Air Balloon Hill Council Schools, Junior School

The junior school, built in 1905, is by Latrobe and Weston. It is constructed from pennant rubble with limestone ashlar dressings and has double Roman tile hipped and gabled roofs. The building comprises two similar groups arranged around central halls, with ranges of classrooms to each side. The design incorporates Art Nouveau detailing.

The SE block features a hall with gabled ends, large Venetian windows with a two-centred arched central window, side dormers, and a square ridge cupola with angle buttresses and a copper dome. A pair of gables on the front display tall central windows and lower flanking flat-headed windows, separated by shallow buttresses. Above these windows are segmental pediments framing ashlar panels inscribed “AIR BALLOON HILL” and “COUNCIL SCHOOLS” in an Art Nouveau-style font. A left return has three plain gables with segmental-arched heads over central windows, flanked by lower windows. The right return features a single-storey block with a left-hand doorway supported by corbelled lintels on round piers, and two gables similar to the left return. A parapeted section separates a right-hand doorway from a central raised window with a segmental-arched head and a shallow gabled parapet above.

Attached to the NE corner is a similar architectural group, with a central hall and ranges of three gables on each side. The front block has a segmental-arched doorway with round piers and domed tops, along with a right-hand doorway featuring a weathered lintel. A two-storey service block has a parapet and pyramidal roof, and a first-floor window with a recessed segmental-arched ashlar lintel.

The interior includes Art Nouveau-styled hammer beam roofs in the central halls. The junior school forms part of a larger grouping with the Infant School and Instruction Centre, sharing many architectural details. It is considered a fine example of a building by one of Bristol's few architects to experiment with Art Nouveau principles.