91 High Street And St James Hall (Formerly St James Rc School And Schoolhouse) Including Boundary Walls

91 High Street and St James Hall, originally St James Roman Catholic School and Schoolhouse, was built in 1876 by John Biggar, with later additions and alterations from the 20th century. This simple, gabled building features a gothic style and includes a two-storey schoolhouse at the rear, forming an L-shape, with paired entrance porches on the west side. A later 19th-century two-storey rendered extension is attached to the south gable of the schoolhouse. The structure is made of squared whinstone rubble with raised vermiculated quoins and window dressings, while the rear is rendered. A round-arched tripartite window on the north side has a trefoil above, and there are carved stone finials on the gables. The building has stop-chamfered margins and a single-storey extension on the side.

The school features diamond-paned leaded glazing, while the schoolhouse has timber sash and case windows along with modern casements in the 20th-century extension. The entrance doors are narrow and boarded, equipped with decorative strap hinges. The roof is covered with graded grey slates and has stone skews with beaked skewputts, along with a large rectangular ridge stack topped with octagonal clay cans.

The boundary walls consist of a low whin rubble wall with chamfered ashlar copes at the front.

Inside, the front section contains an open plan main hall with timber tongue and groove dado panelling on the walls and a black marble chimneypiece. The roof structure features an arched, king-post truss with ball bosses supported by carved stone corbels. There is a freestanding oak framed kitchen structure from the 21st century, which includes a spiral staircase leading to a mezzanine floor. The former schoolhouse at the rear retains its original stair with cast-iron banisters.