Maylands Primary School

Author

City of Bayswater

Place Number

09394

Location

150 Guildford Rd Maylands

Location Details

Other Name(s)

Constable Care Child Safety Foundation
School of Instrumental Music

Local Government

Bayswater

Region

Metropolitan

Construction Date

Constructed from 1903

Demolition Year

N/A

Statutory Heritage Listings

Type Status Date Documents
Heritage List Adopted 25 Feb 2020
State Register Registered 23 Jan 2004 HCWebsite.Listing+ListingDocument, HCWebsite.Listing+ListingDocument

Heritage Council Decisions and Deliberations

Type Status Date Documents
(no listings)

Other Heritage Listings and Surveys

Type Status Date Grading/Management
Category
Municipal Inventory Adopted 17 Jun 1997 Classification 1
Local Heritage Survey Adopted 25 Feb 2020 Classification 1

Statement of Significance

Maylands Primary School is an example of a school designed and built by the Public Works Department of Western Australia in the early decades of the twentieth century and a fine example of the Federation Free and Federation Arts and Crafts style. It has historic importance for its educational and civic associations.

Physical Description

Maylands Primary School is a complex of single storey brick and iron buildings and timber and iron buildings, in Federation Free and Federation Arts and Crafts style, which was built as the school progressed. The school is situated on the corner of Guildford Road and Peninsula Road, with Sixth Avenue dividing the School into the Senior Primary and the Junior Primary. Sixth Avenue has been closed at the junction to Guildford Road to form the school car park. An overhead pedestrian bridge connects the school site to the other side of Sixth Avenue. The Senior Primary (south western side) comprises the Senior Primary School (1903), an Arts and Crafts Centre (1920), a Shelter Shed (1905), two Toilet Blocks and a Storage Shed. The north eastern side of the school is devoted to the Junior Primary, comprising of the Junior Primary School (1915), an Out of School Care Centre, a Shelter Shed, a Gardener's Shed and a storage shed, as well as a demountable kindergarten. The Senior Primary School is a Federation Freestyle brick and iron building, with tuck pointed red brick to all elevations with a corrugated iron gable roof and brick corbelled cap chimneys. The exterior details of the building feature rendered stringcourse at sill height and rendered sills to window openings. The Senior Primary School houses four classrooms, a Common Room, the Library, the Administration and Reception, the School Hall, Toilets, Canteen and two stores. The building is essentially U-shaped in plan with the Hall at the centre of the building and rooms surrounding it. The Arts and Crafts Centre is a timber framed building with a corrugated iron gable roof, with a rectangular plan. It features full height timber weatherboard to all walls, with a skillion to its northwest side that is the darkroom / storeroom. The Shelter Shed is of timber construction with full height weatherboard walls, with the exception of its southeast elevation that is open, and a double gable iron roof. The Junior Primary School is a brick and timber building exhibiting a Federation and Arts and Crafts influence. The Junior School building is a tuck-pointed red brick and stone building with a corrugated iron half hipped, half gable roof with brick and rendered corbelled cap chimneys. Essentially a rectangular building with an enclosed verandah to the rear, the building houses six classrooms, a Wet Area, a Music Room, an ESL Room, Toilets, an Interview Room and two Storerooms. Recent buildings on the site including the brick Gardener's Sheds, Toilet Blocks, the metal Storage Shed and the Kindergarten Demountable are of little significance. A more detailed description of the Maylands Primary School can be found in the Interim Entry Report for the State Register of Heritage Places prepared by the Heritage Council of WA.

History

Maylands Primary School was built by the Public Works Department over a number of years under the guidance of Assistant Architect Hillson Beasley, who later went on to become the Chief Architect (1906-1916). Due to a rapid increase in the local population in Maylands between 1901 and 1903, the Maylands School opened in 1903 with a single classroom on a site bounded by Guildford Road, Peninsula Road and Sixth Avenue. That same year, plans were drawn by the Public Works Department for an addition comprising two more classrooms and an extended verandah on the north of the building. With the construction of these additions by 1904, further plans were drawn in the same year for an infants class room adjoining the north-east of the existing structure and for the existing verandah on the north of the existing classrooms to be enclosed for a corridor. The buildings were then further extended in 1905 to include a two classroom wing, teachers' quarter, hat / cloakroom and washing / latrine facilities and shelter sheds. Further extensions then occurred in 1909 and 1912. The design of the Maylands school was typical for its time, generally following a standard plan, that when fully realised, consisted of a central hall around which class rooms were built. This type of design is one for which the architect, Hillson Beasley, is particularly noted. This model allowed for new classrooms to be added as the need arose. The Maylands School was typical in that the hall was not part of the original construction but rather was added in 1909, a few years after the provision of the initial classrooms in 1903. This would indicate that there was a rapidly growing school age population in the Maylands area that required almost a continuous building of educational facilities. During the period of the War, a separate Infants' School was built on a site across from the existing school on Sixth Avenue in 1915. The design of this building was influenced by the educational philosophy of Italian doctor, Maria Montessori, with 20 feet wide verandahs on to which classrooms opened, and special light furniture, which provided opportunities for flexible and open air teaching. As part of the continuing development of centres for technical training in Western Australian schools, in 1920 a Manual Training Room was built for a Perth Junior Technical School on the Peninsula Road side of the Maylands Primary School site. This was to serve the needs of senior primary school boys from schools in the surrounding area. In 1978, this building was converted to a new arts and crafts centre.

Integrity/Authenticity

Integrity - High Authenticity - High

Condition

Good

Associations

Name Type Year From Year To
PWD Hillson Beasley Architect 1903 -

Other Reference Numbers

Ref Number Description
164 Local Heritage Survey Number

State Heritage Office library entries

Library Id Title Medium Year Of Publication
6943 Maylands Primary School, 150 Guildford Road, Maylands : conservation plan. Heritage Study {Cons'n Plan} 2004
9226 Senior toilet block at Maylands Primary School (fmr): Photographic archival record. Archival Record 2008
9796 Maylands Primary School (fmr) toilet block: photographic archival record. Archival Record 2011

Place Type

Individual Building or Group

Uses

Epoch General Specific
Original Use EDUCATIONAL Primary School
Present Use EDUCATIONAL Other

Architectural Styles

Style
Federation Free Style
Federation Arts and Crafts

Construction Materials

Type General Specific
Roof METAL Corrugated Iron
Wall RENDER Smooth
Wall BRICK Common Brick
Other TIMBER Other Timber

Historic Themes

General Specific
SOCIAL & CIVIC ACTIVITIES Education & science
SOCIAL & CIVIC ACTIVITIES Institutions

Creation Date

22 Oct 1997

Publish place record online (inHerit):

Approved

Last Update

19 May 2021

Disclaimer

This information is provided voluntarily as a public service. The information provided is made available in good faith and is derived from sources believed to be reliable and accurate. However, the information is provided solely on the basis that readers will be responsible for making their own assessment of the matters discussed herein and are advised to verify all relevant representations, statements and information.