School of Art

The School of Art is a monumental, symmetrical building designed in a classical style, constructed with red brick facings and pale freestone dressings. It has two storeys, an attic, and a basement. The advanced centre and end bays feature slate pavilion roofs, although the centre roof was destroyed during the Second World War. A tower at the centre includes tripartite arched windows. The building has a main dentilled cornice with solid parapets and a plain frieze. The upper floor is adorned with banded quoins, while the lower section has angle and fluted pilasters. The windows are arranged in a 2-4-1-4-2 pattern, with the outer bays featuring fluted tympana and inscribed tablets. The inner bays have swagged and fluted oculi above pedimented and keyblocked studio windows.

The central aedicule has an oriel treatment, flanked by niches and an elaborate overthrow with reclining figures. The ground floor features arched and keyblocked windows with linked impost bands and panelled aprons, while the segmental, keyblocked basement windows are set behind area railings. Most of the glazing is T-frame style.

On the far right, there is a set-back bay that maintains a similar style, with a glazed top storey and a two-bay return elevation. The street-facing porch has a segmental pedimented doorcase, panelled pilasters, and a carved tympanum. The main doorcase is arched and pilastered, featuring foliage carving on the spandrels and keyblock, with sliding double doors and quadrant parapets leading up to the steps. A smaller doorcase on the far left has a guilloche surround and is inscribed over the door beneath a glazed lunette, with a flying platform leading to the steps and six-panel doors.

Inside, the entrance hall features paired doorways leading up steps, an arched coffered ceiling in the vestibule, and elaborate timber pedimented doorcases with lunettes above. The lateral corridors are treated with arched and pilastered details. The rear Reading room showcases classical detailing with aisled, circular design. Cast iron columns with rich acanthus capitals support radiating timber bookcases that feature guilloche ironwork balconies and an entablature.