Cromwell Junior and Infant School

Cromwell Junior and Infant School

This is a red brick school building with terracotta and moulded brick dressings, tiled roofs with decorative ridge tiles, and a majority of windows that have been replaced.

The original school building has a symmetrical plan with two halls positioned centrally on a south-west/north-east axis, with classrooms opening from either side of the halls and occupying short wings projecting from each corner. The original plan includes an entrance at the centre of each elevation and one to each corner, though some original entrances have been obscured by later additions. A large modern extension exists at the north-east corner, with smaller extensions to the south-west and south-east corners.

A tall ventilation tower near the centre of the building is visible from every angle. Rising from a square base, it has a buttressed octagonal shaft with elongated lancets, completed by a timber louvred 'belfry' with a tiled pyramidal roof. A chimney is attached to the upper part of the tower on its north-western side.

The principal five-bay elevation faces south-east toward Cromwell Street. The recessed central entrance bay consists of a flat-roofed entrance flanked by low gables containing windows with blind trefoil terracotta heads. The original entrance has been altered and a modern canopy added. Rising behind the entrance is the gable end of the western hall, with its large octofoil window; the gable was probably truncated when the upper part of the hall roof, which contained ventilation ducts, was removed. To either side of the entrance is a pair of gabled classrooms, each having three trefoil-headed windows with quatrefoils to the spandrels, and two smaller trefoil openings above with a quatrefoil ventilation hole to the apex; this pattern is repeated for each of the school's classrooms. In the south-western pair, the central openings have been lowered to accommodate doors.

The north-west elevation facing Rupert Street corresponds to that of the south-east elevation, with pairs of gabled classrooms flanking a recessed central bay; a modern two-storey flat-roofed block now occupies the central bay.

The longer north-east and south-west elevations each contain two pairs of gabled classrooms, separated by a central projecting block with a narrow doorway to one side. A projecting entrance block at either end of these elevations contains a round-headed doorway holding double doors beneath a fanlight, the moulded terracotta head having a hoodmould and quatrefoils to the spandrels. The school's 20th-century extensions are of brick with flat roofs.

The centre of the building is occupied by two halls, one to the south-east and the other to the north-west. Each hall is spanned by cast-iron trusses with pierced decoration rising to form pointed arches, and each is lit by an octofoil window as well as by the original roof-lights. The halls retain their woodblock flooring. To either side of each hall are classrooms with pointed-arched door and window openings. The classrooms have cast-iron trusses similar to those in the halls, and most retain their original doors. Elsewhere some doors have been replaced. The rooms to either side of the entrance, used as an office and staff room, are more altered than others within the original building.

The school is separated from Cromwell Street and Rupert Street by low walls with iron railings set on triangular copings. Chamfered gate piers exist, with those to the north-east formerly providing access to the caretaker's house.