Old School And Railings To Front

The Old School and its front railings, located on Fore Street in Port Isaac, were built in 1877 by Silvanus Trevail. Originally serving as a school and schoolmaster's house, it has since been converted into a hotel. The building features stone rubble construction, partly rendered, with freestone dressings, and a steeply sloping slate roof that is coated in bitumen. The roof is adorned with decorative 19th-century fish scale slates and crested ridge tiles, along with brick chimney stacks.

The structure consists of two large school rooms arranged in a U-shaped plan, with the entrance located near the center. The right-hand wing has been extended to include a cross wing that contains the schoolmaster's house, which follows a two-room plan. The building is designed in a Gothic style and has two storeys with asymmetrically placed gables, creating picturesque elevations that face the harbour and Fore Street.

The entrance features a dressed freestone tower with three stages and a turret, and there is a memorial plaque above the entrance that, although eroded, lists the benefactors, architect, and date of construction. The left-hand projecting wing, which overlooks the harbour, was originally a single storey with three lancet windows. The elevation facing Fore Street includes a projecting gable on the left and another gable near the center.

Inside, the building retains pitch pine panelling, doors, and doorcases, some of which have been reset. The decorative roof structures feature principals pierced with quatrefoils. The contemporary railings at the front on Fore Street are complemented by two pairs of freestone gate-piers, which are square in plan and rise to octagonal shapes with moulded copings. The building presents important elevations to both the harbour and Fore Street.