Gower Street School (Former Cottage Hospital), Telford

Gower Street School (Former Cottage Hospital), Telford

A former cottage hospital opened in 1873, which was converted to a school around 1879. The ward ranges were subsequently extended between 1882 and 1902.

The building is constructed of red brick laid in Flemish bond with stone dressings and a tiled roof with lead flashings. The plan comprises a projecting central section of two storeys, flanked by single-storey pavilion wings to the north and south.

The eastern road front is symmetrical, with the two-storey central portion occupying three bays. At ground level, a projecting entrance porch features an arched portal flanked by buttresses with offsets, stone dressings and tumbled brickwork. Above this rises a gabled dormer containing a two-light mullioned window with stone dressings. A plinth with offset and a cogged band run below the eaves around the building. Sash windows with stone surrounds occupy the ground floor on either side, with hipped dormer windows containing casements above. The hipped roof carries cast-iron cresting to its ridge, and a bellcote (presumably added when the building became a school) crowns the central gable. Beyond these are ranges of four mullioned and transomed windows, followed by paired gables, each containing a pair of tall lancet lights. Triangular vents with cusped timber surrounds sit on the roof. The north and south ends each have half-hipped roofs and three lancet lights. The rear elevation features the two-storey central projecting pavilion with an L-shaped single-storey wing projecting at right angles, complete with bargeboards, a porthole window, an iron finial to the gable end, and a projecting square bay window to the south side. Ward and classroom wings project at either side in three bays with mullioned and transomed windows, separated by projecting square chimney flues (since decapitated). Later classroom extensions continue this pattern. Small lean-to additions at either end serve as entrance lobbies. A chimney stack at the north end survives to near full height. An outbuilding of unclear purpose stands nearby and was not internally inspected at the time of survey.

The northern ward interior survives largely intact, featuring timber trusses with arched braces and wrought-iron ties rising from stone corbels. The roof is panelled with central octagonal ventilation outlets to each bay centre. A deep frieze carved with quatrefoils runs across the top of the walls. Lower walls are covered with vertical pine boarding, and the west wall contains two fireplaces with deeply-chamfered stone surrounds. The south ward appears largely similar, though its roof is mostly concealed by a suspended ceiling; corbels, lower timbers and stone fire surrounds remain visible. The added classrooms at the far north and south ends repeat the ward interior pattern, with similar timber roof trusses, iron ties, chamfered stone fire surrounds and mullioned and transomed windows. The central pavilion, which housed treatment rooms and medical staff quarters, appears little altered since the building's conversion to school use. At the time of survey in December 2013, recent vandalism including theft of roof lead had caused water penetration and ceiling collapse at upper levels, and joinery including the staircase balustrade, doors and windows had sustained damage.