Halifax High School

Halifax High School

School built in 1882 with additions in 1894 and 1977, designed by Richard Horsfall. The building is constructed in coursed dressed stone with slate roofs, standing over two storeys plus basement.

The main structure was built on a site sloping from west to east. The ground floor features a north-south axial central corridor with classrooms on either side. The 1894 block is positioned at 45 degrees to the south and joined to the main building by an octagonal staircase tower. The first floor contains an assembly hall with end staircases. The basement houses a covered playground that has since been enclosed.

The main facade faces east. The lower ground floor presents a 12-bay covered playground with arches, now blocked, each bay fitted with a small-paned metal-framed window. A string course and batter mark the ground floor level. The ground floor has four bays, each containing a 2-over-6 mullioned and transomed window defined by pilasters and topped by a full dormer with a round window. These are separated by pairs of transomed 4-light windows, with single windows at each end. The top light of each window features decorative leading and a swivel opening.

At each end of the main block stands a three-storey block containing boys and girls entrances. Each floor has a central 8-light window matching the main block's style, flanked by 4-light windows. Above the first floor, a full dormer similar to those on the main block sits within a hipped roof. Between these blocks runs a continuous row of wooden-framed clerestorey windows above the ground floor roof, with four evenly spaced half-dormers.

The two-storey blocks at each building end have different functions: the north end forms the main entrance while the south end links to the 1894 extension. The north entrance block features a ground floor door approached by six steps, flanked and topped by windows divided by decorative pilasters, with a dormer above. Three windows to each side match the main front pattern, and small windows light the lower ground floor beneath a hipped roof. A 3-over-9 mullioned and transomed window appears to each side.

The 1894 wing is three storeys tall with a linking octagonal staircase tower. It comprises four bays and a two-bay return towards the north-east, executed in a similar overall style to the original with hipped roofs over grouped windows and dormers, though rather plainer in execution.

The interior ground floor features the main entrance at the north end, leading to the central corridor running the full length of the building with classrooms on either side. Many original doors survive, some with original door furniture. Classrooms were originally subdivided to form cloakrooms and storage areas with separate doors; most of these doors remain, though few of the subdivisions are intact. Original stairs at each end feature wooden handrails and iron balusters.

The first floor contains a classroom at each end and an assembly hall occupying the space between. This hall is lit by clerestorey windows from each side with panelling below and open trusses above. The basement contains a teaching room at each end, a former covered playground now enclosed as toilet areas, and at the south end, former caretaker's quarters now unused with one partition wall removed. The 1894 block contains classrooms along one side of a corridor on the ground and lower ground floors, and science laboratories on the first floor. A linking corridor to 20th-century buildings on the west side replaces a former girls toilet area. All glazing remains original and the layout has changed little.

The school was built in 1882 by the Halifax School Board in response to the 1870 Education Act, initially conceived as a boys school but extended in the planning stages to include a girls school. The cost was £6,000, considerably exceeding the initial estimate of £2,000 to £2,500. Girls and boys occupied opposite building ends, separated by a glass partition across the central corridor with separate entrances and playgrounds. Pupils paid 9 pence weekly, with extra charges for practical chemistry.

The school's popularity necessitated a new wing in 1894 to accommodate more boys. In 1895 the school became free to Halifax children, but a 1900 court case determined that the 1870 Act covered only elementary education. The Halifax School Board bore the costs until the 1902 Education Act introduced universal secondary education.

Halifax High School is of special architectural interest as a carefully-designed late 19th-century board school, one of a small number intended to provide secondary education. The complex makes maximum use of its sloping site and was executed with confidence, resulting in a building that has continued substantially in its original form for over 120 years.