Institute of Science and Art

Institute of Science and Art

This is a Grade II listed building dating from 1888, designed by the Birmingham architects Dunn and Hipkins. It was opened to commemorate the Golden Jubilee of the previous year and stands on Pool Fields in Walsall, on a site formerly occupied by a grandstand donated by the Earl of Bradford. The building was funded by public subscription and represents a well-designed example of municipal educational architecture of the period.

The building is constructed in red English bond brick with terracotta dressings and a slate roof with lead flashings. It comprises three storeys with a basement.

The exterior features a symmetrical Gothic E-shaped front. The central projecting gabled wing contains two doors at ground floor level, though the right-hand door is now blocked with a window to the upper body. The left-hand door retains a wrought iron screen decorated with thistle motifs. Terracotta dressings adorn the tympana, spandrels, and projecting gablets at either side of the central section. On the central pier are two datestones: the lower was laid by William Kirkpatrick, mayor of Walsall, in 1887, while the upper commemorates the fundraising of £2,500 to educate District Nurses for the poor in 1897.

To either side of the central section are flat-arched windows: two to the recessed portions of walling and three on the lateral wings. At first floor level, arched lancet windows follow the same pattern, with a projecting terracotta oriel at the centre containing three lights. At second floor level, the three wings feature traceried windows that rise into the gables. The right and left gables have sexfoils to their apexes, whilst the central window has a central lancet rising towards the apex. The central gable displays a royal coat of arms at its top with the inscription "VICTORIAN JUBILEE" and the date "1887", surmounted by a crown finial.

To either side of the central gable are octagonal buttresses, each with a finial in the form of a bear holding a branch. Ridge-mounted octagonal louvred vents feature gablets and spires in the form of lanterns. The right-hand reveal contains a gabled, three-light traceried window at second floor level to the centre, corbelled out from the wall. The left-hand reveal has a gable with a three-light studio window.

Before the front elevation stands a railed enclosure comprising a cast iron cill above a low brick wall, with railings featuring arrowhead finials and taller posts with ball finials and swept buttressing rails.

The interior is extensively decorated. The entrance hall has a polychromatic tiled floor with two large radiators in the form of clustered columns either side. The spinal corridor and sluice also feature polychromatic floor tiling. At first floor level, the Committee Room retains its original fireplace with decorative tiles. The Chapel Room and Class Room each have a dado of shaped bricks, whilst the spinal corridor again displays polychromatic tiling. A decorative iron balustrade to second floor level shows plant and flower forms. The second floor Chemical Laboratory extends the full length of the floor and features decorative tie rods and timbers to the roof, with polychromatic tiles lining the corridor.

The building represents a highly characteristic Late Victorian civic building in which the Victorian alliance between Science and Art is made manifest. Both external and internal decoration is of a high order for a functional building and is well-preserved, making a significant contribution to the centre of Walsall.