Goose Green Primary and Nursery School and walls, gates and railings

Goose Green Primary and Nursery School and walls, gates and railings

A primary school, formerly a board school, built in 1900 by architect T J Bailey for the School Board for London. The building exemplifies the Baroque Revival style and is constructed of brick in English bond, with terracotta, red and black brick, and stone dressings. The roof is tiled with a cupola covered in metal, hipped to the centre section and gabled to the returns, with parapeted rear and wings.

The plan consists of a centre block of three storeys and attic over basement, with three-storey wings to either side.

The main exterior elevation presents a 15-window range. The ground floor features red brick treated as rusticated blocks across its full width, with a black-brick plinth. Windows in the 8th to 11th range positions project forward as a single block and have round-arched openings with alternating stone voussoirs at ground-floor level and round-arched windows at second-floor level. The first-floor windows are all flat-arched, as are those in the 7th and 12th window ranges which mark the stair positions; ground-floor windows to the wings are also flat-arched.

To the first and second floors of the centre block runs a four-bay pilastrade of the Ionic order, with pilasters rusticated using terracotta blocks. A brick entablature and dentil cornice surmount the pilastrade. The attic storey contains windows with shouldered and eared architraves of red brick, and is articulated by a pilastrade of brick with entablature above. The transition from the attic storey to the lower wings is marked by a curved parapet with Serlian volutes in the stair-well ranges.

The side wings each have a three-window range, all windows with gauged brick lintels of red brick; second-floor wing windows are segmental-arched. A brick dentil cornice marks the eaves.

Introducing asymmetry is a three-storey wing of one-window range attached to the left side. Windows on the first and second floors of this wing are blocked; the first-floor window features a decorative plaque bearing the insignia of the London School Board and the words "Grove Vale School". Giant Ionic corner pilastrades occupy the first and second floors, topped by an entablature and pediment.

The entrances are set in recessed stair ranges, marked "Girls" on the right and "Boys" on the left.

The right return is gabled, with brick treated as banded rustication at ground-floor level and a one-window range. The return then steps back and down to two storeys with an attic roundel. A shallow elliptical-arched recess occupies the second floor of the gable end, projecting into the gable, bearing a plaque of the same ornamental character as that on the main elevation and inscribed with the date 1900.

The rear elevation follows a rectangular plan, partly obscured by two late twentieth-century stairs. The rear repeats the scheme of the front elevation on a less elaborate and less grand scale. A cupola sits on the ridge of the centre section, retaining its original weathervane.

The subsidiary features comprise railings and brick and stone gateways to the school yard.