The Bordesley Centre

The Bordesley Centre comprises a Board School complex built in stages between 1883 and 1929, constructed of red brick with terracotta-moulded brick and stone dressings. The buildings have tiled roofs with decorative ridge tiles and brick stacks, and distinctive ventilation towers topped with slated spires. Most windows in the historic sections retain their original timber frames or faithful replacements.

The complex consists of two principal blocks on a rectangular alignment: the former boys' school of 1883 to the north, and the larger girls' school of 1890 to the south. A wing of 1910 extends eastwards from the southern end of the 1883 building, with a later 20th-century extension to its south. A second 1910 extension projects from the south-west corner of the boys' school. An addition of 1929 extends at an angle from the south end of the girls' school building. The former caretaker's house, built separately in 1883 to the west of the school, is now joined to the north-east end of the girls' school building.

Exterior

The gradual accumulation of buildings has created a composition of great variety, unified by the free Gothic style characterising the principal buildings and the consistent use of materials and distinctive architectural and decorative features.

The earliest structure, the former boys' school, is two storeys high. Its north end is marked by an octagonal ventilation tower topped by a slated spire with lucarnes and weathervane above a timber-framed bell stage. Below this stands a two-storey rounded stair tower with a pyramidal roof, ringed by tall trefoil-headed windows. Set within the negative north-west corner is a pointed doorway entrance, its tympanum containing three pointed openings now filled with fretwork decoration. The gable of the north end was raised and enlarged in 1891 to provide extra classroom accommodation. On the western street frontage, the ground floor has pointed-arched windows linked by hood-moulds. At first-floor level, the hall is lit by triplets of lancet windows in stone frames topped by gables with terracotta apex panels, the projecting central gable displaying the arms of Edward VI in a roundel surrounded by circular lights. A sexfoil above two lancets lights the northern end of the hall. The remaining fenestration consists of triplets of square- and pointed-arched windows with stone heads.

The former girls' school is also two-storeyed but slightly taller than the earlier building. It has a ventilation tower similar to that on the boys' school—lacking lucarnes but with an additional section of timber open work at the apex of the spire—rising towards the centre of the ridge. The girls' school is more richly decorated than the boys' school, with particularly lavish use of terracotta in the west elevation. The west-facing entrance porch to the north of the main range has a shouldered-arched doorway within a pointed opening with Edward VI's arms in the tympanum, below a hood-mould with head-stops, the whole surmounted by a crocketed gable; above this is a pointed window of plate tracery. The main range, which also has a first-floor hall to the west, has six pairs of pointed windows with shallow buttresses separating the bays. The two central bays are emphasised, each having a crocketed gable with arms over the ground floor, and above, a composition of windows with geometrical tracery crowned by a large roundel. Rose windows to the north and south elevations also light the hall. A gabled block projects westwards from the south-west corner with windows in triplets topped by octofoils. An octagonal stack with a complex cap rises against the south elevation, with blocked windows to the left. The long east elevation of the girls' school is less ornate than the west, with triplets of windows beneath high gables, the windows separated by buttresses.

The former boys' and girls' schools originally had a narrow link, now removed. The area between the buildings, at the junction with the eastern 1910 block, is enclosed by an early 21st-century glass structure rising through two storeys. Within this is a doorway at the south end of the 1883 building, with a bell inscribed 'Boys School'. The 1910 wing is plainer, with the majority of windows being rectangular but featuring some restrained Gothic detailing, notably the plate-traceried stone gables to the eastern range. This block has a basement with pointed segmental-arched openings. The block of the same date at the south-west corner of the boys' school has comparable detailing to the western gable end. The 1927 extension to the south end of the girls' school is yet more restrained in style, but the western elevation features the distinctive triplet of pointed windows linked by a hood-mould beneath a gable, with this upper floor corbelled out. The later 20th-century flat-roofed extensions to the east of the school are extremely plain.

The two-storeyed former caretaker's house, now joined to the north-west end of the former girls' school with its south elevation forming a right angle with the entrance porch, has a canted bay to the left and to the right a tripartite window with a single window above, surmounted by a gable breaking the roof line. A ribbed stack rises to the right, with two truncated stacks to the left. The yard to the rear of the house is surrounded by a wall forming a boundary with Stratford Road to the west.

Interior

The interiors of the school buildings have been subject to considerable adaptation and alteration during their history, most recently during extensive works of 2004-2006, when a number of walls were removed at the junction between the two principal buildings and the eastern wing, creating an open entrance space with a gallery above, both areas enlarged by the glass extension. However, the school buildings largely retain their original plan forms and a good proportion of original features.

In the former boys' school, the first-floor hall running along the west of the building has been adapted for use as a library, with a mezzanine floor and glass panels inserted within the open space, but the roof retains its cast-iron blades with pierced decoration forming pointed arches. Similar arches are found in the classrooms opening off the former hall to the east. This block has numerous noteworthy details, including boarded dado panelling, arched openings and original doors, while the two staircases retain their paired iron balusters and moulded wooden hand-rails.

The former girls' school has a very large hall with a timber hammer-beam roof. The five trusses are decorated with lancet and roundel tracery and spring from moulded corbels set into graduated pilasters; carved heads which once adorned the ends of the braces beneath the hammer beams have been lost. There are stained glass panels to the round windows. The moulded dado panelling in the hall and elsewhere in this block is of high quality, as are the surviving doors with corresponding detailing. The hall's herringbone woodblock floor remains, as do other wooden floors within this block. The first-floor classrooms have timber roof trusses on moulded corbels. The main open well stair at the north end of the block has turned wooden balusters and newel-posts, with the treads being wooden blocks set in iron inscribed 'Hawksleys Patent Step'.

The 1910 block is plainer internally and has partitioning to the first floor, but there are some original features including dado panelling and doors with chamfered rails and muntins. In the basement, joists are supported by cast-iron columns. The interior of the 1927 extension, which now houses a mosque, was not inspected.

The former caretaker's house is much altered internally with few original features. A wall has been removed, exposing the angle between two small 19th-century chimneypieces.

Subsidiary Features

A row of former covered play-sheds stands to the north of the site, now converted for indoor accommodation, the previously open frontage being glazed and boarded between the original cast-iron columns.

The northern boundary of the site is defined by low brick walls with tiled capping. Iron railings on triangular coping survive to the west, with wrought-iron gates—probably not original—approaching the former boys' entrance to the north-west. There is a less ornate gate to the rear of the house, and a brick gate pier with terracotta finial before the former girls' entrance.