Entrance Archway And Flanking Walls To The Royal High School

The entrance archway and flanking walls to the Royal High School were built around 1858 by James Wilson. Constructed from quarry-faced limestone with ashlar dressings, the structure is designed in a Gothic style. The main arch features a plinth that supports pilaster buttresses, a trefoil-headed panel, and a gable above. The die into the piers steps up over a three-centred arch that carries a royal achievement of arms at its apex, which was likely added when the school became the Royal School for Daughters of Army Officers in 1865. The gateway is flanked by paired colonnettes with stiff leaf capitals on either side. The arch itself has three orders and a drip mould with portrait stops, and it is fitted with modern wrought iron gates. To the right, there is a smaller footgate with a three-centred arch and a stepped head with moulded coping. A castellated wall extends for about fifty meters above the gate and somewhat less below. The remaining rubble wall along Lansdown Road and the return onto Charlcombe Lane, as well as the rear of the school facing Richmond Road, is not of special interest.