The Studio, attached cloisters and railings, King Edward VI School

The Studio, attached cloisters and railings, King Edward VI School

A school building with attached cloisters to the south and railings to the west, built for King Edward VI Grammar School in 1868–9 and designed by James Fowler. The building is constructed in red brick with stone dressings and slated roofs.

The plan follows a broad 'H' shape, comprising a central hall with entrance lobby and crosswings to the south housing facilities and to the north housing classrooms.

Designed in Tudor Gothic style, the single-storey building rests on a chamfered stone plinth with stone string courses throughout. The roofs are gable forms with cresting and carved stone copings, and three moulded brick stacks are present. Iron rainwater hoppers are dated 1869. The principal elevation faces west and consists of a five-bay hall with crosswings at both the south and north ends. Each bay is marked by stepped pier buttresses with stone copings and contains a large square three-light stone mullion and transom window with cushed heads and hood moulds with carved head stops. Both crosswings have a canted bay window of similar style, with a deeply moulded surround and cornice, the latter featuring bosses with carved heads including those of Archbishop Cranmer, Queen Elizabeth, Queen Victoria and others. Above is a plain brick frieze with stone coping and a lancet window with stone surround at the apex.

At the south end, the cloister shelters stone steps leading to a porch beneath a gable roof. The main entrance is at the south elevation and comprises a timber batten door with original furniture, set within a pointed arch opening.

The rear elevation is generally blind and plain in treatment, with the crosswings having small windows with stone surrounds. At the centre of the hall's rear elevation is an external stack with moulded stone and brick details.

Internally, Fowler's plan-form survives largely intact. The south crosswing retains its room divisions, panelled doors and joinery, with a quarry tile floor covering to the entrance corridor. The main hall is a lofty full-height space featuring an exposed timber arched-brace roof with quatrefoil decoration to the spandrels, the trusses resting on stone corbels with carved shield motifs. A dado rail and exposed floorboards are present. The windows have deep reveals and shallow arched heads. A memorial to a former student and a brass plaque commemorating the opening are attached to the rear wall. Two panelled doors lead to each crosswing. To the left of the doors to the south crosswing is a richly carved niche with canopy (empty). Between the doors at the north end of the hall is a stone arched niche containing a bust of Captain John Smith, the founder of Virginia who was born in Willoughby, Lincolnshire and educated at the school between 1592 and 1595. A carved inscription in a stone shield below states that the bust was made and presented to the school by Major General Baden-Powell, founder of the Scout Association, in 1906. In the north crosswing are two former classrooms: the front room to the west is lit by the canted bay window, and the rear room is lit by a raised lantern with replaced glazing. The rooms have a timber cornice carved with quatrefoils. A fireplace with a carved stone four-centred arch surround lies in the south-west corner of the rear room. A roller shuttered opening to the kitchen has been inserted into the north wall of the building, with a door leading to the rear.

A cloister with a pent roof supported on timber posts and brackets is attached to the south end of the building, in front of the entrance steps, and turns 90 degrees to meet the rear elevation of the Bedehouses. The complex is enclosed to the west by a low brick wall capped with stones on which iron railings are mounted. The double vehicular iron entrance gates are 20th century in date.

A finely carved figure of King Edward VI in a canopied niche at the north end of Bedehouses overlooks The Studio's playground, but is included in the list entry for the Bedehouses.