Kathleen Syme Education Centre: 249 Faraday Street, CARLTON

Building Profile

Location

Construction Details

Built in the Victorian period in the Neo-Gothic style

Notable features

The Kathleen Syme Education Centre is a two storey polychromatic brick structure with a slate roof and shallow eaves. A central gable and tower with a bellcast roof form the central element of the asymmetrical facade to Faraday Street. The end pavilions have pyramidal roofs. The window openings to both storeys are variously square-headed, arch, segmental arch or depressed pointed arch. Most of the windows were enlarged in 1908 to from single openings from pairs of pointed arch windows. There are Gothic-style buttresses to the ground floor. The string courses are emphasised by use of cream colour bricks. Rear wings constructed of brick were added in 1927.

History

The construction of the Kathleen Syme Education Centre, former Faraday Street State School Number 112, was supervised by architects Reed and Barnes and the contractors were Cockran and Company. It was built in 1876-7 in response to the requirements of the Education Act of 1873. It is adjacent to an earlier brick building of 1865, a schoolroom also designed by Reed and Barnes. It is believed that the design was influenced by the University Museum at Oxford of the 1850s by Deane and Woodward.

• National Trust (B3461)


• Victorian Heritage Register (H1625) - Kathleen Syme Education Centre is protected by state law

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