Former Boscombe British And Foreign School

Former Boscombe British and Foreign School

A school built in 1878-9 in Gothic style, constructed of red brick laid to English bond with buff brick and stone dressings and a slate roof. The building is single storey and square on plan, consisting of two schoolrooms with a central stack. The roof is cross-shaped with transepts over the main south-facing schoolroom. The schoolroom to the north facing Gladstone Road is smaller, with small corridors to either side. The school has been extended to the south; this extension is not included in the listing.

The north elevation has a central gable with three large lancet windows with stone drip mould with foliate stops and stone sill. Above this, at the apex of the gable, is a triangular vent, again with drip mould. Beneath the main window is a weathered date stone, now illegible. To either side of the gable are three-light windows with stone surrounds, under lower roofs, which light the corridors.

The east elevation has a large gable to the left (south) with a Gothic-arched tripartite window with chamfered brick mullions with moulded stone drip mould with foliate stops, and buff and red brick basket weave pattern infill. Above this is a trefoil coloured light in the apex of the gable. To the right of this the corridor has moulded stone eaves; the original entrance has been bricked in. To the right of this, under a small gable, a Gothic-arched window also has stone drip mould. Both this small gable and the larger one have verge coping on moulded kneelers and finials. The central brick stack has a stepped cap with moulded stone courses. The west elevation mirrors the east; the rear, southern elevation is masked by the later extension.

The southern, larger schoolroom has a complex close-boarded roof. The architect made a feature of the cross-shaped roof by interlacing the timbers at the intersection of the scissor-braced roofs which cover the main body of the room and the transepts. The trusses rest on rounded moulded corbels. There is a large double doorway to the south (rear) and two single doorways to either side of the stack on the north wall, giving access to the corridor, all of which are under brick segmental arches. A doorway has been inserted to the left of the stack. Both schoolrooms have brick fire surrounds with brick gather and flue and mantel shelf on heavy stone brackets. The north, smaller schoolroom has a simple scissor truss, again resting on moulded corbels, with doorways to each side corridor.

The rapid growth of Boscombe from 1870 onwards necessitated increased educational provision; the small school attached to the Church of St Clements was soon overwhelmed. By the mid-1870s, it was felt that another, non-denominational facility should be provided, and the school was duly built in conjunction with the British and Foreign Schools Society. The foundation stone was laid on 21 August 1878 by Sir Percy Shelley (the son of Percy Bysshe Shelley and Mary Shelley), who lived locally in what is now called Shelley Manor. The school was officially opened in 1879 and consisted of two rooms, the larger one to the south for older children. It quickly became too small for purpose and was extended to the south a number of times between 1895 and 1903, at which point it became a council school. It continued in use as a school until c.1960s when it was used as a children's theatre, and from the 1990s was run by Bournemouth Borough Council as an adult education centre.