Carlyle Building At The Hortensia Road Centre

249/0/10235 HORTENSIA ROAD 07-MAY-02 Carlyle Building at the Hortensia Road Centre

GV II

Former Carlyle School. C.1914, altered 1937, architect unknown. Red brick with extensive Portland Stone dressings, slate roof, bronze-capped cupola. English Baroque style. PLAN: Rectangular plan with central hall, spine corridor, projecting wings towards street; large extension to south. EXTERIOR: Three-bay central section with single storey ground floor projection. Arched windows with stone surrounds at first floor level, central one with pediment over. Round windows over rectangular windows between arched openings. Eaves cornice. Projecting wings with channelled rustication to angle quoins, open pedimented gable ends; Venetian windows at first floor level over triple windows at ground floor level. Tall chimneystacks in angles of entrance front. Shallow hipped roof with decorative octagonal cupola to centre with finial. North and south elevations with 12/12-pane windows to ground and first floors, some of those to first floor with arched heads and attic surrounds over. Large 1937 gymnasium extension to south of three storeys in a matching Wren-influenced style, with an LCC cartouche of stone over door. INTERIOR: top-glazed entrance lobby. Barrel-vaulted double-height assembly hall with Mannerist-inspired plaster mouldings. Classrooms off spine corridor with internal glazing. Tile-lined stairs at either end of corridor. First floor converted for studio use by the English National Ballet School in c.1995. ADDITIONAL FEATURES: lantern-capped gate piers of brick and stone in front of entrance with wrought iron gates. HISTORY: after World War One use as a hospital, this became a grammar school. Extended in 1937, the school moved to Pimlico in 1969 and became a nursery in 1971. It subsequently formed part of the Kensington and Chelsea College, 'Britain's first further education college for adults' as a sign outside the school asserts. A high-quality example of an English Renaissance school, this forms part of an imposing group of education buildings. The 1937 extension is of lesser interest.