Now a listed building, it was erected in 1900 by the city as a boarding school for Catholic grammar pupils and is today used as a school building for a state-run all-day secondary school. The quadrangle wing abuts the main wing at the rear and contains the school’s own original chapel, with its cross-shaped floorplan. From the late twentieth century, this had been used as an assembly hall with stage area. Since later building work had provided a new assembly hall, the available space was now to be converted into a much-needed extension to the rooms for teaching staff and administration.

The conversion plan stayed true to the school’s listed building status, restoring the chapel space to its former size. So the room can be experienced as a whole, the admin offices have been constructed as an all-glass, single-storey structure in the chapel space, offset from the interior facade.

Here, the free space created provides a communicative, dynamic area and access to the open staircase connecting the storeys. Situated atop the all-glass module is an open gallery, providing working space for teaching staff with a direct staircase connection to the floor above.