Finsbury Road Board School

Finsbury Road Board School

Board school built in 1881, designed by Thomas Simpson. The building is constructed in brown and red brick laid in English garden wall bond, with dressings and ornamental details in soft red brick and concrete. The roof is covered in slate with turnerise finish, and a wooden cupola topped with a metal roof sits at the ridge.

The building is divided into two distinct sections corresponding to the infants' and upper schools, creating an asymmetrical composition. The upper school, to the right, is the larger section and comprises two storeys over a basement with two-and-a-half-storey cross-wings at either end, presenting a roughly symmetrical composition across a 10-window range. The infants' school, to the left, has one storey over a basement with a two-and-a-half-storey cross-wing to its left, with an 11-window range to the ground floor.

The upper school elevation is dominated by projecting gabled cross-wings. Each wing features floor-to-ceiling windows on the ground and first floors with variously cut, scrolled and keyed dressings. Above the first-floor windows is a gabled aedicule formed from bricks of contrasting colours, with ornamental terracotta panels filling the tympana. The first-floor windows in the fifth and eighth window ranges match the dimensions of the tall windows in the cross-wings and terminate in hipped dormers. A brick dentil cornice runs across all sections. Stack chimneys sit at the inner corners of each cross-wing roof, which is hipped. The cupola, centred between the cross-wings on the roof ridge, is square in plan with a lead-sheathed first stage and timber-framed second stage; the roof is topped with a leaded ogee cap. Original ornamental ridge tiles and ventilators survive in good condition across all roofs, and the hipped dormers are fitted with metal finials.

The infants' school presents an asymmetrical composition. The gabled cross-wing to the south has tall windows framed by heavy brick piers, with a thin brick pilaster on the first floor that intersects the cornice. Above this is the most elaborate gable on the entire elevation, featuring two round-arched windows set in a composite gable with an ornamental terracotta panel in the tympanum. Adjacent to the junction with the larger block is a gabled bay of two windows surmounted by a high triangular pediment. The aedicule in this gable contains a stone plaque inscribed: "School Board for Brighton and Preston. U. D. Finsbury Road School. Erected AD 1881. Marriage Wallis Chairman. J. Carden, Jr., Clerk". Two ground-floor windows in the range between the gables are taller than the remainder and project above the eaves, terminating in a broad hipped dormer.

The rear elevation is notable for a flat-arched entrance to the south decorated with terracotta panels and a panel inscribed "Infants" in late 19th-century lettering. The larger block has a stair tower with an entrance, now partly blocked, inscribed "Girls". Several dormers similar to those on the main elevation are present, along with stack chimneys to the rear wall.

The building is designed in the Arts and Crafts Free style.