Chatham Ragged School

Chatham Ragged School

This is a former ragged school built in 1858 to designs by J Young, with extensions added in the late 19th and 20th centuries.

The building is constructed of yellow stock brick with red brick bands and dressings on a rendered plinth. The roof is covered in concrete tiles. The windows of the schoolroom are multi-pane iron casements, while windows to the later extensions are timber casements and sliding sashes.

The building is sited on a hill sloping upwards to the north-east, with the original rectangular structure oriented with its wide front elevation facing south-east. The original plan comprises a tall single-volume space, formerly the schoolroom, of approximately double-square dimensions, entered via an internal lobby. A shallow pitched roof originally ran down to a catslide across the rear, covering a range of five small cellular rooms. This arrangement largely survives internally, though the small rooms have been reconfigured. The catslide has been removed and a second floor with a flat roof added over the small rooms. A narrow single-storey brick-built range was added at right angles to the rear in the late 19th century and was later extended upwards with a flat-roofed first floor, possibly at the same time as the second floor was added to the rear of the original building. A small single-storey extension has been added at the end of this range.

The front elevation presents a simple, symmetrical three-bay arrangement. The central bay is gable-ended, containing a tall, wide doorway with red brick dressings and a segmental arch, above which is an inset stone sign with red brick dressing carved with the words "RAGGED SCHOOL". To either side is a tall multi-paned iron-framed window with a red brick segmental head. The bays are framed by wide, shallow brick piers.

The side elevations have three window openings; those on the south-west retain their iron windows, while those on the north have been bricked up. Both gable ends display the date 1858 in coloured brickwork. The south-west elevation continues northward beyond the original building with yellow stock brick at ground floor, reflecting the late 19th-century extension, while the first floor has rough-cast render. The rear elevations are finished in painted render at ground floor and rough-cast above.

The main door leads into a shallow entrance lobby with doors to either side, opening into the single open space of the former schoolroom. The walls are now bare brick, apparently sand-blasted, though they may originally have been whitewashed or plastered. At the wall heads are small ventilation hatches with wooden covers.

A carved stone foundation stone reads: "THIS STONE / WAS LAID BY / HARRIET / LADY OF / SIR FREDERICK SMITH, K.H / M.P. TO THIS BOROUGH / OCTOBER 7th 1858"

Two chimney breasts are positioned in the spine wall between the schoolroom and the small rooms to the rear, one in each half of the room. The fireplace openings survive, though the original surrounds do not.

A free-standing steel mezzanine has been inserted into the north half of the schoolroom space, with the floor lowered to accommodate it.

The roof features queen-post trusses. Markings on the rafters suggest that the original lath and plaster ceiling was vaulted, with the trusses exposed up to collar height. Above collar height, some pipe-work survives, possibly vestigial remains of a gas lighting system. The original ceiling has been removed and replaced with a boarded ceiling at tie beam level.

The small rooms to the rear of the schoolroom have undergone some remodelling, with two apparently opened up to form one, one made into a through route to the rear of the building, and one made accessible from outside only. Markings on an 1866 plan suggest that two of these rooms may have originally been wash rooms with corner coppers. They are now toilets and stores with late 20th-century finishes and fittings.

The rooms in the late 19th-century extension are now used as offices with modern finishes. The upper rooms were not inspected.