Curriehill Primary School, Lanark Road West

Curriehill Primary School, Lanark Road West

This complex comprises a former board school (now library), a former high school (now primary school), and associated structures, set on steeply falling ground to the north.

The library building was designed by William Baillie in 1903. It is a single-storey, six-bay structure in plain Art Nouveau style, built of square snecked rubble with red sandstone ashlar dressings. The roof features a moulded and corniced eavescourse forming skews, with overhanging timber bracketed eaves. Multiple gables and a prominent central ventilator are key design features.

The south (entrance) elevation is symmetrical with six bays. The outer bays are slightly advanced with shaped gable apexes, each containing transomed and mullioned tripartite windows. Doors are positioned to the penultimate bays left and right, with two bipartite windows to the centre. A large central square-plan timber ventilator has a shallow bellcast lead roof, tall finial, and large four-pane roof lights to left and right. The east elevation features a wide gable to the right with three windows (the central one tall) and an arrow slit to the gable apex; a tall breaking eaves dormer with round arched head, and a small blocked window to the left. The west elevation is similar to the east. The north (rear) elevation is symmetrical with four bays, slightly advanced outer gables containing off-centre tall single windows, two paired windows to the centre bays, a coped chimney to mid roof, and four-pane rooflights flanking the ventilator.

The interior contains a kingpost timber roof and prominent round arches spanning the former central hall, with former classrooms surrounding it. Windows throughout are timber sash and case: smaller windows have six-pane upper sashes and two-pane lower sashes; larger windows have nine- and twelve-pane upper sashes and four-pane lower sashes. The roof is covered in grey slates with cast-iron rainwater goods featuring decorative hoppers.

The primary school building, constructed in the early 20th century, is a multi-storey structure of two to three storeys extending across 22 bays. It is linked to the library on the north side, where ground falls steeply. The south (entrance) elevation displays regular fenestration with predominantly bipartite windows and slightly advanced four- and five-bay pavilion ends; entrances occur at the sixth and eighteenth bays, with a central entrance porch connecting to the former primary school. The building is rendered with concrete cills and dressings and a deep concrete block basecourse. The north (rear) elevation includes an advanced two-storey gambrel-roofed gym block at the centre and piended stair towers to left and right (all part of the original school plan); the gym block features tripartite eight-pane metal windows to the upper storey. A mid-20th century brick-clad pitched-roof assembly hall stands to the northwest with full-height glazing to the north. Later additions include a four-storey classroom block to the east and a late twentieth-century flat-roofed curved formal entrance to the northwest.

The interior contains extensive timber-boarded dado panelling throughout, plain cast-iron metal railings, and mahogany handrails to stairwells. The original dressing rooms to the gym block remain completely intact with timber boarding and original dressings. Windows in the original block are twelve-pane timber sash and case; the early gym block has eight-pane cast-iron windows with bottom hoppers. The roof is covered in grey slates. A mid-20th century hall stands to the northwest of the plan; various later additions extend to the north.

A flat-roofed brise-block and rendered corridor link, straddling the left-hand gable of the library, connects the library to the primary school.

The boundary walls and railings date to 1903. A low round-coped red sandstone rubble boundary wall runs along the south elevation and partially along the east and west. At the central entrance gates to the south, the coping is dentilled. Plain cast-iron railings with inverted heart-shaped finials are regularly spaced along the fence.