Saint John's School

Detached three-bay two-storey former house, c.1860, on a symmetrical T-shaped plan with shallow segmental-headed door opening to centre, single-bay two-storey side elevations to north-west and to south-east and three-bay two-storey return to rear to south-west. Refenestrated, c.1990. Now in use a school. Hipped roofs with slate. Clay ridge tiles. Roughcast chimney stacks. Replacement uPVC rainwater goods, c.1990, on eaves course. Roughcast walls. Unpainted. Cut-stone string/sill course to first floor. Square-headed window openings. Stone sills (forming continuous sill course to first floor). Replacement uPVC casement windows, c.1990. Shallow segmental-headed door opening. Cut-stone surround with projecting lintel and moulded surround over. Timber panelled door. Decorative fanlight. Set back from line of road in own grounds.

Saint John’s School is an attractive, symmetrically-planned substantial house of graceful Classical proportions that is distinguished by the unusually extensive return to rear (south-west). Now in use as a school, the house nevertheless retains most of its original form and character. Many original of early features and materials also remain intact, including timber furniture to the door opening with a decorative fanlight, together with a slate roof. The replacement fenestration is not in keeping with the original integrity of the building, however, and the re-instatement of traditional timber fenestration would restore a more accurate representation of the original appearance of the house. The house is attractively set just off the line of the road and is a prominent landmark on the streetscape of Drogheda Street.