St Ilan Comprehensive School

St Ilan Comprehensive School is a group of buildings constructed in 1932, originally Pontygwindy Girls School, and extended in the late 20th century. The school comprises four ranges arranged around twin courtyards, with a central wing housing the library and hall.

The symmetrical front range is a single storey and features a central entrance leading to the library and hall wing. The building is constructed of red brick in Flemish bond, with a slate roof and limestone dressings including a sill band. The walls facing the courtyards are of polychrome brickwork.

A projecting entrance portico, in a simple Wren revival style, is flanked by twelve windows, with projecting gables marking the ends of the front range. Quoins and plinths define the projecting bays. The portico features a hipped roof surmounted by a cupola with a bell, above which is a globe and weather vane. The entrance itself has pilasters, an entablature, and a pediment containing a round arched doorway with double-panelled, half-lit doors and an overlight. Paired windows flank the entrance. The entablature continues across the portico as an eaves cornice and bears inscriptions reading ‘Pontygwindy Girls School’ and ‘Glamorgan County Council’. The pediment displays the school motto and the date 1932. Foundation stones at the base of the walls commemorate D Pugh Jones, County Architect, and R Jones, Builder. A further inscription details the school's opening by County Councillor Evan Phillips on 25 September 1933. An original brick stack is located to the left of the portico, with a limestone corbelled cap, and a rebuilt stack stands to the right. Downpipes to the front are marked with the inscription '1932' on the hoppers. The windows are 16-pane horned sashes with 8-pane opening lights above, though those flanking the front entrance are narrower. The projecting gables on the ends have central windows within architraves, set under round heads with keystones and tympanums, flanked by narrower windows.

The north and south ranges are of similar design, each containing eighteen windows. The rear range has a projecting central entrance bay with a hipped roof, which now links to later 20th-century blocks. The hall and library block is six windows wide and also has a hipped roof, with red brick below sill level and yellow brick above. The courtyard-facing walls continue the polychrome brickwork. The doors are half-lit panelled, some of which have been replaced, and the windows match those on the front. The courtyards are grassed and feature covered walkways supported by original iron columns and late 20th-century lean-to roofs with perspex coverings.

Inside the front entrance, a second pair of partially glazed doors lead to a short access corridor featuring green glazed tiles below a dado rail, a picture rail, and a diagonally boarded ceiling. Former offices are located to the left and right. Double-panelled, half-lit doors at the back of the front range provide access to the library, which has an arched brace roof largely obscured by a false ceiling. Pilasters are positioned between windows, and the walls are tiled in green. Classrooms are situated in the outer ranges, some with false ceilings.