Poppleton Road School

Poppleton Road School

Primary school built in 1903–4 by WH Brierley, restored in 1942 following bomb damage.

The building is constructed in red brick laid in English bond on a chamfered brick plinth, with orange brick used for dressings and arcading. Stone is used for quoins and doorcases. The roofs are Westmorland slate with timber bargeboarded gables, while gabled dormers have lead roofs. A brick boiler stack with moulded stone cornice and lantern topped by a tapering brick pot rises from the building.

The street front comprises a 2-storey 6-bay centre range flanked by 3-storey 4-bay ranges set back and linking to 2-storey 3-bay crosswings with open pedimented gables. The centre range and crosswings are quoined. The centre range features 6 segmental arches; on the ground floor within each arch are paired tall 15-pane sash windows with continuous sills, while on the first floor are 3-light mullioned and double transomed square latticed windows with moulded stone sills. The linking ranges are articulated by 2-storey arcades of shallow segmental brick arches with stone imposts. The inner bay to each contains a moulded doorcase with double doors and blind tympanum, approached by a flight of steps. The outer bays have squat 6-pane windows on the ground floor. On the first floor are 9-pane top hung windows with plain stone sills and flat brick arches. The second floor has two 6-pane top hung windows to each bay, each set in a segment-arched recess over a moulded stone sill band. Above are dentilled and moulded eaves cornices of brick beneath moulded stone coping. The crosswings have windows on the first floor only: 12-pane sashes with stone sills and brick arches, the centre window having a top hung transom light.

The playground front is 2 storeys with basement, arranged with windows in groups of 3, 1, 15, 1, and 3, with the centre windows on the first floor rising as half-dormers into 2-centred gabled heads. End triplets are set beneath open pedimented gables. Single-window bays are full-height round arches with prominent keyblocks; the basement and ground floor contain deeply recessed double doors, while the first floor has a round-headed small-pane window. A balcony to the ground floor door features a balustrade with a scrollwork centre panel incorporating the initials Y and C. The basement windows are squat segment-arched lights, mostly with glazing bars and some blocked. On the ground floor are tall 15-pane lights with top hung transom lights, and on the first floor the centre windows of the triplets match those described above, flanked by 12-pane lights.

Both returns are 2 storeys with 7 bays. A deep segment-arched recess in the centre contains a moulded stone doorcase with double doors and a segment-headed small-pane overlight. To one side is a 12-pane sash window, to the other are three tall 15-pane windows, all with stone sills and segmental brick arches. On the first floor, 12-pane sashes rising into half-dormers flank paired 6-pane casements, all with moulded stone sills. The north-west return towards Landing Lane has an attached boiler stack in the form of a campanile, square on plan with sunk panelled segment-headed faces and a brick corbelled stone cornice with triple keyblock. The summit is surmounted by a louvred lantern and tapering pot. External doors feature incised panels with 4-pane lights above. Integral rainwater goods of cast-iron and lead are dated on the hoppers.

The interior was not inspected during listing.