Lower School, Portsmouth Grammar School

The Lower School of Portsmouth Grammar School, built in 1879, is a red brick building in Flemish bond with stone dressings, designed by AE Cogswell. It is constructed in a Neo-Jacobean style and has an H-shaped layout. The exterior is two storeys with six bays, with two bays narrower than the others. The central three bays form an arcade with round-headed openings. The central opening contains a pair of doors, each with eight panes and a sixteen-pane fanlight. Flanking doors have three-light casements with eighteen panes and sixteen-pane fanlights, each set under a round brick arch with a keystone and stone imposts. Stone oculi with fixed casements are located to the left and right of the arcade. A stone moulded cornice runs along the top. The first-floor windows include stone mullions and transomed twelve-light casements, set under flat stone lintels with rusticated stone jambs and sills, and face stone coped gables with a ball finial at the apex. A timber boarded bellcote, with an ogee-shaped leaded roof and a lead ball finial, rises at roof level above the centre bay. Projecting bays flank the left and right sides, each featuring a pair of half-glazed doors under a flat stone lintel with rusticated stone jambs. The first and second floors of these bays have two-light wide stone mullioned casements, similarly treated. The far left and right projecting wings have four-light wide eight-light casements on the ground floor and three-light wide nine-light casements on the first floor, with stone mullions, transoms, jambs, a stone coped gable, and stone ball and finial details. A recessed wing to the left has four-light wide eight-light casements on the ground and first floors, also facing a stone coped gable with a ball finial. Details are consistent on the returns and rear elevations. The interior was not inspected.