Centre for Greater Self Awareness (The Old Ragged School)

The building is a large former Ragged School, prominently featuring a striking, symmetrical red brick facade in a Wrenaissance style. It was founded in 1847 and significantly rebuilt in 1911. The front elevation is two storeys high and comprises three bays, with an open pediment supported on banded brick pilasters over an advanced central bay. A bracket cornice links the pediment to the pilasters of the outer bays, which have plain parapets in front of a slated roof with a gabled and slated opening over a hipped end. A large round-arched window sits within the pediment, featuring a masonry keystone, brick voussoirs, and small-pane glazing with thermal treatment to the head. A band course runs along the elevation, beneath a stone tablet inscribed "RAGGED SCHOOL. Founded 1847. Rebuilt 1911." A multiple brick arched doorway, reminiscent of the style of Edwin Lutyens, has a radiating fanlight and double three-panel doors, leading up three stone steps. The outer bays contain small recessed oculi with stone keyblocks above a band course, over segmental-headed lights (blind to the left-hand side), featuring keystones and small-pane glazing. Foundation stones, dated August 24th 1911, are set into the bases of the pilasters.

A two-storey and basement five-bay brick elevation faces Richard's Place, with taller end bays and banded quoins. The upper floor’s centre features three thermal-style windows, while other windows are segmental-headed, all incorporating stone keystones; plain lintels are present to the basement level. A small two-storey extension serves as a stair tower to the extreme left.

The main doorway leads into a vestibule, flanked by an office (separated from the main hall by a panelled and glazed partition) and an open-well staircase with stone treads and a metal handrail. A vertical T-beam has been incorporated into the stairwell for additional structural support. The main hall, created by combining former classrooms, has tall cast-iron columns supporting full-width timber floor beams. Plain boarded dados conceal fireplace openings along the inner wall. Original panelled and boarded doors remain. A polygonal pulpit front, originally located on the upper floor, has been relocated to the hall.

The upper floor, formerly used as a chapel, retains four large timber trusses with bolted joints to collar beams and kingposts, featuring curving braces. Angle braces to the wall posts rest on stone corbels. A boxed-in bell housing is situated within the sloping ceiling of the first roof bay from the street end. Arched thermal-style windows are present on the outer side, with stripped fireplaces along the inner wall. The far gable wall still shows an arched opening, flanked by doorways to twin extensions for services and a staircase with matching detail. The basement contains shuttered concrete cross beams and a ceiling supported by cast iron columns; a blocked doorway within the stairwell formerly connected to wartime bomb shelters located beneath the Old Police Station.