Armadale Primary School, Academy Street, Armadale

Armadale Primary School, Academy Street, Armadale

This is a former Armadale Public Schools complex comprising three school buildings erected between 1878 and 1911 on a large corner site at Academy Street and High Academy Street.

The primary school, built in 1911, is a substantial 2-storey, mezzanine and partial basement structure with a near square-plan of 14 bays. The building incorporates the original 1878 classroom wing into its fabric. It is now connected via a late 20th-century link to the circa 1906 nursery school (formerly a detached junior school), which also includes office accommodation and a gymnasium.

The primary school is constructed of squared and snecked sandstone rock-faced rubble with a deep basecourse on the ground sloping to the north. It features string courses, strip pilasters, and gabled flanking bays, with a large central double-height hall with a hammerbeam roof.

The principal east elevation is symmetrical across 14 bays, arranged 4-6-4. An advanced 2-storey and mezzanine central block of 6 bays features full-height strip pilasters framing bipartite windows at all floors, with single windows to the penultimate bays on right and left. Carved date panels to the penultimate bays at first floor read "AD 1878" and "AD 1911". A moulded string course sits above the mezzanine level and first floor windows, with a strip pilastered and moulded parapet above. The flanking 4-bay recessed classroom blocks have finialled outer strip pilasters. Entrance porches sit at the re-entrant angles with 2-leaf timber boarded doors to the outer returns and 2-pane fanlights (the north entrance has an 8-pane fanlight). The parapet above is moulded and curved with a central carved polyhedron finial. Two small windows sit above the parapet at the mezzanine level to the right and left returns of the central block, with a single window centred above. The remaining windows are transomed and mullioned, flanked by single transomed windows to the outer bays, with straight hoodmoulds above the ground floor windows. Moulded and pedimented gable ends feature carved thistle apex finials.

The north and south elevations display a similar transomed and mullioned window arrangement to the principal elevation. The north elevation includes a basement floor with 2 timber-boarded doors and several blocked window openings. The west rear elevation features large first floor single windows opening onto the double-height hall, positioned above the 1878 projecting classroom wing.

The 1878 classroom wing is a single storey pitched roof structure attached to the 1911 block to the east and connected to the 1906 nursery school to the west via a modern link. Its north and south elevations feature tripartite windows, single windows and a ventilator opening, though the tripartite window to the south is blocked. The west elevation has single and bipartite windows with horizontal roof lights to the centre and left. The roofs are pitched, covered in grey slates with flat-headed skews and coped squared skewputts. Corniced and splayed ashlar gable apex stacks with circular clay cans sit atop the main school; the 1878 classroom wing has coped and shouldered ashlar gable apex stacks with octagonal clay cans.

Windows throughout are predominantly 15-pane timber sash and case windows with horns and 6-pane timber transom light windows.

The interior is planned around an expansive double-height hall. Ground floor classrooms are arranged to the north, south and west of the hall. The entrance block to the east contains a massive double metal staircase with faience tiled dado leading to the headmaster's rooms and faience tiled cloakrooms, with access to first floor classrooms to the north and south of the hall. The hall features a tongue and groove timber dado, large round-arched window lights to north and south classrooms at ground and first floor levels, and a platform stage recessed into the east wall. The hammerbeam roof springs from carved stone corbels. Cantilevered and bracketed timber balustraded galleries to the north and south feature carved timber finials to newel posts, with timber framed open galleries to the east opening onto the staircase. The 1878 classrooms to the west, originally three classrooms, have been converted to two, with simple hammerbeam construction to the roof.

The nursery school, built circa 1906, is a single storey and basement structure with a 12-bay rectangular plan. It is constructed of squared and snecked sandstone rubble. Play shelters, now blocked, are built into the basement to the rear in ground sloping to the north. Breaking eaves dormer windows face north and south. A lofty hammerbeam roof hall with Venetian windows in the gables is flanked by large classrooms to the north and south. An internal stair to the northwest leads to the former basement play shelters. A wide porch entrance faces west; the entrance to the east has been removed to accommodate the modern link access. Windows are predominantly 15-pane timber with plate glass tilt and pivot transom windows above. Pitched roofs are covered in grey slates with flat-headed skews, coped squared skewputts, corniced and splayed ashlar gable apex stacks and circular clay cans.

The former infant school, located to the southeast of the site and detached from the other school buildings, dates to circa 1878. It is a single storey pavilion-plan structure, arranged as an H-plan with an additional central pavilion to the south, containing eight bays. The structure is formed of squared and snecked stugged sandstone rock-faced rubble with hoodmoulds and breaking eaves dormers. A low single storey modern extension has been added to the right return of the southwest pavilion.

The symmetrical north (entrance) elevation features two bipartite breaking eaves pitched dormers to the centre recessed block, flanked by gable fronted porches with advanced single pitch bays in re-entrant angles. The end pavilions are advanced with pedimented tripartite windows. The east elevation has three single windows to the central gabled section with a thistle finial, flanked by single breaking eaves dormer windows. The south elevation (facing High Academy Street) has a central advanced pavilion with two bipartite mullioned and transomed windows and a hoodmould above, with identical advanced end pavilions featuring hoodmoulded tripartite windows. The west elevation contains three single central windows flanked by single breaking eaves catslide dormer windows.

The infant school is covered in grey slates with raised flat-headed skews, cyma reversa skewputts, corniced and shouldered gable apex stacks and two ridge stacks topped with conical clay cans. The interior preserves the original layout with a large central school room and large classrooms to the end pavilions. Tongue and grooved timber dados remain, along with original fireplaces retained in most rooms. A small decorative wall mirror and some original cupboards survive.

Boundary walls of coped coursed rubble run along the south (High Academy Street) and north (behind the primary school) sides of the site. Square-plan gatepiers to the south feature bell-cast caps.