Former Royal Victoria Patriotic School

The former Royal Victoria Patriotic School, dating from 1857-9, was designed by Rhode Hawkins and later converted into art space and offices in 1987. Originally built as a school for the Royal Victoria Patriotic Asylum, the fund for which was raised to support the children of those lost in the Crimean War, it was later joined by a boys' school in 1872-3. The girls' school relocated outside of London in 1938.

The school comprises regular three-storey rectangular ranges arranged around two open courts, linked by a central hall, with a service court to the east. This service court is bordered by a single-storey range containing what was formerly the kitchen but is now a theatre space.

The building is constructed of yellow brick with Yorkshire stone dressings and has slate roofs of a high pitch. The windows are mullioned and transomed with metal frames. A notable feature is an oriel window at the northwest corner, featuring bands of naturalistic carving at its base. The architectural style is Scottish baronial, with elements of Jacobean and French design, incorporating five towers with pyramidal roofs and numerous corner tourelles. Ornamental timber fleches rise from the roof of the main hall and the former kitchen.

The main west front features central and corner towers. The central tower has a three-storey stone frontispiece topped by a figure of St George and the Dragon within an ornamental niche. Side elevations are punctuated by square pyramidal roofed towers. The ranges around the service wing are simpler in design, some with toplighting visible.

The interior is largely simple now, but retains a symmetrical plan with enclosed, one-storey cloister walks featuring open timber roofs around the courts. Two main staircases provide access between levels. The main hall is particularly noteworthy, with a wallplate carved with foliage beneath a tripartite boarded roof, adorned with emblems representing towns and countries of Britain and the wider Empire, painted by J.G. Crace and restored in 1987. Good boarded roofs survive in other rooms. An open timber roof from the original kitchen remains visible above the current temporary structure.