Nos 16 And 17 Incorporating The Former National Schools

The building comprises numbers 16 and 17, incorporating the former National Schools, dated 1842 and designed by Manners (of Bath). It is symmetrical in design, although the left-hand block may have been an addition. The building is in an Elizabethan style, featuring a projecting central gable and two projecting subsidiary gables. It is constructed of dressed stone, with two and a half storeys.

The central gable houses a two-storey square bay with seven lights, mullion and transom glazing, a Tudor rose cornice, and a blocking course. A scroll inscribed "National A.D. MDCCCXLII Schools" sits between the first and second floors. Each gable has two stepped kneelers on each side. An attic window with two lights, a drip mould, and a worn corbel (formerly supporting a statue) is located in the main gable. The flanking wings each have a central gabled break, featuring apex finials and two-light mullion windows; single-light windows are present in the attics, while mullion and transom windows appear on the ground floor, alongside single-light windows. All windows have drip moulds. Doorways are positioned on either side of the central break, with Tudor arches and drip moulds above. A scrolled inscription reading "Boys' School" is on the left, and “…Girls' School” on the right, both in Gothic lettering. The building has slate roofs with gable ends and three octagonal chimney stacks on the left-hand side. A long, cross-ridged extension is located at the rear.

A remnant of the former open balustraded street-wall, with an arcaded balustrade and weathered coping, is visible in front of number 16, along with two piers with weathered set-off capping.

Numbers 16 to 19, incorporating the former National Schools, form a group with numbers 1 to 4 Union Street Almshouses, the street-wall fronting the almshouses, number 9, and St James’s Hall, Union Street.