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Publication Account
Date 1951
Event ID 1097731
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1097731
44. St. Anne's School, 31 Blackfriars Street.
The short, unnamed lane on the E. side of Blackfriars Street leads to a little paved yard, enclosed on E. and S. by the T -shaped block of St. Anne's School, through the longer limb of which passes a pend giving entry to the lower ground at the back, now the playground. The older part of the buildings, dating from the early 18th century, comprises two rectangular ranges, one of which, three-storeyed at the upper end but with an additional storey at the lower one, runs N. and S., overlooking South Gray's Close behind, while the other, containing four storeys, runs E. and W. Both are served by a spacious turnpike in a semi-octagonal stair-tower rising within the N. re-entrant angle. The original purpose of the buildings was clearly domestic, but the shorter range was long since gutted to make classrooms, while the longer one has been almost wholly rebuilt. The masonry throughout is rubble. The windows, where unaltered, have back-set and chamfered margins, those of the top storey, which are semi-dormers, having triangular pediments one of which is surmounted by a small spherical finial. The entrance, situated in the stair-tower, has moulded architraves with lugs, and a moulded cornice. The only internal features possessing any special interest are three 18th-century fireplaces, all of which are closed up, and some sections of pine panelling of late 18th-century date. Some part of the building is thought to have been used as the Skinners' Hall, an inference that is to some extent supported by the fact that South Gray's Close was known as Skinners' Close.
RCAHMS 1951
