Schoolhouse At St Peters School

The schoolhouse, part of St Peter’s School, was originally built in 1838 and extended around 1900. The design is by John Harper for the original building, with later work by WH Brierley. It is constructed of grey brick in Flemish bond, with a moulded stone plinth, ashlar quoins and dressings, and brick stacks with stone cornices, all topped with a slate roof.

The building consists of a projecting three-bay block to the left, connected at right angles to a three-bay range, with a further two-bay link to the Hall range. The projecting block features a central porch with a four-centred arched opening, flanked by weathered buttresses and a recessed panelled door. To the left of the porch is a gabled bay with slender, embattled, octagonal turrets. The central part of this bay is a shallow, two-story square bay surmounted by an embattled parapet with four mullioned and transomed windows on each floor. An attic window, deeply recessed in a splayed surround with a two-centred head and hoodmould, is also present. To the right is a full-height canted bay with a six-light window on the ground floor, four-light windows on the first and attic floors; the ground and first floor windows are sashes, with the ground floor transomed, while the attic windows are casements, all set in hollow-chamfered ashlar surrounds. Upper floor windows over the porch are single lights in moulded ashlar surrounds. Hollow-moulded strings run along the building over the ground floor windows, beneath the first floor, beneath the attic window sill and gable coping. The gable and canted bay are finished with moulded copings. The three-bay range to the right has three-light ground floor windows with transoms and upper floor windows consisting of a pair of narrow three-pane lights over sashes, and three pairs of narrow three-pane lights in the attic, all with ashlar surrounds, quoined on the ground floor. A hollow-moulded eaves course extends from the projecting block. The linking bays have a board door beneath a flat canopy between a fixed light window to the right and a five-light clerestory above; a similar five-light window is on the first floor. The left bay has paired twelve-pane sashes on each floor and moulded and corbelled brick eaves courses beneath a plain parapet. The left return front shows a gabled section with mullioned and transomed sash windows.

The interior of the schoolhouse was not inspected. The building was originally constructed as a proprietary school by a company formed by leading York citizens. In 1844, it was purchased by the Dean and Chapter and amalgamated with St Peter’s School.