Dalry Primary School, Dalry Road, Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Edinburgh

Description

George Beattie & Son, 1876-7. Extended by Robert Wilson, 1880, and again in 1890. Further extended by 1914.

Symmetrical gabled 2-storey primary school. E-plan front with projecting wings to rear. Squared and snecked bull-nosed sandstone with long and short ashlar dressings, ground floor windows single with timber mullions and tabbed margins; ashlar mullions to 1st floor bipartites. Chamfered arrises. Base course, moulded 1st floor cill course. 1st floor windows at eaves level; ground floor windows taller. Finials to gables. Central octagonal timber bellcote with slender slate spire and weathervane. Windows to all bays.

SE (DALRY ROAD) ELEVATION: symmetrical 11-bay front, regular fenestration to each bay. Gabled centre bay with tripartite window to ground and 1st floor, latter round- headed with hoodmould; figurative roundel in gablehead ('education') with string course either side. Single bay returns with bipartite windows at 1st floor. 3 bays either side, 1st and 3rd bipartite at 1st floor and gableheaded. Pair of recently truncated wallhead stacks with splayed base in re-entrant angles to centre. Outer 2-bay gabled wings further advanced; timber bipartite windows at ground and stone-mullioned at 1st floor and blind oculus in gablehead. Single bay inner returns with windows at ground and gabled bipartite windows at 1st floor.

NE (CATHCART PLACE) ELEVATION: 5-bay side elevation to front block. 2nd bay from right has segmental-headed doorway with projecting overdoor and dentilled cornice supported by stylised consoles; double panelled doors (originally Girls Entrance); small bipartite window above, lighting corridor; single window at 1st floor. Flanked by single bays with bipartite windows at 1st floor (far right bay with shorter ground floor window). 2 left bays with gableheaded bipartite windows at 1st floor. Right corner corbelled to square at 1st floor.

NW (REAR) ELEVATION: at centre 2-bay gabled end elevation with bipartite windows at 1st floor. Single storey play shed with piended roof adjoined to NW (before 1914). 6-bay return elevation to SW; outer right bay with door and fanlight, bipartite window above and bipartite at 1st floor; inner right bay blank at ground but with small bipartite window at level of overdoor (these 2 bays originally had a porch at ground for Infant Boys Entrance). 5-bays to SW with bipartites at 1st floor; outer 2 bays advanced, gabled; single bay inner return with gableheaded bipartite at 1st floor. 3-bay return to NE, wallhead stack with splayed base to 3rd bay; freestanding 2-bay block with 1st floor bipartite windows displaced to right; gabled end elevation, upper left bay bipartite, upper right bay blank; blank return wall to recessed 2-leaf panelled door (originally Infant Girls Entrance) with 4-light rectangular fanlight and flanking window; pair of windows above light corridor; narrow bipartite at 1st floor. 2-bay block to NE (both bays bipartite) with single bay return to outer recessed 2-bay end elevation with gablehead stack and extra narrow window to far right at 1st floor.

SW (SPRINGWELL PLACE) ELEVATION: near-symmetrical 7-bay elevation with door and window (as NE above - originally Boys Entrance), and narrow window adjoining at left, in central bay; gableheaded bipartite at 1st floor. 3 bays to left have central gableheaded tripartite window (its centre light slightly higher) flanked by bipartites at 1st floor. 3 bays to right similar, left bay single at 1st floor.

Timber multi-pane sash and case windows throughout, some timber mullions.

Grey slate roof; terracotta ridge tiles. Stacks mostly rebuilt. Moulded ashlar skews; gablet skewputts to primary gables. Cast-iron moulded gutter and downpipes.

BOUNDARY WALLS AND GATEPIERS: front and primary side elevations have low snecked rubble wall with ashlar saddleback coping and modern mesh railing. Cathcart Place entrance to yard has stop-chamfered square piers with pyramidal caps; full height snecked rubble wall with semi-circular stugged coping beyond. Springwell Place has high wall to yard with gates simply inserted.

Modern sheds built along NW (end) wall of yard.

CARETAKERS LODGE (CATHCART PLACE): T-plan, cross of T incorporated in Cathcart Place boundary wall with single window. Bipartite windows to each remaining elevation, that to SW now large single. Porch in SE re-entrant angle. Bathroom added to NW.

Piend roof, central stack.

Statement of Interest

The building was originally single storey, the corner classrooms at ground being added by Wilson in 1880. Ten years later he added an extra storey to the school, re-using some carved details, such as the finials, and also re-erecting the bellcote. The classrooms originally all had tiered seating. The primary facades of the building were recently heavily stone cleaned.

External Links

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