Small Heath Lower School, Learning Zone

This house, dating from 1892, was designed by Martin and Chamberlain for the Birmingham School Board. It was originally built as a master’s or caretaker's house for Waverley Road School, which stands immediately to the east, and faces south-east towards the school yard. The building is constructed of red brick with terracotta and cut and moulded brick dressings. The roof is tiled, with decorative ridge tiles, and features tall brick stacks incorporating terracotta elements. Original timber windows with sash frames remain, the upper frames containing multiple panes.

The house is a two-storey, two-bay building, with each bay topped by a gable. The upper parts of the building are decorated with a ribbed terracotta moulding. The projecting left-hand bay has a two-storey canted bay window, with a tiled hood over the upper window, and a tiled offset above the lower window. The right-hand bay has a segmental-arched window to the ground floor, and a flat-arched first-floor window, above which is a terracotta lunette with blind tracery. A small cusped window is located between the bays at first-floor level, below which is an entrance porch with a plain segmental opening that brings the doorway into the same plane as the left-hand bay. The inner doorway is a beaded round-arched opening. Alterations have been made to the right of the porch, introducing a second doorway and a ramp for access.

The south-west elevation features two gabled bays. An external stack projects against the right-hand bay, corbelled out to a wider width below the first floor. This stack includes a terracotta panel depicting a sunflower from which rise grouped shafts, initially square, then circular. To the left of the stack are coupled windows at ground-floor level, with a cinquefoil window above, and decorative terracotta to the apex of the gable. A low, lean-to brick structure, adapted in the early 21st century from a covered play-shed, is attached to the north-east of the building. The wall of the house above this extension is blank, apart from a pilaster and a small square window.

Internally, the building has seen alterations, but retains wood block floors and a significant amount of original joinery, including boarded doors and cupboards. The staircase features moulded newel posts similar to those found in the school.