Gough Building, Bryanston School

The Gough Building at Bryanston School, originally called the Craft, Design and Technology Building, was built between 1986 and 1988 by the architectural practice CZWG.

The building is constructed of two storeys of load-bearing red brick cavity walls with white cast stone dressings. It has a rectangular plan with a central entrance providing access to a spiral staircase and an open plan ground floor workshop area. Cellular teaching, storage and ancillary rooms are located to the rear, with a new rear access to Bramall Hall beyond. The first floor contains classrooms accessed from a central corridor, which terminates in lobbies.

The front elevation features red brick laid in Flemish garden wall bond with white cast stone dressings. A central concave entrance bay (originally designed around a mature tree which failed to survive construction) is flanked by six wide bays. The bays are separated by giant order columns modelled on screws, made of white cast stone. The screw heads serve as sills to first-floor oeil de boeuf windows with projecting frames and 'mortar board' hood moulds. Between the columns are full-width multi-pane windows, some with central French doors. The central entrance door has a tall window above lighting the staircase within, flanked by two windows on each side which decrease in size to echo the curving form of the wall above.

The side elevations contain seven bays with curved profiles expressing the double barrel vaulted roof structure, with central pointed sections denoting the valley between the two main roof sections. The red brick and cast stone dressing echo the prominent quoins of the Norman Shaw building, and the first floor window profiles echo the roofline. The rear elevation was originally a loading bay and service area sheltered by curving screen walls. The central projecting bow has been altered to provide a central door giving access through the building. The screen wall to the north steps down while that to the south is ramped.

Internally, the main entrance on the east elevation opens into a small entrance foyer with a spiral stair giving access to the first floor. The metal stair has curved chrome handrails with the outer rail undulating at the half landing. The stair continues beyond the first floor for a further six steps before stopping, where it is blocked by a cantilevered block wall.

The ground floor is largely an open plan workroom with smaller rooms and ancillary spaces to the rear, served by a central rear corridor. On the first floor, a central corridor features exposed roof structure of zig-zag metal beams, with light fittings forming opposing zig-zags. The corridor walls are blockwork with plaster above, with slender panels marking points where structural beams occur above; skirting boards ramp down to either side of these panels. At each end, the corridor opens into small lobby areas. Some first floor classrooms are open to the barrel vaulted roof structure.