This place is one I have wanted to see for ages, but with various lockdowns and a mistimed visit back in the summer (arriving as kids were being dropped off for school next door is not good!) it got put back on the never ending 'to do' list.
Out of a few places we tried in Stoke this was the only success, it appears the council have recently gone on a bit of a sealing spree perhaps spurred on by the clusterfuck at that theatre and perhaps partly down to it being December and them wanting to use up all of their allocated budgets before the year is out. Many of the well known and often trodden places are now sealed with identical boards, but how long it'll last I don't know! There had been an attempt made at sealing up this place but someone had kindly opened it up again.
The building was originally opened in 1893 as Wellington County Infant's School, and it became Hanley St. Luke's CofE Primary School in 1982. The school moved out in 2001 when a new extension was built on the adjacent Junior school. After closure the building was used by Peggy Davies Ceramics, a small scale pottery maker and the company vacated the building in 2010. It seems they kept a lot of the old school features intact and simply moved a few things in like the kiln and a whole lot of racking and erected a few stud walls.
People have mentioned before about the pigeons in this place, there actually weren't many at all inside on this visit - there were easily more dead ones than live specimens, perhaps as the weather was so utterly foul they were all hiding in the roof space. The building itself is absolutely beautiful, it's by far one of my favourite examples of a Victorian school I've managed to see with so much wonderful stained glass everywhere as well as beautiful glazed tiles. The classrooms are arranged around the central hall with toilets and other offices etc housed down small corridors in the corners, it really is a stunner.
As I mentioned previously the weather was absolutely dreadful so I didn't stop to get any external photos!
Thanks for looking
Out of a few places we tried in Stoke this was the only success, it appears the council have recently gone on a bit of a sealing spree perhaps spurred on by the clusterfuck at that theatre and perhaps partly down to it being December and them wanting to use up all of their allocated budgets before the year is out. Many of the well known and often trodden places are now sealed with identical boards, but how long it'll last I don't know! There had been an attempt made at sealing up this place but someone had kindly opened it up again.
The building was originally opened in 1893 as Wellington County Infant's School, and it became Hanley St. Luke's CofE Primary School in 1982. The school moved out in 2001 when a new extension was built on the adjacent Junior school. After closure the building was used by Peggy Davies Ceramics, a small scale pottery maker and the company vacated the building in 2010. It seems they kept a lot of the old school features intact and simply moved a few things in like the kiln and a whole lot of racking and erected a few stud walls.
People have mentioned before about the pigeons in this place, there actually weren't many at all inside on this visit - there were easily more dead ones than live specimens, perhaps as the weather was so utterly foul they were all hiding in the roof space. The building itself is absolutely beautiful, it's by far one of my favourite examples of a Victorian school I've managed to see with so much wonderful stained glass everywhere as well as beautiful glazed tiles. The classrooms are arranged around the central hall with toilets and other offices etc housed down small corridors in the corners, it really is a stunner.
As I mentioned previously the weather was absolutely dreadful so I didn't stop to get any external photos!
Thanks for looking
