Former William Gibbs School

The former William Gibbs School, dated 1882, was built for Richard Gibbs, a tea planter, in memory of his brother, a local amateur archaeologist. The building is constructed in the Queen Anne style, of red brick with stone dressings, terracotta panels, and a tiled roof featuring alternating bands of scalloped and plain tiles, terracotta ridge tiles, and clustered ribbed brick chimney stacks.

The asymmetrical building has two storeys, an attic, and a basement. The south elevation features a brick dentil cornice, moulded bands, and a plinth. It has six windows. A projecting bay on the left side has a gabled attic, and a three-light bay window extending through the ground and first floors, flanked by pilasters and featuring triple-cambered sashes divided by stone fluted Ionic pilasters and keystones. A panelled parapet tops this feature. Terracotta panels between the ground and first floors depict a central female bust and flanking panels of apples. The second bay from the left has a tall sash window with horns and a keystone. A projecting two-storey porch is located in the third bay, with a tall sash window above a porch with a brick ogee arch, leading to a four-panelled door, the upper two panels glazed. The fourth bay contains a gabled attic with a single triple mullioned and transomed window and a three-light canted bay window to the ground and first floors. First-floor windows are arched and mullioned, with keystones. Ground floor windows are flat arched, divided by brick pilasters. The eastern elevation has a three-light canted bay with mullioned and transomed casements and floral terracotta panels above both the first and ground floors, along with semi-circular floral patterns. There is a projecting single-storey gabled section with buttresses and a six-light mullioned and transomed casement. A further two-storey portion includes a 1:2 window arrangement, featuring a five-light mullioned and transomed window and a two-light cambered window with a keystone on the ground floor. The west elevation has two gabled semi-dormers and a varied pattern of sash windows with keystones. Terracotta panels between floors are present, one depicting pomegranates and the other possibly oranges, and are dated 1882.