Stroud School of Science and Art, by John Pollard Seddon (1827-1906) and William Henry Cox Fisher (1841–1903). Limestone. 1890-99. On the corner of Lansdown and Locking Hill, Stroud, Gloucestershire. This prominent Grade II listed building is described in its listing text as having "[r]ock-faced rustication" with "ashlar dressings," a tile roof, "colonnettes with stiff leaf capitals," and other features, the most obvious of which is the oriel at the corner with balconies either side, and the gabled porch.
By far the most decorative feature is undoubtedly the row of roundels across the Lansdown frontage, with the heads of well-known scientists and artists: Faraday, Huxley, Kelvin, Barry, Rossetti, Leighton and Turner. The corner with the oriel shows Queen Victoria, with a locomotive on the Locking Hill side.
Seddon was a great believer in architectural sculpture, not in any indiscriminate wasy, but in the right place: "The proper position for Sculpture is at the junction or intersection of the main arcliitectural features, such as the capitals, mouldings, finials, bosses, and other accessory portions, as statues in the niches or crowning
important points, and bas-reliefs within pediments, panels, &c. (28). He has judged well here, with the
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Photographs by James Cooper (ArtUK), text and formatting by Jacqueline Banerjee. The images have kindly been released under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial licence (CC BY-NC) licence. [Click on all the images to enlarge them.]
Bibliography
Historic England. Web. 29 November 2022.
"School of Science and Art." Art UK. Web. 29 November 2022.
Seddon, J. P. Progress in Art and Architecture: with precedents for ornament. London: D. Bogue, 1852. Internet Archive. Contributed by Getty Research. Web. 29 November 2022.
Created 29 November 2022