Ryland Memorial School Of Art

Ryland Memorial School of Art

Art school with attached area railing, built in 1902 by the architectural firm Wood & Kendrick of Birmingham. The building is constructed in red brick with ashlar dressings and slate roofs, designed in the Renaissance Revival style.

The main front block rises to two storeys with a basement and attics, arranged in a 3 by 6 bay plan. The design features a plinth, floor bands, dentillated eaves, and shouldered coped gables. The recessed entrance bay is the focal point, with an enriched segmental arch framing a cartouche bearing a coat of arms and integral mullioned windows. The entrance itself is marked by an enriched ogee-headed porch with half-glazed double doors flanked by transomed sidelights. Above this, an allegorical frieze in high relief runs beneath a cornice, and above that sits a colonnade with round columns and five recessed glazing bar windows, topped by a truncated roof turret.

The projecting gabled side bays each contain three basement openings. Above these, two floors feature three segment-headed plain sashes beneath an enriched first floor cornice. The attics contain transomed round-headed windows with three lights and hood moulds. The left gable has similar fenestration with two lights, while the right gable features a large glazing bar window at ground floor level and a plain glazed light above.

Wrought iron area railings are attached at each end of the front block. The right return elevation displays four square basement and first floor windows, with five through-eaves box dormers above, all with glazing bars. The left return has three pairs of segment-headed windows and three round-arched windows above, similarly fitted with glazing bars.

An external corridor on the left side connects the front block to rear ranges fronting Edward Street.

The rear single-storey block houses a gymnasium and classrooms beneath an off-centre gable with two windows, flanked by two windows to the left and two windows plus a blocked door to the right. These windows feature wooden cross mullions and glazing bars in the top lights. To the right stands a single-bay unit with a basement window and a fully glazed ground floor beneath a glazed and slated hipped roof.

Beyond this, a two-storey classroom range of three bays features coped gables and a gable stack. A higher gabled entrance bay contains double doors with a segment-headed glazing bar overlight and, above, a tall glazing bar window. To its left is a segment-headed window, and to the right is a similar window, partly blocked with a door inserted. Each side above has a flat-headed window, all fitted with wooden cross mullions and glazing bars.

The interior reveals substantial quality and detail. The entrance lobby contains two pairs of doors with round-arched glazed panels, flanked by similar doors with stained glass panels and sidelights, all beneath an arcaded overlight with round-arched panels. The central hall features a cantilevered gallery with wrought iron balustrade and a reglazed clerestorey roof with wooden queen post trusses. An open well cantilever stone staircase with wrought iron balustrade, cast iron clustered newels and ramped wooden handrail rises through the space.

Classrooms flanking the hall on each floor are fitted with part-glazed five-panel doors and overlights. Most classrooms are plain, though one retains five casts of Classical capitals sliding on vertical posts carried on wall brackets. One first floor door is inscribed "Model's Dressing Room" on its glazed panel. Two rooms are linked by a screen with a round-arched opening.

The gymnasium features chamfered wooden roof trusses with tie rods and cased span beams. An adjoining room is lit by a hipped rooflight.

The basement contains a central hall corresponding to that above, lit by pavement lights and lined with round-arched openings containing half-glazed doors with cross-mullioned sidelights and overlights. The basement classrooms are mainly plain, though one room is lined in white glazed brick with matching cornice and dado.