Tollcross Primary School, West Tollcross, Edinburgh

Tollcross Primary School, located in West Tollcross, Edinburgh, was designed by John A Carfrae and built in 1911. The rear section of the building now serves as a community centre and has undergone later alterations and additions to the sides and rear. The school is constructed from bull-faced sandstone, with squared and snecked stone at the base and sides, and cream-coloured polished ashlar dressings. A narrow cill course runs along the ground floor, and a cornice is visible at the eaves. Tall, banded chimney stalks divide the various bay groups.

The principal south elevation is symmetrical, featuring an 8-bay advanced section with a piend roof, topped with a finialled ventilator/lantern. The first floor is regularly fenestrated, with each pair of windows flanked by tall chimney stacks. A single-storey, projecting 8-bay entrance vestibule is set forward, with splayed corners and large round-arched glazed openings, accentuated by prominent keystones. The vestibule features glazed timber doors, positioned three bays in from each side, flanked by banded pilaster strips topped with pineapple finials. The outer bays are arranged in a 1-3-3 pattern; narrow stone-mullioned windows are found in the inner bays. The groups of three windows are flanked by tall banded chimney stalks with hood-corniced blank tablets on the first floor. The eaves cornice arches over the broader, banded windows in the second and fifth bays from the right and left.

The north rear elevation includes a projecting two-story gabled bay on the left, a modern rendered extension at ground level, and a four-light canted window on the first floor. A two-story timber glazed extension is located at the rear of the main block, and a three-story, three-bay projecting block sits centrally, with an eaves cornice and blocking. The windows on the ground and first floors are stone-mullioned two-light windows, while the outer bays feature stone-mullioned, three-light oriels with small leaded panes. Corniced stacks are at the corners; an entrance is located on the west elevation of this block, featuring a timber panelled door within a moulded surround with arched moulding above. Windows are set in a splayed corner at ground level, and the third floor has a stone-mullioned bipartite window and flanking single windows. A five-bay, two-story gabled projecting arm adjoins to the right, with three windows on the ground and second floors, and banded corner pilasters. A two-story timber glazed extension, dating from the 1950s, is attached to the east elevation of this projecting arm. The west elevation of this arm echoes the south elevation of the main block, with banded chimneys dividing the bays and an eaves cornice raised over the three central bays. A projecting, two-story, single-bay with an ogee roof sits at the far right.

The west elevation shows the gabled end of the main block to the right, with two-story timber glazed extensions in the centre and an ogee-roofed two-story bay on the left (with modern windows). The east elevation presents the gabled end of the main block to the left, featuring single windows at ground and first floor levels, and a banded chimney to the right. The east portion of the eastern projecting arm exhibits three single windows at ground and first floor levels to the left, and a modern window and banded chimney to the right.

The windows are predominantly timber sash and case windows with 24 panes of glass. The roof is covered with grey slates and stone skews. Tall, corniced, and banded stone wallhead stacks rise above the building, capped with circular cans. The interior was not inspected in 1999. The property is enclosed by low stone coped boundary walls with cast-iron railings. Ashlar gatepiers feature arched panels and dentilled corniced caps, along with decorative cast-iron gates.