The Bluecoat

The Bluecoat features a three story facade of red brick and local sandstone, distinguished by a distinctively curved wall and a clock set into the front gable. Built in seventeen seventeen, it began as a charity school for orphaned children, funded by local merchants. During the Blitz of nineteen forty-one, an incendiary bomb gutted the building, destroying the roof and interior. The structure survived the wreckage, and its restoration eventually transformed the former schoolhouse into a center for contemporary arts.