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The School of Science & Art was built in 1890-99, to designs by J.P. Seddon and finished more cheaply by the local architect, W.H.C. Fisher. It is a splendid, iron-framed, very elaborate building in the Gothic style. Between the two floors is a band of foliage containing busts of Victorian scientists and artists: Faraday, Huxley, and Kelvin for science; Barry, Rossetti, Leighton and Turner for the arts. The elaborate front shows a carved facade of famous Victorian scientists and artists, along with Queen Victoria herself and the railway engine.
The School was effectively a special secondary school until the new boys’ Technical School opened at Downfield in 1909, when it became a School of Art.
From 1904 to 1912 it also housed the Girls’ Endowed School, which became the Girls’ High School and moved to a purpose-built building in Downfield. The headmistress was Miss D M Beale, niece of the famous headmistress of Cheltenham Ladies’ College. The school was intended from the beginning to be the counterpart to the Marling School, also then known as the Boys’ Endowed School.
Stroud Museum was set up there in 1930. The Museum moved to Stratford Park in 2001, but the building still houses some of its collection.
From January 2016, this website is managed by Stroud Local
History Society
Revised 2018 EMW
