Plymouth High School for Girls (Part) South Devon and Cornwall Institute for Blind is a Grade II listed building in the Plymouth local planning authority area, England. First listed on 1 May 1975. Institute. 7 related planning applications.

Plymouth High School for Girls (Part) South Devon and Cornwall Institute for Blind

WRENN ID
carved-span-meadow
Grade
II
Local Planning Authority
Plymouth
Constituency
Plymouth Sutton and Devonport MP: Luke Pollard (Lab)
Country
England
Date first listed
1 May 1975
Type
Institute
Address
Plymouth High School for Girls (Part) South Devon and Cornwall Institute for Blind, North Hill, City of Plymouth, PL4 6HT
OS grid reference
SX 482 554
Coordinates
50.37897, -4.13499
Source
Historic England listing

Also on this page: sale history · EPC · related consents · flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

Plymouth High School for Girls (part), also known as the South Devon and Cornwall Institute for Blind, was constructed in 1876 by HG Snell. The building, formerly located on Tavistock Road, suffered damage during the Blitz, resulting in the demolition of its tower. It is built of Plymouth limestone rubble with sandstone dressings, featuring dry slate hipped roofs with modillioned eaves, and a stone and brick stack to the left of the taller central roof.

The building has a long rectangular plan and a symmetrical 4:5:4-bay front, with the central block projecting forward. Architectural details include a plinth, a mid-floor string, round-arched windows to the first floor, segmental-arched windows to the ground floor of the central block, and shouldered arches to the ground floor of the flanking wings. The piers between the windows form a giant order of pilasters, and the window openings have aprons containing original horned sashes. The central block is distinguished by hoodmoulds over the first-floor windows, with cusped-panelled friezes and central shields within the aprons. A central round-arched doorway, originally under a corbelled gabled hood with a central trefoil-headed niche, is now fitted with a window. The interior has not been inspected.

Local climate

Plymouth High School for Girls (Part) South Devon and Cornwall Institute for Blind sits in a wetter-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 970 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 77% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 89% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 9 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 92% of listed buildings. Of these, 3 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

More on this building

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  • Full EPC report — heating system, energy costs, size, glazing, construction etc.
  • Sale history — 11 transactions since 2009
  • Related listed building consents — 7 applications
  • Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
  • Flood risk assessment
  • Radon risk assessment
  • Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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