Former St Patrick's Schools, 24 Great Chapel Street

Former St Patrick's Schools, 24 Great Chapel Street

This former Roman Catholic school was built in 1887-1888. The building occupies a corner site at the junction of Great Chapel Street and Hollen Street, with its longer eastern side fronting Great Chapel Street. The corner itself is rounded. The structure projects a somewhat industrial character, particularly towards its southern end, consistent with its late-19th-century neighbours.

The building is constructed of stock brick with red-brick dressings, including window arches and narrow brick banding, complemented by terracotta details. The basement and ground floors are now painted. Window openings contain timber sash frames, the majority thought to be original.

The building rises over three storeys with a basement and features a rooftop playground. The principal elevation to Great Chapel Street is divided into seven unequal bays with entrances to the north and south. The cambered-arched entrance openings are formed of moulded brick with modest Gothic detailing. Above each entrance, a protective drip mould survives, though terracotta lettering that once announced the purpose of the doorway has been removed. A photograph of 1958 shows the word 'BOYS' at the beginning of the inscription above the southern entrance, and above the northern doorway the trace of the word 'INFANTS' is just discernible, suggesting the school followed a common pattern with boys entering at one location and girls and infants at another.

The four central bays are recessed between brick piers, with a corbel course of moulded brick to the recessed sections. These contain cambered-arched openings holding paired windows, the arches formed of three rows of red-brick headers. On the ground and first floors, the mullions have trefoil-shaped terminals, referencing the shamrock of St Patrick. On the second floor, the mullions are fronted by slender cast-iron piers. In the northernmost bay, a tall stair window rises above the entrance, with a keyed oculus above that. Below the second-floor windows is a frieze of terracotta panels bearing the words 'SAINT PATRICK'S SCHOOLS SOHO' in Tuscan-style lettering with shamrock and Celtic cross enrichment. A blank frieze sits beneath the first-floor windows. At first-floor level, a stone tablet set into the central brick pier bears the inscription 'THIS MEMORIAL STONE WAS LAID BY REV L.G. VERE ON 6TH JULY 1887 / ST PATRICK'S SCHOOLS WERE FOUNDED IN 1803'.

The shorter southern elevation to Hollen Street is plainer, presented in a single plane and relieved only by brick banding. It contains five unmullioned windows to each floor and an unadorned access opening to the west at street level. The two elevations are linked by the rounded corner, which features a projecting stair turret or chimney rising above eaves level, enlivened by brick banding, a shallow corbel table and a stepped brick cornice.

The western side of the building contains light wells lined with glazed brick. A WC range projects from the north-west corner, with a light-well to the south and a smaller light-well further south. The WC tower has rows of tall narrow windows, and the wall opposite has tripartite windows with shamrock mullions.

The eastern part of the roof is enclosed by a cage formed of wire-covered cast-iron trusses. Across the northern end of the roof is a narrow structure housing the northern stair, with a pitched roof to the west, a central door opening to the playground, and a dormer to the east. Within the southern part of the playground, a temporary structure has been erected for use as a café seating area. To the south-east is a small structure, thought to be early-20th-century, with a hipped roof supported by metal trusses and recent wooden casement windows, now in use as a servery. These structures are excluded from the listing.

Interior

On each floor, the original layout appears to have consisted of a large schoolroom to the north – probably intended to be subdivided as necessary – with classrooms for group teaching to the south. The building was arranged to accommodate infants on the ground floor, girls on the first floor and boys on the second floor; the basement may have provided additional space for the infants' school or been in use for another purpose. On each floor there is a room to the west, between the light wells, which appears to have been for staff use; in the basement this is now a boiler room. Reconfiguration has occurred on each floor with insertion of partitions, and some more substantial changes have been made.

Throughout the school, windows are set high within teaching areas to limit distraction. Mullions have shamrock terminals internally, and there are chamfered window arches and moulded window cills. Floors in some areas retain woodblock flooring or floorboards, covered or replaced in others. Concrete floor slabs are supported by steel girders, visible in places. Walls were originally lined with glazed brick to window level; this is now painted in places and covered in others. The majority of fireplaces lack their chimneypieces, though three examples are known to survive – all of very simple design with minimal Gothic chamfered detailing. The openings are mostly blocked or covered. A small number of original doors survive.

The entrances hold modern divided doors which open to staircases: the former boys' stair to the south and the former girls' stair to the north. The narrow staircases are utilitarian in design; the treads are now covered, as is the glazed-brick dado. Cast-iron balustrades survive, the handrails bearing knobs to discourage children from sliding. Above second-floor level, stairs with plain timber balustrades give access to the playground; some panelling survives to the boys' stair at this level.

The large former schoolrooms remain legible, with woodblock flooring, though only that on the first floor remains as a single space, and there a mezzanine floor has been inserted within part of the area. This mezzanine structure is excluded from the listing. On the second floor, the schoolroom space has been divided into rooms and a corridor, the glazed brick walling remaining uncovered in what is now the northernmost room, though now painted. Two stone hearths remain in the second-floor schoolroom area; there is a single one on the ground floor. In the basement, a large chimneypiece survives in the former schoolroom, fitted with a register grate with Arts and Crafts-style tiles, the grate possibly a later insertion.

The southern classrooms have seen considerable reconfiguration, with varying degrees of survival. In the basement the rooms retain their original proportions. Here both rooms have chimneybreasts, the openings now blocked, and glazed arches along the eastern and southern extremities of the building reveal shallow wells or walkways, lit by pavement lights. On each floor the western room, between the light wells, shows evidence of having had a fireplace; chimneypieces survive on the first and second floors.

The WC tower remains in its original use, the rooms lined with painted glazed brick; no original fittings survive.