RootsChat.Com

On the other hand if you use google street view to move a little further East to number 38-40 there is similar architecture on that building.

Also, I wonder if stevelord65 has noticed that the building (number 34 London Road) on the other side of Hotham street is called the Drapery. In the 1871 census John Lloyd was referring to himself and his business as a Draper's.

And perhaps the school building, or parts of it, did survive into the 1860s ...

Certainly parts may have survived, but not the front part, because the press cuttings above are dated March 1862 and by then Messrs Vey, Eustance etc are occupying numbers 26 to 32 London Road. The school building had a single front entrance and so would not have had multiple numbers as its address.

Looking at the other, much clearer image from the article about the founding of the Blind School (shown below) I don't think the front on London Road was remodelled to become the post 1851 version. The image below shows that the central portion of the old building projected forward slightly from the two single storey wings. They probably took it down to the foundations of the original building so that the new building had a similar footprint, and may have reused some of the architectural stonework, but other than that I think the current building completely dates from the second half of the nineteenth century.

Based on the 1871 census when there are 14 people living at number 32, I think the premises must have extended out to the rear, along Hotham Street, some distance as shown on the town plan for there to have been space for warehouse storage there as well.  I doubt very much that the bricked up window had anything to do with the window tax. It could be a much more modern alteration, perhaps following the remodelling in the late 1940s/early 1950s when the cinema was built next door.

Incidentally the streetview image below is what the front of the buildings looked like in September 2008. Assuming the missing two buildings, where the Odeon is, were a mirror of number 30 and 32, the thinner, slightly set-back, central part of the building in between the Picture House Pub and the Odeon Cinema could well have been where the main entrance to the School was located (see extract of map below showing the School facade on London Road).

Just in case anyone doubts that the satellite image and the town plan are misaligned, look further South to the rail tracks in Lime Street station