Morgan Academy, Forfar Road, Dundee

Morgan Academy, Forfar Road, Dundee

A school designed by John Dick Peddie and Charles Kinnear between 1863 and 1868, altered in 1889 and enlarged between 1913 and 1915 by James H Langlands. The building commands a triangular site in the manner of a Flemish Gothic cloth hall. It is constructed of coursed rubble with ashlar dressings, buttressed, with a cill course at first floor level.

The main south elevation presents a symmetrical two-storey design with towered and gabled features. A central advanced tower, 120 feet high, is approached by steps with quatrefoil pierced balusters. A depressed-arched entrance with nook-shafts rises beneath an ogee hoodmould, set between angle buttresses. The first-floor window is mullioned and transomed with traceried mouchettes above and spiral nook-shafts at the angles. At the third stage, corbelled-out angle turrets are linked by a machicolated balcony over a triple-light window and clock. The steep slate roof features a two-tier richly carved ashlar dormer, a louvred traceried lantern with swept roof and lucarnes to each face, and conical fish-scale slate roofs with weathervanes to each turret. The flanking bays have oriels and crow-stepped gables. Cross windows with finialled dormer heads occupy the first floor. The advanced ends have three-light windows at ground level and two-light windows at first floor with traceried heads, topped by crow-stepped gables and tall circular chimney stacks.

The side elevations follow a similar style but are asymmetrical at the west, where a three-storey French-roofed stair block is positioned. The east elevation contains three first-floor pointed-arched traceried windows serving a former chapel. Stair blocks with very tall windows and swept pavilion roofs were added to the north of each elevation between 1913 and 1915, adjoining classroom ends featuring two-tier attics and M-gables. Tall stacks and ventilator ducts serve the building.

The north elevation is symmetrical at three storeys, with windows arranged in a 1-2-1 pattern and gablet dormer heads to bipartites. Mullioned half-height mezzanine windows occupy the crow-stepped ends. Advanced single-storey toilet blocks, demolished in 1992, formerly stood here. Art Nouveau stamen-type wrought-iron railings surround a ventilator intake. Slate roofs feature wrought-iron brattishing (missing from the east ridge and south front) and elaborate finials, with tall shafted stacks. Louvred fleche ventilators have lead-facetted swept roofs and ornate finials. A flat roof to the south of the rear addition, used for geographical and scientific observations, is edged with stamen-type railings. Top-hopper windows with vertical astragals removed from the 1860s block retain their original glazing pattern, mainly eight-pane top hoppers, on the north elevation.

The interior features corridors to courtyard elevations with timber partitions to classrooms in the 1860s section, and plastered walls in the 1913 section. Mezzanine balconies are now blocked. A false ceiling in the staff room, a former chapel, obscures a timber arched-braced roof. A Gothic-detailed war memorial by architects Thomas and Wilkie stands in the vestibule. The courtyard was roofed in 1889 to form a hall with a graceful arched steel lattice roof; a platform was fitted between 1913 and 1915, with a canted bay extending from the south block.

The janitor's house, built between 1863 and 1866, was raised from one to two storeys in 1915. It is rubble-built with three bays, a centre pointed-arched hoodmoulded door, and flanking bipartites with gablet dormer heads. Crow-stepped gables and end stacks complete the design, with a slate roof. A terrace to the front features quatrefoil pierced balustrades.

The boundary treatment includes a low boundary wall and four square ashlar gatepiers at Stobswell, with gates now missing. Similar gatepiers stand at each end of the terrace. Railings are missing except at the north part of Pitkerro Road, where Gothic cast and wrought-iron railings remain.