Monument record 7198/0/47 - Kettering Borough Council offices, formerly grammar school

Secondary school built in 1913 to a design by J A Gotch. The school is built of red brick with Ancaster stone dressings and hipped, plain tile roofs. The south elevation is of three storeys and is U-shaped in plan; it consists of a fourteen-bay central section flanked by projecting pavillions. The central part of this elevation has a five bay, two storey projection with porch behind which is the main school hall. The rear elevation has a three storey projecting central wing. There are 1960s extensions to the east and west. In 1960 the school moved to a new site and the building became the new Borough Council offices. Inside the building the central main hall has been converted into a council chamber and office space. The building was assessed for listing in 2006 and again 2010 but failed to meet the required criteria.

{1} Other surviving buildings include … the large school on Bowling Green Road

{2} Municipal offices, Bowling Green Road. Built as the Grammar School by Gotch and Saunders. Opened in 1913. Large, of red brick, neo-Georgian. The porch was added when it was converted to offices.

{3} Kettering Grammar School was founded in 1577, but by the end of the 19th century occupied such cramped quarters on Gold Street that a new site was sought. Following the 1902 Education Act a new scheme for a County Secondary School was developed. A secondary school for equal numbers of boys and girls (211 of each) was proposed on a vacant part of the Manor House site with a frontage to Bowling Green Road. J A Gotch was commissioned as the architect. The old grammar school closed on 1 September 1913, and the new school opened three weeks later. The Girls High School and Boys Grammar School remained in practice two schools, occupying the west and east ends of the building respectively, separated by the two-storey central hall. There was a headteacher for each school, their offices at opposite ends of the hall. The name Kettering Grammar School was later adopted by the new secondary schools.

The school moved to a new building on Windmill Avenue, Kettering, in 1960, and Gotch's building became the new Borough Council offices. This involved considerable internal alteration and extensions to the rear of the building. The Ordnance Survey map of 1926 shows the southern elevation as occupying the same footprint, but to the north were three projecting wings, which have been infilled since 1963 to create further office and utility space. There have been a considerable number of individual alterations to the interior, including the insertion of offices at first floor level, the location of the council chamber.

John Alfred Gotch (1852-1942) set up his first independent architectural practice in Kettering in 1878, and in 1887 entered into partnership with Charles Saunders. Their successful association was to last until their joint retirement on 31 December 1937. Gotch is well-known as an architectural historian, specialising in early modern English houses, and was the author of many books and articles on the subject, the most famous of which is perhaps Architecture of the Renaissance in England (1891). He was appointed Surveyor to Kettering Urban District Council in 1882 and became the first mayor of Kettering when the borough was incorporated in 1938. From 1886-87 he was president of the Architectural Association, and was president of the Royal Institute of British Architects from 1923-25.

The former school is built of red brick laid in Flemish-bond with Ancaster stone dressings and hipped, plain tile roofs. The three-storey U-shaped south elevation consists of a fourteen-bay central section flanked by projecting pavilions which present blind facades to the street. This elevation has a projecting five bay centrepiece of two-storeys with rusticated quoins to each storey. The double height ground floor has tall top-hung double-transomed casements separated by Tuscan ashlar columns below a projecting cornice. This contains the main school hall, and has a central projecting porch hood and double doors reached by wheelchair access ramps introduced in 1995-99. The upper floor has eight 9/9 horned sashes under a deep two-part modillion cornice beneath a swept hipped roof surmounted by an octagonal domed cupola, with two clustered ridge stacks to either end of the roof. Three bays of composite sash and casement windows in three full storeys link the centre with the four-bay side wings projecting to the south, with their own entrance doorways marked by ashlar doorcases with twin Tuscan columns one entrance each for boys and girls. The blind elevations to the south of the side wings are articulated by a blank bay under a segmental arch framed by heavy rusticated quoins. The main elevations of the wings facing east and west are of three storeys with a central open pediment over a deep modillion cornice, the interior lit by eight bays of composite windows.

The rear, north, elevation has a three-storey, three-bay projecting central wing lit by composite sash-casements under double gabled roofs with north-facing rooflights. One ground-floor window has been blocked and there are 1960s extensions to the east and west. The side wings consist of single-bay hipped projections with three-storey links between these and the central wing. Gabled two-storey cross wings extend north of these, with ground floors obscured by single-storey late 20th century extensions.

Inside the building, the central main school hall has been converted into a council chamber under a ribbed ceiling above which, at first floor level, is an open plan office. The interior also contains corridors and principal rooms with Tuscan pilasters and four-centred arcading, often under suspended polystyrene ceilings. The main staircases and principal corridors are contained in the projecting side wings. The staircases are plain closed-well examples without any adornment.

Kettering Borough Council municipal offices, Bowling Green Road, Kettering, formerly Kettering Grammar School, erected in 1913, is not recommended for designation for the following principal reasons:

* Additions: the extensive additions to the rear of the building are a serious detraction.
* Architectural: the principal elevation to the south lacks the impact of contemporary school main facades, for example Northampton Grammar School for Girls, built in 1915 (Grade II). The design is relatively uninspired and does not have the interest of comparable listed examples.
*Alterations: the additions to the rear of the building and alterations to the interior made during and after the conversion to municipal offices, detract from the interest of the former school building.

<1> Ballinger J., 1999, Northamptonshire Extensive Urban Survey: Kettering (Industrial), p.61 (unchecked) (Digital archive). SNN100283.

<2> Pevsner N.; Cherry B., 1973, The Buildings of England: Northamptonshire, p.273 (unchecked) (Series). SNN1320.

<3> ENGISH HERITAGE, English Heritage Listing File, Heritage Protection Adviser, 30th August 2010 (Report). SNN111579.

Record last edited

Mar 28 2023 10:25AM