The remodelling of Sarah Bonnell School for Girls in Stratford, Newham demonstrates the qualities of London board schools and how the original organisational model entirely supports new ways of learning.

The existing site is very constrained for the 1,100 girls attending presently and the site was characterised by a piecemeal development of buildings dating from 1904 to the present day. The toilets for the pupils were located in a single facility which became a bottleneck during breaks between lessons. The dining facilities had a major effect on the school’s ability to function with lunchtime queuing occurring in corridors, creating congestion and frustration. There were numerous corridors with no visual points of reference by which to navigate and they were dark and imposing with low headroom; not inspiring spaces. The external spaces relegated play areas to the rear of the school with almost the entire frontage being given over to car parking.

The design solution has cleared the site of the majority of the piecemeal development and focussed the emphasis back on the original board school. The central hall spaces have been opened up on the ground floor to create a Languages Café, supporting the schools’ specialism, with project based learning areas on the upper floors. The art block that had once been the infant school has been converted to a new restaurant with a glass pavilion added to provide additional seating space. The cars that once dominated the frontage have been relocated to the rear creating a stunning new garden linking to the dining pavilion and the entrance and providing the girls with much needed external social space.

The elements of new build are intentionally minimalist in design with simple use of brick and timber that does not compete with the intricate detailing and high gables of the original board school building.

Lessons learned:

• Ensure detailed and coordinated surveys are undertaken before major design work is undertaken. The reluctance to carry out intrusive tests may prove costly in terms of redesign, replanning and resequencing the works.
• Constrained sites require the landscape design to work very hard. Spaces need to have multiple functions requiring the boundaries of social, learning and sports spaces to be blurred.
• Investing time in researching the history of the buildings and site can prove invaluable when deciding what elements to retain and which to demolish. Returning the building back to its original state demonstrates the quality and robustness of its design.
• The consequences of discovering asbestos and lead paint in areas to be refurbished can cause delay and lead to additional costs if not identified at the outset.