Henry Bastow school No 3, St Kilda Primary, 1874.

Henry Bastow school No 3, St Kilda Primary, 1874.

#StKildaPrimarySchool, with its #GothicRevival rocket I mean tower. It’s another one of #HenryBastow’s reputedly 600 schools he designed as architect for the Education Department after school was made compulsory in 1872. This one in the first batch, completed 1875, though only one storey then; the middle upper floors and tower added 1888 (and most of the windows altered and enlarged 1903). Actually now I look closely more like #LombardicRomanesque, since the windows mostly #roundarched not pointed, and lots of #polychromebrick, though all his schools had at least 2 colours of bricks. Note architectural historian Richard Peterson did a study of Victorian state schools and confused that Bastow may not have designed any personally, but cut&paste from the 20 competition winners of 1872, and relied on his draftsmen to churn out the design. It does seem improbable that he would personally have designed 600.

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