports a yellow brick pilaster rising to a coped shaped gable with carved finials at the centre and sides. The flanking side bays contain pairs of windows beneath keyed segmental brick arches; some upper window panels retain original leaded stained glass. The range terminates in a moulded brick eaves cornice and hipped roof.

The recessed flanking corridor sections are articulated with sill stringcourses and windows set beneath cambered brick arches, topped by moulded brick eaves cornices. Each side wing features a tall central cross window beneath an ashlar relief panel and triple-keyed brick basket arch, flanked by a pair of lower windows beneath keyed segmental brick arches. The central window is flanked by corbelled brick pilasters, with a similar pilaster carried by the central keystone; these pilasters rise to a coped shaped gable with carved finials. All windows are recessed and fitted with glazing bars, wooden architraves, and moulded mullions and transoms. The roofs carry ventilator ridge tiles and moulded finials.

The left and right returns each feature a shaped gable to the rear cross range with fenestration and decoration matching the street front, and a tall half dormer set beneath a chamfered ashlar lintel and hipped roof. The left return includes a keyed segmental-headed doorway.

The former cookery room to the rear left presents gabled north and south fronts with a tripartite window to the north and moulded brick raking cornices. The single-storey six-bay playshed range to the left contains a single-bay caretaker's room adjoining the cookery room on the right, with an open section to the left. A central spine wall divides the former girls' and infants' playshed to the north from the boys' playshed to the south. The north side opens as a five-bay arcade of cast iron columns, while the south side features a similar four-bay opening with a walled-in bay to the left containing a round-headed doorway.

The interior classrooms display moulded sill stringcourses and roofs with arch braces carried on fluted stone corbels. Doors are set within architraves decorated with roundel ornament.

The school was built to accommodate 360 boys and stands as the first school constructed for Cleethorpes School Board, which was founded in 1894. The Girls' and Infants' sections, facing Barcroft Street, form a separate entry. This is a noteworthy and unusually complete example of a late 19th-century board school, executed to a notably high standard of design and workmanship.