Glamorgan Centre for Art & Design

Cadw's description

Location

In its own grounds SE of Glyntaff Church, and in a prominent position overlooking Treforest to the W.

History

Built in 1912 (date on building) by A O Evans, Williams and Evans, Pontypridd architects, and opened in 1913 as the Intermediate, later grammar school, for girls. The school originally housed an assembly hall with balcony also used as a gymnasium, a library, art room, 8 classrooms and a furnished flat where girls were educated in housewifery. Additional classrooms were built at the rear in 1922, and in 1935 a new dining hall and kitchen were added to the rear. The school remained a grammar school until the change to the comprehensive system in 1973 and subsequently became an art college.

Exterior

A Baroque style 2-storey school of red brick with small-pane pivoting and sash windows, and slate roofs. The main block comprises a central entrance wing flanked by inner wings set back and then outer gabled wings. The central entrance wing is higher and has a roof behind a plain parapet and tall red-brick stacks. It is symmetrical, of 13 bays. The central entrance has double half-lit doors beneath a segmental head with keystone, and big projecting scrolls at the base of its flanking pilasters. Above it is a field with lettering in relief, then an empty niche framed by an architrave. An oval attic window has sheaths below and an open segmental pediment. Rising above the pediment is a short tower with replaced pyramidal roof. The inner 3 bays have pilasters with draped fruit below the capitals and the parapet is carried up above the remainder. Flanking the central bays are 3 narrow bays, then the 3 end bays on each side 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 apex is the monogram GCC in relief and a pinnacle.

The 3-bay inner wings are set well back (with skylights to the R side). The outer sides have buttressed porches with double panelled doors and round-headed overlights, and lead directly to the continuous corridor in the lower storey. Beyond are the outer 2-bay wings set forward. On the L side the outer wing has a wide gabled bay, to the R of which is a slightly lower stair tower. This has double half-lit doors under a flat arch with prominent key, under a sash window in an architrave and a bullseye window lighting the stair. Another bullseye is in the R-hand return wall. The main gabled bay of the outer wing is defined by pilasters, has 2 windows in the lower storey and a single wide round-headed window with moulded and keyed surround. The outer wing on the R-hand side is slightly different. It has a stair tower on the L-hand side of the main gabled bay, but it has a splayed angle, while the upper stage is fully glazed and has a balcony behind it. The R-hand bay has in the lower storey a large segmental-headed tripartite window and an upper storey similar to the L end.

The return wall of the R-hand outer wing has 2 segmental-headed window then a link to the multi-media centre added 1999. The return wall of the L-hand outer wing is 7-window. To the rear, the walls are roughcast with brick dressings, and the school hall (now library) projects to the centre beneath a half-hipped roof with oculus on the end wall and 3 round-headed windows in the side walls. A rear wing is on the NE side, which is 2-storey to the front and single storey to the steep ground behind.

Interior

The main entrance leads to a vestibule and then corridors R and L which have glazed tile dados and continue the length of the building. Immediately opposite the vestibule is the former hall (now library) with doors to the R and L. The hall, with integral gallery, has a 4-bay roof with arched-brace trusses and a panelled ceiling. The rear wall has 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 are carried up and turn to Ionic columns on the landing balustrades, where they support a moulded entablature to the landing. The stairs on the L side of the entrance has an empty niche on its L side. Stairs to the outer wings are plainer. The corridors lead to classrooms on both sides and both storeys.

Reason for designation

Listed primarily for the architectural interest of its well-designed Baroque front in a prominent position overlooking the Taff valley.