Stanley Technical High School and Stanley Halls

Overview and History

This complex of buildings was designed and donated by William Ford Stanley, constructed between 1901 and 1909 as a technical trade school, two halls, an art gallery and a residence. As of 2023, the site operates as part of Harris Academy School and as the Stanley Arts venue. The buildings are constructed in red brick and stone with decorative pink granite panels, colonettes, terracotta dressings, and ceramic ornament including vases, figurines and roundels. The roofs are slate, lead and copper.

Layout and Setting

All the buildings stand in a row along Norwood Hill, facing west down the slope. They are interconnected by doors and passageways located towards the front. The technical school and small hall contain classrooms and an assembly space respectively. The art gallery provides an open display area, whilst the large hall functions as an entertainment venue with stage and gallery seating. The former residence now houses a café and offices, with ground and first-floor rehearsal rooms at the rear accessed by a side entrance.

Architectural Character

The buildings exhibit a freestyle design with loosely Italianate character. The red brick walls are laid in English bond with predominantly round-headed and flat-arched sash windows containing leaded lights and Art Nouveau stained glass, set within stone architraves. Many windows have granite colonette mullions. Decorative elements include terracotta panels, circular shields with bas-relief sculpture, green tile and roundel detailing, and polished granite columns and colonettes with foliage capitals. Stone pedestals along the roof ridges and coped gables carry ceramic vases with stylised flowers or slender figurines. The multi-pitched roofs incorporate tall brick chimneys and louvred ventilators. The rear and west side elevations are plainer in treatment.

Technical School

Now part of Harris Academy School, the technical school features a three-storey tower over the entrance to the left, with a hall range to the right. The tower rises above a canopied porch supported on granite colonettes. The architrave bears the inscription 'TECHNICAL TRADE SCHOOL WM FORD STANLEY, ARCHITECT AND DONOR'. The first stage of the tower has vertically set oval granite panels, glazed on the roadside. The second stage is set back with a glazed oculus to each face and corner colonettes. An ogival copper dome with finial crowns the tower.

The two-storey hall extends over four gabletted bays with contrasting stone and brick detailing. Ground-floor windows are paired four-pane sashes divided by granite colonettes. The window aprons are granite at ground level and terracotta swags at first floor. Each gablet contains a terracotta roundel and decorated keystone topped by a finial. The south side elevation carries a plaque inscribed 'STANLEY TECHNICAL TRADE SCHOOL 1908'. At the rear stands a tall brick campanile with moulded stone bands. Its upper stage is open, encircled by stone piers supporting an ogival copper roof with finial. Basement workshops at the rear of the hall are lit from the rear elevation.

The interior was previously recorded as containing three classrooms, a library and a computer room on the ground and first floors above basement workshops with modern fittings.

Small Hall

Also part of Harris Academy School, the small hall entrance is positioned to the left within a porch supported on granite colonettes. The timber canopy features ornate drop finials and a leaded roof. The part-glazed entrance doors sit beneath a semi-circular fanlight with stained glass in rectangular panes, all within a stone architrave.

The two-storey hall has a gable end divided into three bays. The ground floor has a lean-to leaded roof over sash windows framed by stone architraves and separated by granite colonettes. A flush stone band runs at cill level, with aprons formed by recessed granite panels above a stone plinth. The first floor has a cill band below round-headed sash windows with Art Nouveau stained glass in segmental architraves - a three-light window to the centre flanked by similar single lights. Columnar finials break through the stone coping of the gable above each window, those to left and right retaining terracotta vases of tulips. Stone pilasters mark the corners, with stepped brick walling to the right side delineated by stone pilasters.

Inside, the small hall was previously recorded as having a five-bay timber arch roof above marble pilasters with brass bases and tiled dado rail. The proscenium arch is flanked by marble niches and panelling and surmounted by circular iron vents forming part of the ventilation system. Elaborate plasterwork friezes and cornices ornament the hall. Panelled timber doors feature throughout, with marble niches flanking the roadside windows. A link passage opens into the art gallery.

Clock Tower

Positioned between the small hall and art gallery, the three-stage clock tower is constructed of ashlar stone with Doric quarter granite columns set back at angles to the ground floor corners. The front face has an empty round-headed niche above the inscription 'LABOR OMNIA VINCIT' (work conquers all). The side face contains a round-headed sash window with stained glass. The middle stage has ovate granite panels, the central front panel being glazed. The upper stage contains clock faces set between granite colonettes beneath a polygonal cornice and ogival copper dome. On the ground floor, set back to the right side, a pair of part-glazed timber doors stands beneath a simple canopy and an overlight with stained glass.

Art Gallery

Now part of the Stanley Halls venue, the single-storey art gallery has a single-bay entrance under a gable end. Part-glazed panelled doors sit beneath a lean-to canopy supported on decorative iron brackets. Above is a lit niche with round-headed architrave containing an empty plinth flanked by enwreathed shields and short granite colonettes. The top of the architrave engages with a short half column surmounted by a pedestal and ball finial. Green-glazed tile forms the decorative eaves, topped by stone coping. The gallery extends behind the entrance with a clerestory of rectangular panes to each side of the hipped roof.

The linking entrance vestibule contains a roundel depicting art by C Wilkes RA. The main gallery room is long and linear with plain frieze and dado. Door architraves are panelled with decorative heads. Top lighting comes from clerestory windows with scissor trusses. The roof is arch-braced, resting on corbels, with ornamental rondels to the ceiling and between bays. The floor is laid with tiles in a geometric pattern.

Large Hall

Also part of the Stanley Halls venue, the large hall is symmetrical with three bays over two storeys beneath a stone-coped gable, standing on a rough-hewn stone plinth. The central entrance has a pair of part-glazed doors beneath a lean-to canopy with spandrel side panels supported on granite colonettes. The door head carries the inscription 'STANLEY HALL WM FORD STANLEY, ARCHITECT AND DONOR'. A modern metal sign fixed to the roof above reads 'STANLEY HALLS'.

At first-floor centre level, a four-bay arcade of flat-arched windows sits in a chamfered architrave, surmounted by a row of semi-circular arched niches divided by granite colonettes. Above these rise four tall lights beneath slightly pointed arches with spandrels, bosses and capitals. To left and right are sashes with stained glass set within substantial stone architraves. Lower stage windows are separated by granite mullions, upper stage by chamfered stone mullions. Stone aprons have recessed granite panels. The lunette at the top of the architrave is intersected by a moulded stone band, containing a central niche for a bust flanked by granite colonettes, with glazed terracotta panels of reclining figures to left and right. The keystone carries a mask, above which rise columnar finials with rectangular caps. The finial above the central window carries a figurine. At the rear stands a two-storey loading bay with high-set canopy.

The interior of the large hall follows similar detailing to the small hall. A wide vestibule features a frieze decorated with brass-coloured swags. The timber-panelled ticket office has a round-headed serving window. Adjacent cloakrooms have gold-painted signage. Stairs have barley twist balusters, cast iron newel posts and curved timber handrails.

The main section of the large hall has an arch-rib roof of steam-bent timbers. The proscenium arch is supported on Corinthian columns flanked by panels divided by pilasters linked by swags. Above is a plaster frieze of putti and foliate swags surmounted by three busts within a panel. Above the arch, a lunette inscribed 'JUSTICE, LIBERTY, SCIENCE' contains three seated figures (replaced in polystyrene) with wooden radiating sunrays. The roof above is supported on marble pilasters with brass bases and a brass and tiled dado. Three-light clerestory windows line the walls, which have ornamented iron ventilation grilles connected to the ventilation system. The gallery has 1930s velvet cinema seating and a clock inscribed 'TIME FLIES, MIND YOUR BUSINESS'.

Residence

Also part of the Stanley Halls venue, the residence connects via a passageway with stone head featuring a circular architrave containing a stylised tree of life, surmounted by a brick balustrade. The two-storey building has two irregular bays with the entrance to the right. The first bay has a three-bay window to each storey containing rectangular sashes at ground level and semi-circular sashes above. The second bay has similarly detailed single-bay windows. The upper lights of the first-floor windows have stained glass and terracotta aprons with swags. Finials have terracotta dressings. A pediment over the three-bay window contains a central pedestal bracketed by decorative scrolls. Part-glazed entrance doors stand within an angled porch supported on heavy granite columns. The floor and walls feature majolica and other glazed tiles.

The east elevation has nine bays standing on a granite blockwork plinth. The first three bays follow similar design to the front elevation. The remaining six bays have regular flat-arched sashes at ground level beneath a run of five bas-relief shields at first floor. Paired doors stand under a lean-to lobby with stone head inscribed 'SOCIETY ROOM'. A single-storey late 20th-century extension stands at the rear.

Inside the residence, the stairs are lined with majolica wall tiles, with tiled risers, newels and balusters. Stone steps and tessellated marble floors adjoin the stairs. The offices contain Edwardian or 20th-century tiled fireplaces. The upper rehearsal room has steam-bent timber arches with drop pendants. The ridge incorporates an early 20th-century venting system. Stair walls feature classical figures in roundels and are faced with majolica and brown wall tiles up to the dado level. The rehearsal room walls include two brown-tiled decorative fireplaces.