Wrought Iron Railings And Gates, Caledonian Road Primary School Including Advanced Department Building, Caledonian Road

This is a late 19th-century school building, constructed in 1892, along with a later annex dating from 1900. The primary school is of rectangular plan and is three stories high, built in a free Jacobean style. It occupies a prominent corner location. The building is constructed from squared and snecked red sandstone with ashlar margins. Features include a base course, cill course, band course, and cornice. It incorporates Dutch gables and bipartite windows with stone mullions and transoms, with some windows being round-headed. The main, western elevation has a central, advanced Dutch gabled section with a swan-necked gablehead featuring a niched, segmental-arched detail. A central entrance portico to the ground floor is adorned with a finely carved pediment supported by applied Tuscan columns. Flanking the portico are recessed three-bay areas, each with a Dutch style wallhead gable. A steel escape stair has been added to the left recessed area. The northern and southern elevations feature a four-bay recessed section to the centre, with a central wallhead Dutch gable, and are flanked by advanced two-bay Dutch gables.

The windows are predominantly timber, featuring fixed lights with top hoppers. The roof is covered in grey Cumberland slates, and tall ashlar sandstone stacks rise from the central ridge. Timber panelled doors are present, some of which are part-glazed with decorative brasswork.

The interior of the school is centrally planned and features a large, double-height atrium. This atrium has hammerbeam roof trusses supported by hemi-spherical arches, accommodating interlocking but separate stairs for girls and boys. Oval light wells illuminate the first-floor landings. Classrooms and cloakrooms occupy the north and south sides of the ground and first floors. Retractable timber and glass partitions provide flexibility within the classrooms. A mezzanine second floor provides classrooms to the four corners and long, multi-use spaces to the north and south, characterised by exposed, cast-iron, arched roof beams. Decorative wrought iron balusters, carved timber handrails, double tongue and groove timber boarding, and classically detailed timberwork are found throughout.

The advanced department building, located to the northeast, is a two-story and attic, five-bay annex with advanced end bays. It is constructed from red sandstone with smooth margins, and has key-stoned, segmental-arched openings to the ground floor. The north-facing street elevation features Ionic pilasters on the first story. A part-glazed entrance door is complemented by a multi-pane, semi-circular fanlight and side lights.

Original wrought iron railings and gates remain along the western and southeastern site boundaries. The railings have a rounded stone base and are supported by wrought iron piers featuring stylised floreate designs. Stanchions have alternating voluted and spiked finials.