Former Royal Masonic School for Boys

Former Royal Masonic School for Boys

A very large college group built between 1899 and 1902 by the architects Gordon, Lowther and Gunton as the Royal Masonic Institute for Boys. The buildings are constructed of red brick with stone dressings and slate roofs, executed in the Free Tudor Gothic style.

The complex is arranged around a quadrangle with a symmetrical front elevation featuring a central tower, square corner towers with radiating boarding blocks, a hall to the rear, and the south-east side enclosed only by cloisters.

The front range comprises two storeys with three-storey projecting ends and a very tall four-stage entrance clock tower. The central entrance is set within a Tudor arched porch displaying 'RMIB 1900' in a shield. The porch has diagonal buttresses and the parapet is pierced with quatrefoils with end pinnacles. The lower stage of the tower features a large window with a four-centred arched head and panel tracery. The tall second stage has two large three-light traceried lancets on each face in ashlar with blind traceried heads. Rising through the full height of the two lower stages are brick semi-octagonal clasping buttresses with ashlar ogee caps topped by crocketed finials.

The third clock stage and upper bell stage are entirely in ashlar. The clock faces sit within four-centred arched-headed recesses with blind tracery and balustraded bases. The angles are chamfered. The bell stage has eight openings to each side and blind traceried angles, beneath a leaded ogee-shaped pavilion roof. Flanking the tower are two-storey ranges forming one-bay links to slightly projecting four-bay ranges with two-bay projecting ends. These are lit by six-light stone mullion and transom casements with chamfered surrounds and cusped and foiled heads to the leaded upper lights. A plinth and string courses run across the elevation. Stone-coped parapets with stone pinnacles crown the ranges, with octagonal turrets at the angles topped by finialed ogee caps. The roofs are hipped with end and centre stacks capped in stone. Two bays at the ends feature larger windows and pairs of cross windows in an attic storey. Ashlar gables with arms in relief rise prominently, with diagonal stone shafts running from ground floor to ridge.

At the ends are linked three-storey boarding blocks paired to form L-shapes, with four-stage square towers at the angles. The upper stages of the towers contain paired and single lancets, and octagonal corner turrets with finialed ogee caps. Crenellated parapets with pinnacles run across these blocks. Two-storey blocks flank the towers in front of the three-storey blocks.

To the rear of the front range, facing the quadrangle, is a two-storey canted and buttressed central projection with ground floor cross windows featuring cusped heads and leaded panes, and first floor arched-headed windows. Cloisters with four-centred arches are attached to the rear, interrupted on the left (north-west) by a two-storey block.

The rear block houses a nine-bay hall with large rectangular stone mullion and transom six-light windows containing leaded panes. Angled shafts rise to pinnacles above a stone-coped parapet with intermediate smaller pinnacles. Octagonal end piers with pinnacles frame the hall. The roof is steeply pitched with stone-coped gable ends. Flying buttresses extend over the cloisters to the central three bays. The gable ends feature large arched traceried windows. A canted bay projects from the rear. Boarding blocks linked to the sides of the hall are paired as at the front with square towers. Further extensions and additions complete the complex.

The interior includes a groin-vaulted Gothic entrance hall with an imperial stair and gallery.