Berwickshire High School, Langtongate, Duns

Berwickshire High School, located on Langtongate in Duns, is a large, modern school building constructed in 1938 by J and F Johnston, and officially opened in 1958. Subsequent alterations and additions have been made, notably the inclusion of a swimming pool complex between 1967 and 1968. The building is a long, low, two-storey structure with fifty bays and numerous associated outbuildings, including a former janitor’s house to the northeast and the swimming pool complex to the northwest. It is constructed with harled walls and brickwork, featuring concrete dressings and a brick base course, with a continuous cill course.

The principal south-east facing elevation is divided into three sections. The central, sixteen-bay section is slightly advanced and taller, housing the main entrance with two single-storey, irregularly shaped projecting wings flanking a recessed, glazed entrance area sheltered by a canopy. To the left of the central section, twenty-seven bays provide continuous fenestration. To the right of the assembly hall, seven bays feature a large, three-part canopied studio window set within a brick panel, with the bays stepping back slightly towards the outer right, culminating in a tall brick stack in the re-entrant angle. The rear elevation includes a door to the right and projecting wings to the left, which have been incorporated into a later wing to the northwest, creating a courtyard with a jettied first-floor level supported by concrete pillars, providing an aisle effect. The southwest elevation displays a taller blank brick wall plane with a decorative diaper pattern of raised bricks, and lower, rendered stair bays to the left, featuring a framed stair window at the center.

A rectangular gymnasium has a rendered wall to door lintel height, surmounted by a taller, glazed section resembling clerestory windows with a grid pattern. Two doorways are surrounded by concrete slabs. The interior is fully equipped. A simple, harled, gabled games hall serves as a squash court and was built in 1976.

The windowless, harled swimming pool complex is composed of cubic blocks with an entrance on the southwest side. The wallheads of these blocks are punctuated by black reeded panels and capped with a flat roof.

The former janitor’s house, located to the northeast of the main range, is currently used as a dental/medical centre and music block and is rectangular in plan, mirroring the original design. It has a piend roof covered in pantiles and distinctive en suite concrete box window frames.

The majority of windows are metal-framed casement and top-hopper windows with regular glazing patterns; some have been replaced with uPVC and others retain concrete "box" frames. The flat roofs have coped wallheads.

Interior features observed include classrooms with period corridor lights featuring mottled glass, and a terrazzo floor in the main hall.