Day Houses and School House, Monmouth Boys School

Day Houses and School House, Monmouth Boys School

Built of coursed rock-faced red sandstone rubble with Bath stone dressings and Welsh slate roofs, these three-storey ranges extend along Wyebridge Street between the Design and Technology Centre and Almshouse Street, with a return along Almshouse Street connecting to earlier Victorian school buildings. Where the ground slopes towards the river, the left-hand part includes an additional understorey. The buildings are designed in Tudorbethan style.

The Wyebridge Street elevation divides into three distinct sections separated by recessed joins.

The left-hand section comprises three bays with a central entrance accessed by steps. The doorway has a panelled door with Tudor arch head and dripmould above, surmounted by a 2-light mullioned window and above that a shorter window with paired coats-of-arms above. The ground floor features two 2-light mullion-and-transom windows on each side, with Tudor heads on the left. The first floor repeats this arrangement with plain-headed windows. The second floor has a 5-light mullion-and-transom window on the left and two 2-light windows on the right, all with Tudor heads. Two coped gables terminate the section, each with quatrefoil vents and spike finials.

The middle section spans four bays, with two wide gabled bays and two narrow recessed bays between. The ground floor of the left-hand bay contains paired 2-light mullion-and-transom windows flanked by single lights, repeated on the floor above but without transoms, and a 5-light window with transom in the gable, all with Tudor heads to the lights. Pinnacles flank the gable, with a quatrefoil vent and spike finial at the apex. The centre bays are divided by a tall stack featuring decorative Bath stone strips and an inscription panel; 3-light mullion-and-transom windows occupy the ground floor with transoms on the first floor, all with Tudor heads, while plain 2-light windows sit on the second floor. The right-hand bay has two 2-light mullion-and-transom windows on the ground floor with a door to the right; the first floor contains two 2-light windows and a single light on the right; the upper floor has two 2-light windows; the gable displays a coat-of-arms with a tall octagonal stack at the apex.

The third section, on the corner of Almshouse Street, has three bays with strongly expressed cill bands. All windows are 2-light with transoms on the ground floor and in the gable. A central doorway provides access. A gable with quatrefoil vent and finial terminates this section. The Almshouse Street elevation features paired 2-light windows on the ground and first floors, 4-light mullion-and-transom windows on the second floor, and two gables each with quatrefoil vent and apex spike finial.

The inner elevation facing the school quadrangle exhibits sections of the facade set alternately forward and back, with five gables of varying sizes. Various window types appear throughout, some apparently altered by Henry Stock. A two-storey canted bay with a 3-light mullion-and-transom window flanked by 2-light ones is certainly an addition by Stock, as it does not appear on the 1881 Ordnance Survey map.

The interior was not inspected at resurvey. Like most schools in active use, the interior has been altered and is utilitarian in character.