Gladstone Junior School

Gladstone Junior School

A Queen Anne style two-storey school building of red St Julian brick with Hartham Park Bath stone dressings and a slate roof with panelled brick stacks, built in 1900.

The front elevation comprises five main gabled bays, advanced to the ends. The upper storey features pilasters on guttae rising to a moulded freestone cornice positioned above the ground-floor windows. The cornice and sill bands run continuously around the side elevations. Each main bay contains triple two-light windows, stepped to the upper storey, with wooden mullions and transoms and small-pane glazing. The central bay displays a window in the upper storey beneath a round-headed tympanum with '1900' inscribed in raised numerals within a cartouche, with two blind panels below a cornice. Keyblocks to the upper-storey windows carry subsidiary pilasters rising to the cornice. The gable has a single step with scrolled sides and obelisk finials, topped by a pediment bearing a cartouche with heraldic chevrons in relief.

The bays to left and right of centre have shaped gables, whilst the outer pilasters are crowned with obelisk and ball finials. On the outer sides of the bays are lower projecting two-storey porches built against the advanced end bays, each with paired small-pane windows facing the front and drip stone in the lower storey. A cornice runs over the upper storey at the base of the parapet, concealing the roof. Doorways are located in the side walls, reached by stone steps with coped parapet walls. The doorways comprise double boarded doors beneath small-pane overlights, each framed by an entablature with corbelled pilasters and engraved with 'Boys', beneath a segmental pediment on consoles.

In the end bays the outer pilasters extend the full height. In the upper storey the central window has a round-headed tympanum with cartouche. Keyblocks to the windows carry subsidiary pilasters rising to the cornice of the pedimented gable. Above the outer windows the gable steps with scrolled sides and obelisk and ball finials. Above the central window are two blank panels and the pediment.

The right (northwest) end wall features a five-window advanced gable with two-light windows to the centre and ends and single-light windows to right and left of centre. Set back on its left side is a two-light window in each storey. The windows have sill bands, a cornice over the lower storey and drip moulds over the upper storey windows.

The rear elevation, facing the playground, has gabled end bays between which stands a projecting two-storey hall block flanked by lower three-storey wings that project slightly further forward. The five-bay hall has buttresses with gabled offsets and two-window bays with segmental-headed openings. The upper storey retains original small-pane glazing and incorporates pivoting lights. The lower storey contains replaced windows over an added single-storey kitchen. The hall features a bellcote to the southeast gable end, constructed of ashlar with a pediment. The bell opening is camber-headed and recessed beneath a corbel table, with two vents below.

In front of the wings flanking the hall are integral porches with roofs concealed behind coped parapets. The right-hand porch has a segmental-headed two-light casement window facing the playground, and its right end wall contains double boarded doors under a segmental head, with a freestone inscription band engraved with 'Girls' and framed by corbelled pilasters. The plainer left-hand porch has a two-light window to the front and a replaced door to the side wall. The lower three-storey wings, housing offices in the middle storey, have roofs concealed behind coped parapets. Facing the playground are two segmental-headed cross windows in the lower storey, two two-pane sashes offset to the inner sides above the porches in the middle storey, and three segmental-headed cross windows in the upper storey. The three-window side walls have freestone banding, small-pane cross windows in the lower storey, paired two-pane sash windows in the middle storey and small-pane cross windows above.

The left-hand (northwest) end bay has a gable projecting on brackets set back from the main angle, with a segmental-headed two-light window offset to the right side in each storey. The right-hand (southeast) end bay contains three segmental-headed small-pane windows in each storey incorporating hopper and pivoting lights, wider to the centre. The southeast end wall has an external brick stack to the right of centre. To the left of centre are three tall two-light small-pane windows in the lower storey, above which are two two-light windows carried above the eaves beneath a coped gable, with a lower two-light window to the right beneath the eaves.

The school was planned to accommodate girls in the lower storey and boys in the upper storey. Both storeys follow a similar plan, with classrooms reached from a central corridor and assembly halls on the south side that served also as gymnasia. The upper storey hall has a five-bay collar beam roof with iron tie rods. From the porches at the front are close-string staircases with glazed-tile dado serving the boys' school. From the corridors are half-lit panelled doors to the rooms, flanked by glazed screens incorporating pivoting lights.