South London Art Gallery

The South London Art Gallery, originally the Camberwell School of Art and South London Art Gallery, was built between 1896 and 1898, with the date 1897 inscribed on the building. Designed by Maurice Adams, it is constructed of red brick with extensive white stone dressings, bandings, and sculpted ornament, topped with a slate roof behind a break-fronted parapet featuring ball finials, creating a unifying element for the exuberant, Baroque-detailed facade. The building is three stories high with a basement.

The left section of the building consists of five bays, emphasizing the gabled end bay. The right section has six bays, with a projecting bay from the right side housing the main entrance to the South London Art Gallery. A wide main entrance bay for the School of Arts is situated between the two sections and projects to full height, largely constructed from stone, with an entrance beneath a semicircular hood supported by large Caryatids. Above the parapet, supported by three Caryatids, is a deep segmental pediment under a gable, both adorned with carved ornament. Windows are mullioned and transomed, both to the centre and the curving sides of the bay. A second entrance, located in the right section, is round-arched with a keystone, incorporated into a slightly projecting, mostly stone bay that rises to the full height, topped by a low, sculpted gable over a deep modillion cornice. A datestone is set within the raised stone parapet behind. A broken segmental pediment sits above the first-floor windows, featuring mullions. A scrolled plaque above the entrance reads: "THE PASSMORE EDWARDS SOUTH LONDON ART GALLERY AND TECHNICAL INSTITUTE".

Both sections of the building share similar detailing. The ground-floor windows (some circular in the left section) are within round-headed stone arches with keystones. Pilasters with masks rise from the ground-floor break-front cornice through the first and second floors, between sash windows with moulded stone architraves; those on the second floor are taller. The cornice above the first floor curves above the windows, while the cornice above the second floor rises to points above the windows and incorporates masks into the tops of the pilasters. Various banded chimneys are present, along with a small cupola with an ogee roof on the ridge above the main entrance. The interior has not been inspected.