CHILDREN NEED THE BEST BUILDINGS

There has been much debate recently about children learning music in schools. The general consensus among people interested in the matter is that there is far too little opportunity for them to do so. Long gone are the days when local authorities employed enough professional teachers to ensure that all children were given the chance to play an instrument and that those who wanted to study properly were encouraged and provided with the instrument and the lessons.

The result of this is that a generation – perhaps more than one generation – has grown up deprived of music and so with little appreciation of what is good or bad.

But of what relevance is this to architecture, which this column is supposed to be about? The link is appreciation or, to put it another way, understanding of the value of what’s around us. And more than that; is there harm that can be done by depriving children of the stimulus of what is good, whether in music, in architecture or in any other field?

The composer Ralph Vaughan Williams certainly thought so; in the preface he wrote in 1906 to the newly-published ‘English Hymnal’, he wrote that ‘Children . . . have no old association with any particular tune, and incalculable good or harm may be done by the music which they sing in their most impressionable years.’

It may be that Vaughan Williams exaggerates for effect – but the point he makes is important; if we take the attitude that any old rubbish, or even anything less than good, is fine for children, we are on dangerous ground. And if it’s true for music, then it’s true for buildings.

It cannot be said that the majority of schools our children are taught in today are of architectural merit. Of course, there are notable exceptions, often in the old public schools; you can find impressive buildings at Eton and Harrow, at Uppingham and Charterhouse, for example. But where else can we look?

Some schools still possess medieval or Elizabethan buildings. The King Edward VI School at Stratford-upon-Avon – an Academy these days – still uses a room in the town’s Upper Guildhall in which Shakespeare was taught. The selective King’s School in Grantham still uses the schoolroom where Sir Isaac Newton studied, and where he scratched his name into the stonework. But being at school in such buildings is, of course, no guarantee of developing any sense of good architecture.

There are some architecturally-distinguished later schools, too. Enlightened landowners like Sir Tatton Sykes in East Yorkshire employed good architects, like George Edmund Street (who designed the Royal Courts of Justice in the Strand) and John Loughborough Pearson (designer of Truro Cathedral) to build both churches and schools. In keeping with the thinking of the day, they had windows that didn’t allow the children to look out, ensuring their concentration on their lessons. The same is true of Ripon Grammar School’s library, once the main teaching room – but, as with his contemporaries, the architect George Corson attempted to create as attractive a building as the prevailing taste allowed.

In the 20th century new schools sprang up in many places, and by now there was a more-enlightened attitude; many of the buildings were given large windows to allow sunlight in and the children to see out. Some were in the prevalent Neo-Georgian style, of brick with, often, metal-framed windows. Some were more adventurous, among them Impington Village College, just north of Cambridge, designed in 1938 by the German architect Walter Gropius, described by Nikolaus Pevsner, as ‘One of the best buildings of its date in England, if not the best,’ for its grouping, its clean lines and its planning.

In the last 40 years, though, school buildings have, on the whole, become dull – and even ugly – built of cheap materials and with little thought given to aesthetics. Does it matter? As long as the children are properly taught, the surroundings don’t matter, some would argue. But as with good music, good architecture can have a positive effect; and, just as good music has been proved to have a beneficial effect on learning, it may be that good architecture can, too.

Over the years, the architectural press has praised (and awarded) new school design; these tend to be the showplaces of their area, all built in the latest architectural language and according to the latest educational theories. The central atrium has been a favourite for some years, as, for example in the East Riding College in Beverley from 2015, or at its contemporary Leeds City College.

But for each of these good example (mostly secondary schools or colleges) there are plenty of mediocre examples of school buildings. Here is just one example – by no means the worst; in 2016 Ripon Civic Society commented on an application by North Yorkshire County Council to demolish the dining hall and construct a new one at Holy Trinity CE Infants School in Trinity Lane.

The Society did not oppose the principle of a new dining space, but objected to the poor design, which it described as ‘a utility shed’ that was out of place in a Conservation Area. In this it agreed with Harrogate Borough Council’s Conservation Officer, who wrote, ‘This is a sensitive site . . . the highest standards of design, palette and application of materials are required. The existing building does not justify a poor replacement building.’

The Civic Society’s letter of objection concluded, ‘The County Council should also bear in mind that this is a building for children, whose perceptions are being formed by their surroundings.’ Despite the objections, the new dining hall was constructed; its outward appearance does not suggest any improvement on the original design. No doubt the infants are happy to eat their meals here. But how much better – and how much more inspiring – it could have been! It does not make the heart sing.

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