Glamorgan Centre for Art & Design

Glamorgan Centre for Art & Design

A Baroque style two-storey school built of red brick with small-pane pivoting and sash windows and slate roofs. The building is planned with a central entrance wing flanked by inner wings set back, and then outer gabled wings projecting forward.

The central entrance wing is higher than the flanking elements and is 13 bays wide, symmetrical about its central entrance. The central entrance has double half-lit doors beneath a segmental head with keystone, with large projecting scrolls at the base of the flanking pilasters. Above the doors is a field containing relief lettering, followed by an empty niche framed by an architrave. An oval attic window sits above, with sheaths below and an open segmental pediment. Rising above the pediment is a short tower with a replaced pyramidal roof. The inner 3 bays have pilasters with draped fruit carved below the capitals, and the parapet is carried up above these bays. On either side of the central bays are 3 narrow bays, then 3 end bays that are brought forward under gables. Beneath each gable, the wider central bay projects forward under an open segmental pediment over the upper storey window, beneath which is an apron. The upper storey has pilasters with draped fruit below the capitals. Beneath each gable apex is the monogram GCC in relief with a pinnacle.

The three-bay inner wings are set well back with skylights on the right side. Their outer sides have buttressed porches with double panelled doors and round-headed overlights, leading directly to the continuous corridor in the lower storey. Beyond these are the outer two-bay wings set forward. The left-hand outer wing has a wide gabled bay with a slightly lower stair tower to its right. This stair tower has double half-lit doors under a flat arch with prominent key, a sash window in an architrave above, and a bullseye window lighting the staircase. Another bullseye window is in the right-hand return wall. The main gabled bay is defined by pilasters, with two windows in the lower storey and a single wide round-headed window with moulded and keyed surround in the upper storey. The right-hand outer wing is similar but with variations. Its stair tower is on the left-hand side of the main gabled bay with a splayed angle, while the upper stage is fully glazed with a balcony behind it. The right-hand bay has a large segmental-headed tripartite window in the lower storey and an upper storey matching the left end.

The return wall of the right-hand outer wing has two segmental-headed windows and a link to a multi-media centre added in 1999. The return wall of the left-hand outer wing has seven windows. To the rear, the walls are rendered in roughcast with brick dressings. The school hall, now used as a library, projects to the centre beneath a half-hipped roof with an oculus on the end wall and three round-headed windows in the side walls. A rear wing on the north-east side rises two storeys at the front and reduces to a single storey towards the steep ground behind.

The main entrance leads to a vestibule and then corridors running right and left with glazed tile dados, continuing the full length of the building. Immediately opposite the vestibule is the former hall, now library, with doors to right and left. The hall has an integral gallery and is spanned by a four-bay roof with arched-brace trusses and a panelled ceiling. The rear wall features a large panel with eared architrave, while the side walls have Tuscan pilasters. The corridors lead to main stairways either side of the hall. The open-well stairs have blind balustrades and plain square newels. At the base of the stairs are segmental arches on square columns that rise and turn to Ionic columns on the landing balustrades, where they support a moulded entablature. The stairs on the left side of the entrance has an empty niche on its left side. Stairs serving the outer wings are plainer. The corridors lead to classrooms on both sides and both storeys.