King Edward VII Upper School

This is a large and ambitious Wesleyan Proprietary grammar school, now an upper school, completed in 1837-38. Designed by William Flockton for the Wesleyan Methodist community, it has undergone alterations in the early and late 20th century. The building is constructed of ashlar with hipped and gabled slate roofs, featuring two ridge stacks and a single side wall stack. It is executed in a Classical Revival style.

The exterior features a rusticated basement, a string course and sillband, an eaves cornice, and a blocking course. It has a 25-window range over two storeys plus a basement. The windows are predominantly glazing bar sashes. A projecting, pedimented centre provides seven windows, supported by eight giant Corinthian columns and elaborate divided steps flanked by low walls. Within the portico are 12-pane sashes on both floors, a corniced doorcase, glazed double doors with overlight, and additional 12-pane sashes in the basement. Square projections at each end incorporate angle pilasters and are fronted by pedimented porticos with four Corinthian columns and three windows; the basement level of these projections contains a central double door flanked by 12-pane sashes. The returns are plain. The symmetrical rear elevation features a pedimented central projection, flanked by two-storey wings with three windows each. Beyond these are hipped wings with central round-headed windows flanked by tall 12-pane sashes, and further pedimented wings, also with three windows and angle pilasters.

The interior features a central, pilastered entrance hall with side passages defined by eight wooden Corinthian columns and a modillion cross beam ceiling. A doorway with an enriched cornice on brackets is positioned to the right, and a cantilever dogleg stone stair with a cast-iron balustrade and ramped scrolled handrail is located to the left. Opposite the entrance is the former chapel, now an assembly hall, with glazed screens and doorways. This space contains a panelled cross beam ceiling, a semi-octagonal gallery resting on round piers, and a semicircular arch with flanking pilasters and a keystone, housing the organ on the gallery. Further features include fielded six-panel doors, and open well concrete stairs with iron balustrades at either end of the corridor.

The school was originally built by the local Wesleyan community, led by Samuel Dousland Waddy, as the Wesleyan Proprietary Grammar School in competition with Sheffield Collegiate School. The two schools amalgamated in 1884.