Inkpen Primary School

INKPEN PRIMARY SCHOOL

This school and schoolhouse was likely built around 1850 by G.E. Street, with school records indicating a date of 1877. The building is constructed of red brick with grey dressings and decorative tile hanging, featuring plain tiled roofs. Its design is irregular, forming a cruciform plan with extensions in the northeast corner; the school rooms extend to the north and east.

The school is a single-story building, while the schoolhouse is two stories high. A prominent chimney is located at the junction of the cross arms. Architectural details include a plinth, a moulded brick string at cill level on the school, a blue brick band at the first floor level on the house, and a moulded brick string at the first floor cill level on the house.

The west elevation features the school to the left, with four windows alternating between 2 and 3-light casements. The 2-light casements have cambered heads, while the 3-light casements have pointed arches that rise into eaves gables, with decorative tile hanging filling the tympanum. The roof extends over a boarded entrance door, which has a pointed arched fanlight and is sheltered by brackets at the junction with the schoolhouse. The schoolhouse projects forward with a gabled cross wing, which is tile-hung on the first floor, and features a 3-light window with coupled sliding sashes on the ground floor and a 2-light sash on the first floor beneath a pointed arch. To the right, a recessed gabled bay has a cross-glazed sash window above a large tiled porch supported by cut gothick timber supports, and a boarded door with two small glazed panels inside. A large 20th-century extension with a flat roof to the east is not considered of architectural interest. The schoolhouse interior retains original doors and a staircase.