St James's Primary School

St James’s Primary School is a former parochial school dating from 1853, designed by Edward and William Gilbee Habershon. It is constructed in the Gothic Revival style with an attached teacher’s house. The exterior is pebble-dashed with Portland stone dressings, yellow brick chimney stacks, and a tiled roof. The street front features a central gabled porch flanked by four-light Gothic windows with gauged brick arches. The porch has an arched opening containing a plan door, a hood mould, moulded stone kneelers, a stone shield inscribed "BOYS" above, and triangular windows to the sides. A gable to the right contains a triple-light window. The right hand return includes a porch similar to that on the front, and a three- and a four-light window either side of a chimney stack. A two-storey range to the left houses the former teacher’s house with paired lights to the ground floor under a hood-mould, a single light to the first floor; the return on the left side has an arched doorway surmounted by a single light above, and paired lights to the ground floor surmounted by two lights to the first floor. A tall paired chimney stack is located at the north end of the roof ridge, with a slightly lower projection at the north end. The rear elevation features a belfry, twin gables with hood-moulded windows within and Gothic lights; a mid-20th century addition is present on the rear, of lesser interest. Internally, few original features remain. The main classroom has a double-height roof with a lowered ceiling, concealing rafters visible in early photographs, and moulded consoles are still present. The school replaced a charity school of 1809 and was built alongside the Habershons’ remodelling of St James’s church. It closed in 1975 and subsequently re-opened in 1977 as a nursery school, as commemorated by a plaque in the rear extension. The building is a picturesque composition, demonstrating an early phase of the Gothic Revival and constructed using local building materials. It contributes to the group value with the adjacent Lawrence Campe almshouses to the west.