Shrewsbury School Main Building

SHREWSBURY

SJ4812SE ASHTON ROAD 653-1/14/83 (North side (off)) 19/09/72 Shrewsbury School Main Building

GV II

School building, originally Coram's Foundling Hospital. 1765 by Thomas Farnolls Pritchard, adapted 1878-1882 by Sir Arthur Blomfield for use for Shrewsbury School. Brick with Welsh slate roof. EXTERIOR: 3 storeys with attic, 13-window range, 2-3-3-3-2 with advanced outer and central sections. Symmetrical about both axes. Central entrance block of 3 bays with central pediment over doorway, and rusticated brick quoins. Paired pilasters each side of round-arched doorway, balconette with balustraded parapet to central light of tripartite window over door which has enriched segmentally-pedimented entablature. Steep pediment with oculus flanked by balustraded parapet. Windows in flanking ranges are 20-pane sashes in moulded architraves with pedimented heads to first-floor windows in central and outer bays, and in centre of flanking ranges. Advanced outer bays have hipped roofs, the parapet continuing across the elevation. and dormer windows in roof, with alternately segmental and triangular pediments. Copper cupola with clock in centre of hipped roof, which is surmounted by balustrading. End wall stacks. Central staircase with cantilevered stone stairs and cast-iron balustrade. Subsidiary stairs in outer bays. INTERIOR: divided as a series of small, plain rooms, possibly reflecting its origins as hospital. HISTORICAL NOTE: the building was in use as a foundling hospital only until c1772, and had a variety of subsequent uses including woollen factory and asylum, until it was acquired by the school in 1882. (The Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Shropshire: Harmondsworth: 1858-).

Listing NGR: SJ4859512074