Central Foundation School For Boys

ISLINGTON

TQ3282SE COWPER STREET 635-1/76/10121 Central Foundation School for Boys 12-DEC-2000 (Formerly listed as LEONARD STREET Central Foundation School for Boys)

GV II

Charitable school, with attached railings. 1866-7, with extension for science 1894; assembly hall remodelled mid C20. Gault brick, with stone porch to main entrance and to arcaded ground-floor of science wing. Slate roofs. Long, rectangular plan, with central eleven-bay main range of three storeys and basement, with seven-bay two-storey hall to east and three-bay, three-storey science wing to west, joined by central spinal corridor with staircases to east.

Main façade an austere but imposing composition, with simple cornice, and sash windows with glazing bars in shallow-arched brick surrounds linked by thin impost bands. Entrance through double doors with top lights set behind square stone porch with paired Tuscan columns. Hall similar, with round-arched windows to upper level and all windows set under gauged brick heads; broad brick cornice. 1894 extension for science with commemorative plaque set in apron under first floor; ground floor set back behind stone arcades set with small volutes; second floor set back behind stone frieze and cornice. Windows to the upper floors have mullion and transoms. Rear elevations have gauged brick heads but no impost bands; the hall has brick pillasters. Projecting octagonal ground-floor office to playground.

Interiors. Entrance hall with plaque commemorating the foundation of the school in 1866 as the Middle Class School; it received its present name in 1891. The corridors are lined with matchboarding to dado height. Large classrooms for science a significant innovation for the time. Open-well staircase with remodelled handrail. The hall is a most unusual feature: it has a stepped horseshoe balcony with cast-iron balustrade and marchboarding between the steps, supported on cast-iron columns. Flat ground floor with stage inserted c.1950s; the ceiling may also have been renewed at this time, perhaps after war damage. 1950s' light fittings not of special interest. Science range has open trussed roof on top floor.

Heavy wrought- and cast-iron railings to front an integral part of the composition.

Included as a fine example of a mid-C19 charitable school building of considerable scale and gravitas, which combines a distinguished façade with interiors of considerable interest.