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

Fig 59: Maze Hill elevation to the Roan School, L B Greenwich (Fletcher & Dannatt, 1926-28).(L M A : 4442/03/01/10/009; City of London, London Metropolitan Archives).The architectural treatment, a sober but well-detailed neo-Georgian, is hardly surprisinggiven the scholarly credentials of its architect and the school’s desire to express itsheritage. Like the LCC schools, the oversized windows have the proportions of sashes,but are in fact metal-framed casements, with ‘hopper’ top-opening lights above andbelow. There are rubbed brick voussoirs and dressings, and a dentilled eaves course.The principal front is of 21 bays, with a central three-bay entrance and end bays breakingforward as pavilions. The central entrance is elaborately treated and detailed in ashlar.Doric columns are surmounted by a pediment broken by the school crest. Above,a canted bay window lights the library and board room. The architrave is flanked bydouble-height columns of the same order and rusticated brick quoins. Above theentablature is an heraldic bird, with a clock and cupola in the style of Wren. Fletcherturned the end classrooms 90°, enabling the end bays to terminate the long elevationwith an expanse of brick. The first-floor oeil de boeuf windows here provide a reminderof Fletcher’s training at the École des Beaux Arts.The planning owed much to the luxury—rare in the capital—of a large, ‘greenfield’site, which must have presented a striking contrast with the tall, narrow proportions ofmost of the surrounding schools. The Roan school can be compared with non-providedschools in marginal and semi-rural locations such as the Birmingham Blue Coat School(designed 1913, completed 1930, J.L. Ball and HW Simister), the King George V GrammarSchool, Southport, Monkwearmouth Grammar School, Sunderland (c1925, grade II),Bilston Girls High School, (1929-30, Col G.C. Lowbridge, grade II) and High StorrsSchool, Sheffield (1933, WG Davies and JL Womersley, grade II).The E-plan of the Woolwich County Secondary School, L B Greenwich (1927, LCC AD, jobarchitect W.E. Brooks) stresses a formal approach to the principal, south-facing front. Thecentral entrance section, highlighted by stripped-classical detailing in ashlar, is set within asingle-banked classroom range with an axial hall to the rear. A gymnasium and practicalworkshop is set at the ends of cross wings. At Battersea Grammar School of 1936 byJ.E.K. Harrison, the same axial plan is reprised in moderne styling, including a flat roof andmetal windows separated by lighter-coloured bricks, to create horizontal emphasis.The Honor Oak school, L B Southwark (1930-31, LCC AD) is a two-storeyed secondaryschool designed for 450 girls. It is planned around a rectangular courtyard rather than thetraditional square quad. The hall, kitchen and gymnasium are located in a separate, single-© ENGLISH H ER I TAG E 43 - 20 0962