24 Kippen Street, Glasgow

24 Kippen Street, Glasgow

A Queen Anne style school designed by architect J Austen Laird between 1929 and 1931, with minor later alterations undertaken by Robert W K C Rogerson in 1960.

The school is laid out in an E-shaped plan comprising a 2-storey entrance block with a piended roof, linked by flat-roofed single-storey bays to splayed, single-storey gabled classroom ranges that bound a playground. A tall gabled school hall projects from the centre rear of the main block into the playground.

The building is constructed in brick with red sandstone ashlar dressings, including a brick base course and ashlar eaves course. Roofs are covered with grey slates. Windows throughout feature small-pane glazing patterns in sash and case and top-hopper windows.

The entrance block is a 2-storey, 3-bay rectangular block positioned on a corner site with falling ground. It features a cornice, banded quoins, and a slightly projecting red sandstone ashlar doorpiece with a broken segmental pediment. The moulded door surround contains an ashlar panel above, and the doors themselves are 2-leaf and panelled. The 1st floor window has a moulded architrave with a keystoned frame; a blocking course is raised behind the pediment with scroll flanks. The outer bays have tripartite windows to each floor with red sandstone mullions and lintels, fitted with flush glazing. The 2-bay return elevations each adjoin a linking bay towards the rear, with a window towards the entrance elevation and two 1st floor windows. End stacks are banded and corniced in brick.

The single-storey linking bays feature an ashlar parapet. Convex entrance bays flank the main block (formerly serving the Girls and Boys classroom wings respectively), with segmentally pedimented entrance bays, broadly moulded and keystoned ashlar door surrounds, and panels in the parapet above. One door has been blocked and converted to a window; another is blocked entirely. Four-bay rectangular-plan blocks with continuous parapets flank and link to the classroom ranges.

The classroom ranges display 6 bays to each roadside elevation, divided by banded brick pilasters with 2 bipartite brick-mullioned windows to each bay. The playground elevation originally featured open corridors, which Rogerson altered in 1960 to create an enclosed form using new reinforced concrete columns. Clerestorey lights have been retained, with 2 groups of 3 double-pane lights to each bay.

The school hall is a tall, 5-bay rectangular-plan structure with a gabled roof, projecting into the playground from the centre rear of the main block. High windows line each bay at the sides, with broad doors below in the outer bays. A square-section stalk adjoins one end gable and is flanked by upper windows, with a flat-roofed heating chamber and WC facilities projecting at ground level. The hall roof features a long gabled and louvred ventilator. A covered play area is positioned at the playground end.

The janitor's house at 24 Kippen Street is a single-storey and attic structure of square plan, designed in Queen Anne style as a gate lodge. It is built in brick with a base course and banded quoins. The piended roof is covered with slate and features slate-hung dormers. The principal doorway is fitted with a corniced and consoled timber porch-canopy, flanked by narrow windows with a dormer above. The 2-bay side elevations have windows at ground level and dormers above; a door to the playground elevation is blocked. The rear elevation has a single central window with a dormer above. Windows throughout are small-pane and plate glass sash and case. The eaves are overhanging and the roof is covered with grey slates. A corniced and banded brick stack rises at the centre.

The boundary treatment comprises pairs of banded brick gatepiers with cream ashlar pyramidal caps. Low brick retaining and boundary walls have ashlar coping and support wrought-iron railings with decorative panels. Gates are detailed similarly in wrought iron. A coped brick parapet bounds ashlar steps leading to the main entrance, flanked by terraced walls.