Arts Centre, 12 Washington Street, Glagow

The Arts Centre, located at 12 Washington Street, Glasgow, was designed by Henry E Clifford and built between 1889 and 1890 as a School Board school. The building is a three-storey structure with a basement, set on a rectangular plan, and exhibits Gibbsian architectural details, notably retaining its original windows. It is constructed from red bull-faced sandstone with ashlar dressings, featuring a first-floor sill course acting as a band to the principal elevation, a partial sill course to the second floor, a wallhead lintel band, and stone bracketed eaves.

The east-facing (Washington Street) elevation is nine bays wide, grouped as 2-5-2, and has roll-moulded arrises and keystones to the ground floor windows. The first-floor windows have roll-moulded and architraved surrounds, banding, a keystone, and cornice. An inscribed band above the first-floor cill reads 'Washington Street - School Board of Glasgow - Public School'. A stone porch is located to the left of the central bay group, featuring a pedimented stone-mullioned bipartite window with a lintel inscribed 'Infants'. The remaining bays have regular fenestration.

The north and south elevations have tall, advanced pedimented doorways in the bays to the penultimate east side. Recessed doors are situated below multi-pane fanlights, with keystones breaking into the pediments over the lintels, which are inscribed 'Boys' and 'Girls' respectively. Bipartite stair windows are positioned above the entrances. The fenestration is near-regular in four bays to the west and one bay to the east, with a blank wallplane at the outer east side.

The west-facing (Clyde Street) elevation is eight bays wide with near-regular fenestration, with blank bays to the outer left at ground and first floor levels. The basement incorporates a play-shelter with three square-headed openings, and a door and three windows to the left. The glazing patterns are tiered by floor, with timber sash and case windows; the ground floor utilizes 4-pane glazing, the first floor features stylised glazing in the upper sash, and the second floor uses a 3-pane upper sash. The roof is grey slate, piended, and features curtailed leaded 'Munn's' ventilators as ridge finials at the head of the piends and a central ridge. A stone wallhead stack is present.

The interior maintains a well-detailed decorative scheme arranged in a tripartite layout running east-west. Former infants’ school classrooms are located at the east front, with further classrooms on the west front. Entrances and staircases are centrally positioned on the north and south entrance elevations. A central, galleried, top-lit hall is present, featuring keystoned round arches to the second-floor gallery and pilasters to the first floor. Decorative iron railings surround the well, with shield ends to the supporting metal joists. Sections of boarded dado and occasional keystoned archways are also present.

The school perimeter is defined by coped red sandstone dwarf walls with original iron railings and square section sandstone gatepiers. The gatepiers to the main pedestrian gates have domed caps. Stone steps with railings lead to the changing levels of the falling ground by the west elevation.