The Former Bilston Girls High School, [Wolverhampton College]

SO9496 WINDSOR STREET 895-1/15/10038 Bilston 01-AUG-00 The former Bilston Girls High School, [Wolverhampton College]

II

School. 1929-30; by Col G. C. Lowbridge, architect for Staffordshire Education Committee. Red brick with painted stone dressings. Clay plain tile hipped roofs. Brick axial and end stacks with stone cornices. PLAN: The main front and side classroom ranges are built around two courts separated by a central hall, and with lower classroom ranges and an art room at the back. Neo-Georgian style. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys. Symmetrical 3:9:5:9:3 bay SE front. The end and centre bays project, the 5-bay centre advanced again by a 3-bay pedimented centrepiece with a modillion cornice; the projecting bays have giant Composite pilasters. The pediment at the centre contains a coat of arms and the doorway below has a moulded architrave with a scrolled open pediment, panelled double doors and an overlight; stringcourse at first floor level and tall 15-pane sashes in exposed cases. 3:5:3 bay left [SW] elevation, the end bays with similar giant pilasters. The right [NE] elevation is only eight bays. At the rear there are lower single-storey ranges enclosing two courts separated by a large hall with big round-headed windows with glazing bars; around the courts are glazed cloisters and behind the school there is the detached art room with a tall lateral chimney stack. INTERIOR: Entrance vestibule with pilasters and square piers supporting a coffered ceiling. Hall has broad pilasters, a moulded cornice and a segmental vaulted plaster ceiling; the gallery has been partitioned from the auditorium. The library is above the entrance in the front range.

Included as a particularly imposing example of a local authority high school of the inter-war period; these buildings were in the vanguard of state secondary education to an advanced level for girls.

Listing NGR: SO9438496938