inner–london schools 1918–44 a thematic study - English Heritage

standard one-and-two storey plans. 36 The LCC AD eventually opted for timber-framedconstruction at the junior and infants’ department of Huntingfield Road, L B Wandsworthof 1920-22 (dem.), and Athelney Road, L B Lewisham of 1920-23 (classrooms largelyrebuilt). The job architect for these schools was J.M. Scott (1877-1956).By 1935 the education authority of Hendon, with the local builders Haymills, wereconstructing ‘semi-permanent’ timber schools with a twenty-year life expectancy. 37 Likeother authorities, the LCC expressed an interest in the Hendon schools and other formsof light construction, but in practice found it difficult to move away from traditionalmodes of construction: the design process had become standardised and constructionreliant on established economies of scale and contract labour. 38 Innovation was stifledby inertia and conservatism, intrinsic to large bureaucracies. The report of the Bainescommittee, appointed in 1925 and including the Architect to the LCC George TophamForrest, concluded that brick remained the cheapest and most suitable building materialfor schools. 39 After visiting the Ilmington Road senior school, Selly Oak, Birmingham(H.T. Buckland, 1934), J.E. Richardson of the LCC AD concluded that the cost of timberconstruction was no cheaper than brick, whilst heating costs were higher. 40It was not until the school-building boom of 1936-39 that sustained progress wasmade with light and dry construction. This period saw the first experiments withnew construction techniques such as steel-framed schools with light curtain walls. Atthe West Sussex schools of Sidlesham (1936), Selsey (1937), North Lancing (1938),Rustington (c.1939) and Littlehampton (c.1939), the county architect Cecil GeorgeStillman (1894-1968) used a light, cold-formed plate steel system developed by alocal caravan manufacturer to produce rows of single-storey classrooms on an 8’3”Fig. 23: Sidlesham, West Sussex (C.G. Stillman, 1936), one of the first schools to utilise 'light and dry'construction (© Elain Harwood).© ENGLISH H ER I TAG E 43 - 20 0933