Frances Bardsley Lower School

Frances Bardsley Lower School, Heath Park Road, Romford

A high school for girls founded by Francis Bardsley, designed by Hickton and Farmer of Walsall and built in 1909–10. The building is constructed of red brick with artificial stone dressings and has machine tile roofs.

The exterior presents symmetrical north and south elevations, each two storeys high. The north front comprises a 15-window range. At its centre stands a single-storey entrance narthex with an elaborate central doorway framed by rusticated piers carrying a stepped parapet with heavy keyblocks and the coat of arms of Essex County Council. The doorway itself consists of double-leaf panelled doors with upper glazing. Flanking this are oval mullioned and transomed windows with swags above, and on either side are 3 sashes with horned frames in 4/4 configuration. The main elevation behind contains 5 mullioned cross casements with top-and-bottom-hung openers and glazing bars to the first floor, these lighting a central hall. Brick pilasters separate the windows and terminate in a stone cornice. On either side of the hall projects a gabled eminence containing the staircases, each framed by rusticated brick pilasters and featuring a double-leaf door with glazed upper panels set within an artificial stone architrave with a prominent keyblock. One tall cross casement with glazing bars lights the upper storey. The outer blocks consist of 4-window ranges terminating in rusticated brick pilasters that rise to a plain stone cornice. The ground floor fenestration comprises arched windows with glazing bars and top-hung openers, set below keyblocks. The first floor contains 4 cross casements with glazing bars and stone apron plaques. The central hall has a gabled roof carrying a central square bell-cote with open oval sides and a small dome, with internal gable-end stacks. The outer blocks have gabled roofs, hipped to east and west.

The south elevation is 18 windows wide. A pair of central gabled projections each contains 3 cross casements to each floor with glazing bars; one ground-floor window has been converted to a door. The side ranges feature similar casements. Slightly projecting gabled end bays are set against by single-storey hipped utility blocks. The eastern block has a 3-light transomed casement beneath a Diocletian window; the western block features only a Diocletian window as a dormer.

The interior contains a central entrance hall accessed via a double-leaf half-glazed doorway in the north wall. This is a large rectangular room occupying the central 5 window bays of the north elevation and is fitted with small-framed dado panelling. Along the south side runs a balcony supported on plastered steel cantilevered beams and furnished with an iron balustrade, wooden handrail, and plastered panels at intervals. The ceiling is elliptical and plastered, consisting of 5 bays of flat steel ribs springing from plastered corbels with cherub heads on floral scrolls. Between the ribs are rectangular panels with semi-circular north and south ends decorated with foliage trails to the perimeter. The ceiling forms elliptical cut-outs for windows. On the south side, east and west doorways contain double-leaf half-glazed doors beneath semicircular glazing. Two segmentally-headed windows look into the south classrooms, entered through 2 half-glazed doors. Two stone open-well staircases with open strings and cast- and wrought-iron balustrades support mahogany moulded handrails. The first-floor rooms to east and west both feature 3 plastered steel ribs to the ceiling and a small oval window with stained glass in the end walls.

The building is notable as the product of campaigning by Francis Bardsley, the first head teacher, who was a noted campaigner for high-quality education for girls.