Orthography question

[slovami.livejournal.com]

Purely out of curiosity...

What is the symbol that I've seen before the number of a Russian school? (I mean the one that looks like an upside-down "r".) Is it the same as the symbol we use in English, #, meaning "number"? And is it only used with schools, or with other things, too?

Thanks!

Edited to add: Never mind, it's a silly question. My browser shows the symbol incorrectly, it's really very simple: №