Gladstone Infants School

Gladstone Infants School

A Queen-Anne style single-storey school built in red St Julian brick with Hartham Park Bath stone dressings. The slate roof sits behind coped gables on moulded kneelers, with 4 panelled brick ridge stacks and 2 eaves stacks visible on the front elevation.

The building follows a double-depth plan. The front block contains a classroom facing Pentyrch Street, behind which lies an assembly hall with additional classrooms, cloak rooms and offices. The roofs are hipped towards the rear, facing a central valley.

The 5-bay front elevation features an advanced central bay with outer gabled bays projecting further forward, each with Flemish gables. The windows are replacements in their original openings, set with a plain sill band and vents beneath each window. The central bay contains 3 stepped windows with corbelled pilasters between them; further pilasters rise from keyed lintels to a blank entablature with scrolled sides and a gable pediment cornice, finished with obelisk and ball finials. The pediment contains 2 vents. On either side of the centre, 3-window bays hold stepped windows, their central window framed by pilasters on guttae rising to a blank entablature with scrolled sides and a segmental pediment above the eaves. The outer bays have stacks rising from the eaves to their inner sides.

The gable ends display 3 stepped windows with corbelled pilasters between them and further pilasters carried on keyed lintels, rising to blank entablatures with scrolled sides and gable pediment cornices crowned with obelisk and ball finials at the ends. Each pediment has 2 vents. The outer side walls contain 2 windows offset towards the rear.

Entrances to the main corridors in the wider rear block are set back at each end. Both feature replaced doors, an entablature with 'Infants' engraved below a cornice, and are framed by corbelled pilasters. Above the south doorway is the cloak room parapet; the north doorway projects slightly forward.

The north end wall facing Whitchurch Road displays a scroll-stepped verge below a pedimented gable. In the lower storey are 7 narrow small-pane cloak room windows, above which are 2 groups of triple windows framed by corbelled pilasters, blank aprons, entablature and moulded cornice. Set further back to the right are 2 lower-storey windows.

The rear block features a central 5-window hall flanked by 3-window advanced gabled bays. Each has tall segmental-headed windows—3-light to the hall, 3-light flanked by 2-light to the gabled bays. A further 2-storey gabled bay on the left houses offices, with 5 windows in the lower storey (concrete steps leading to a boiler room below) and 2 windows in the upper storey flanking a central corbelled flue, reduced below the eaves.

At the right (south) end is a lower cloak room wing with 4 small-pane windows and a brick parapet with stone coping over a moulded cornice. Its south end wall has 8 similar small-pane windows with sill band and a continuous freestone lintel.

The corridors leading from the main north and south doorways provide access to the classrooms and assembly hall. The hall retains a single fireplace with wooden surround. The interior preserves scribed plaster walls, panelled doors incorporating glazed panels, and glazed panels between the corridor and classrooms.