We’re lucky at Schools Plus to have a wide range of unique and interesting Schools in our catalogue of 80+ venues. Amongst our wonderful collection are a few truly outstanding, eye-catching and superbly-designed Schools.
We’d like to use this Blog to take you on a tour through five unique and visually impressive Schools that we operate out of.
Marlborough Primary
We start the list with Marlborough Primary, an early years School in Kensington. This School’s stunning building neatly spirals over several stories, with an open play area on every level and is topped off by an impressive roof top 3G pitch. This still relatively new School opened in September 2017 and was commissioned by John Lewis as part of a wider redevelopment of the Chelsea area.
The building, designed by Dixon Jones, has been widely celebrated and has won numerous awards including; a RIBA National Award, a British Construction Industry Award and the Architecture Journal award for School Project of the Year. The building was also shortlisted for a World Architecture News award in the Education category.
Visit: http://www.schoolsplus.co.uk/marlboroughprimary/
Source: https://www.rbkc.gov.uk/newsroom/council-capital-projects/marlborough-primary-school
Bridge Academy
Bridge Academy, located in the London Borough of Hackney, is a truly eye-catching building neatly situated on the river side. This innovative building manages to pack in seven stories on its modest site. The signature feature of the building is it’s ‘heart-space’ located across several stories in the centre of the buildings design.
The building was designed “to encourage students to think about the relationship between maths and music and use the structure of the building as a learning tool”.
Students interviewed by the BBC at the time of the School’s opening were quoted as saying;
“It’s just incredible – there’s so much space. it’s so easy to get around everywhere.”
“It makes me want to go out and say I’m from the Bridge Academy – which school do you go to”
Visit: http://www.schoolsplus.co.uk/bridge/
Source: http://constructingexcellence.org.uk/digital-construction/bim-case-studies/
Picture Credit: http://www.bdp.com/en/projects/a-e/Bridge-Academy/
Sir Isaac Newton Sixth Form
Sir Isaac Newton Sixth Form, found in Norwich, has an interesting backstory. The Sixth Form is not the first owners of the site, in fact they only ‘moved in’ during 2014, as the site was originally a working Fire Station.
As part of the ‘sensitive conversion’ the Sixth Form agreed to keep the following features intact ; fireman’s’ poles, wood-panelled officers’ mess and billiards room, fireman’s wooden lockers and very significantly the doors of the tender hall where the fire engines were kept – now used for assemblies and guest lectures. All these features being left behind has kept a very impressive and historical feel to the Sixth Form.
Visit: www.schoolsplus.co.uk/sirisaacnewtonsixthform
Source: https://www.willmottdixon.co.uk/projects/sir
Millthorpe School
All the Schools so far on our list have been relatively new builds and restorations, Millthorpe School flips this completely by having history on the current School site which dates all the way to 1920. Located in York, North Yorkshire, you can immediately see the history in the grand Victorian buildings as you approach the School grounds. In fact, the current admissions building for the School used to be called “Nunthorpe Court”, a magnificent Victorian mansion built in 1856.
We love how traditional this School looks and it really does standout in our catalogue, especially in contrast to a lot of the inner-city Schools we manage.
Visit: www.schoolsplus.co.uk/millthorpe/
Source: http://www.millthorpeschool.co.uk/millthorpe/about-us/history-of-millthorpe/
Chobham Academy
A recent winner of the best new School Building award at the World Architecture Festival, this impressive Secondary School and Sixth Form was built in the heart of the Olympic East Village in Stratford, London. The School has a lot of history connecting itself with the London Olympic Games of 2012, as many of the buildings they use were originally purpose built as team ‘bases’ during the competition.
The main buildings mesmerising circular shape was designed by international architects Allford Hall Monaghan Morris. Other eye-catching features here include a roof-top terrace with panoramic views of London and a large Sports Hall inscribed with motivational messages based on London 2012.
Visit: http://www.schoolsplus.co.uk/chobham
Source: https://www.chobhamacademy.org.uk/122/campus-overview
Picture Credit: www.ahmm.co.uk/projectDetails/9/Chobham-Academy?sub=news
We hope you’ve enjoyed this tour around some of the country’s more unique and visually pleasing Schools. We love having the opportunity to work at each of these sites and we’re sure they’d make the perfect homes for your event. If you’d like to make a booking at any of these venues then please get in touch with our Customer Contact Centre –
We look forward to hearing from you.
