Gatehouse To St Mary'S Convent School And Attached Wall To North

This is a gatehouse with attached walls, dating from 1893. It was designed for Alfred Percy Allsopp by architect John Henry Williams of Foregate Street, Worcester, and built by Joseph Woods and Sons. The building is constructed of gault brick with glazed tiles, featuring pseudo timber-framing to the first floor and a fish-scale, plain tile roof. Tall brick ridge stacks and rear stacks have cornices and oversailing courses that resemble clusters. The gatehouse incorporates cast-iron gates and is in a Tudor Revival style.

The building has an irregular L-shaped plan. To the left is a single-storey and attic range, and to the right a wide single-bay gateway with a gabled storey above. A tall, two-storey range with a basement extends to the right, featuring a jettied gable and a three-storey tower. The off-centre left gateway has an elliptical arch with an ovolo-moulded surround and hoodmould. A plank door is located at the base of the tower. Ground-floor windows include a five-light mullion window to the left range and a four-light mullion and transom window to the right. An attic dormer with decorative bargeboards is at the left, and a four-light wooden-mullion window is in the gable over the archway. An oriel window is situated on the first floor of the right range. The tower has a two-light mullion and transom window to the first floor and is crowned by an octagonal turret with cusped lights and an ogee dome. A two-storey range breaks forward to the right return, with mullion windows to the ground floor and multi-pane casements to the first floor. The rear has a jettied first floor and jettied gables, featuring multi-pane transomed windows to the ground floor and three- and four-light, multi-pane windows on corbelled sills to the first floor, with a four-light window over the gateway. Decorative carved bargeboards are present. The double carriage gates have ornate scrolled motifs.

The attached embattled walls are approximately one metre high, except for a section rising to two metres in height for approximately six metres. A quadrant wall to the left of the carriage arch, around five metres long, has an octagonal pier at each end. One pier abuts a pedestrian gateway with low, square piers and ogee caps. The battlements are embellished with a scrolled vine motif.

The gatehouse forms a group with St. Mary's Convent School, St. Mary's Convent Junior School and Kindergarten on Battenhall Avenue and is an impressive example of Domestic Revival architecture.