Glenmere Community Primary School

Summary

Glenmere Community Primary School built between 1963 and 1964 to architectural designs by Farmer and Dark for the Leicestershire Education Committee, with John Barton and Alistair Tait as job architects.

Reasons for Designation

Glenmere Community Primary School, built between 1963 and 1964 to architectural designs by Farmer and Dark for the Leicestershire Education Committee, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* as a significant work by Farmer and Dark, an architectural firm with a number of innovative schools in Leicestershire to their name;
* for its imaginative plan form, which features a multi-purpose hall at its core, from which concentric administrative and classroom wings radiate;
* for the clever use of the sloping site which organises and separates the functions of the school as well as maintaining a scale suitable for young children.

Historic interest:

* as an important building commissioned by Leicestershire Education Committee, clearly demonstrating the aspirations of a progressive educational authority and the successful collaboration between architects and educationalists.

History

Glenmere County Primary School (now Glenmere Community Primary School) was built between 1963 and 1964 to designs by the architectural practice of Farmer and Dark for the Leicestershire Education Committee, with John Barton and Alistair Tait as job architects. Farmer and Dark was founded in 1934 and became established as specialists in public sector works. Glenmere Primary was the start of a very fruitful collaboration for Farmer and Dark with Leicestershire County Council that included six schools, all designed around 1964.

Post Second World War, there was a movement in educational theory away from self-contained classes to mixing across groups, encouraging use of the entire school by all the children. Flexible and centralised planning was first applied to primary schools, with open teaching areas grouped round a central library, quiet study room, and assembly area, sometimes on a circular plan or in the form of pavilions around the central core. The requirement for abundant daylight and outdoor access led to dispersed layouts, a trend which was countered by tight cost limits and constrained sites.

In line with these new educational principles, the architects’ brief for Glenmere called for a two-form entry junior school with a hall, dining facilities, administrative accommodation and nine classrooms, one of which was for special teaching functions. The building needed to include an area which would contain all the children at any one time, with their desks and working surfaces and with adequate display wall surfaces. Other requirements included a reference library with limited provision for quiet work, and a larger area where practical activities could take place at any time. In addition there was need for outside spaces protected from the weather on at least two sides. Interpretation of the brief saw a school designed with the child in mind with the whole school visible from the hall and therefore readily comprehensible to a small child. Advantage was taken of the slope of the site to provide a 2ft change in floor level between the north and south wings, enabling the classrooms to be kept lower in height and to a suitable scale for a child, while maintaining a constant eaves level across both wings. In the garden between the assembly hall and classroom wing, a bird sculpture in a pond was designed by BJ Aylward, adviser in handicraft to the Leicestershire Education Committee; this bird sculpture is no longer in situ but a similar sculpture is positioned at the entrance to the school close to the car park.

Glenmere Community School continues to function in much the same way as designed with only slight modifications having been carried out to maintain its use into the C21. Most of the windows were replaced in the early C21, with the exception of those of the kitchen, but the style of the replacement windows replicates the original design. Similarly, the roof covering was replaced in the early C21 but in keeping with the original and retaining the original zigzag roof profile.

Details

Glenmere Community Primary School built between 1963 and 1964 to architectural designs by Farmer and Dark for the Leicestershire Education Committee, with John Barton and Alistair Tait as job architects.

MATERIALS: the school building has a steel and softwood structure, a felted roof, glazed walls, brick end walls and softwood boarding; the floors of the administrative and classroom wings have vinyl tiles and the assembly hall has hardwood parquet flooring.

PLAN: the plan of the school comprises a pinwheel centred on a twelve-sided assembly hall, open to the north-east and north-west sides, permitting access from the playground and main entrance respectively. From the central hall, a quadrant plan administrative wing radiates north, and a shallow store room radiates to the north-west. Two glazed links radiate south-east and south-west of the hall leading to a classroom wing, half-ring on plan, which wraps around the south-east, south and south-west sides of the hall. Between the glazed links is a courtyard garden with a pond.

EXTERIOR: the single storey, circular building’s external elevations are glazed, with a framework of softwood columns supporting a zig-zag profile roof structure created by radial steel valleys, ridge beams and folded plate roofs. The glazed walls are cross braced with steel rods below sill level to reinforce, and all windows with the exception of those of the kitchen were replaced in the early C21. Their plastic-coated aluminium frames replicate those of the original glazing pattern, however the bottom glazed or timber panels were replaced by aluminium panels in the early C21. The end walls of the administrative and classroom wings are finished externally in brick and painted weatherboarding. Around the outer edge of the classroom block, each of the four pairs of classrooms shares a recessed covered porch, allowing for outside learning in all weathers, accessible from each classroom via a half-glazed timber door (replaced in the early C21).

INTERIOR: the central, 12-sided assembly hall shows the structural components visible externally, as well as the radial laminated timber valley beams and solid timber beams of the roof’s ridges, and the restraining steel tie beam that runs around the circumference where the roof timbers meet the columns of the walls. The laminated timber radial roof beams meet at the apex of the structure and butt against a central steel drum. Purlins between the valley and ridge beams support the tongue and groove finish to the ceiling. A plywood web beam half-way up the wall structure is used to brace the columns and help with acoustics. Circular wall lights are regularly spaced along the web beam, these appear to have been replaced, and square lights have been added to the ceiling. The walls are glazed around the south, east and west sides although some panels to the rear of the stage are blackened to reduce the amount of light entering. The floor of the hall is of hardwood parquet.

Beyond the sub-circular plan of the hall to the north, but integral to the open space, is a flat roofed foyer with black and white vinyl flooring laid in concentric arcs. The change in flooring marks a change in function, this area being used as the dining room with the kitchen beyond to the north. The original timber serving hatch, the internal doors and many of the fitted cupboards within the kitchen are retained. The windows and external doors in this area are also original as are the terracotta quarry tiles used as flooring. When not in use the kitchen is closed off from the hall with hydraulic shutters (replaced). East of the kitchen is a small library, headteacher’s office, premises officer’s office and storeroom. These rooms have been created out of a former classroom and PE store, but the reconfiguration has retained the original floor plan. West of the kitchen is the staff room, first aid room and beyond that the small reception, offices and staff WCs. A PE and chair store room is also accessible from the western side of the central hall and is part of the original plan.

On either side of the hall’s stage (to the south-east and south-west) are short flights of steps, each leading to a glazed link corridor and the classroom wing beyond. Within the classroom wing is a shared corridor that invites movement along the whole wing; the corridor has the same black and white vinyl flooring as in the dining area. The classroom wing has a framework of timber columns supporting a roof structure of radial steel valley and ridge beams which in turn support timber purlins. The beams are trussed with steel rods at the longer spans and the timber columns are bolted to the beams by a steel T-leg slotted into the timber and bolted through. The four pairs of classrooms each have a practical area that overlooks the internal courtyard, while the classrooms themselves overlook the playing fields. All the practical areas retain many original fixtures and fittings all at child height and scale, including fitted cupboards (some with sinks inset), pigeon holes and coat hooks, as well as girls and boys WCs. All the classrooms were formerly accessed via timber and glazed doors the frame of which was angled to accommodate the zigzag profile of the roof, however these were replaced with rectangular fire doors in the early C21. Within each classroom dadoes are finished in softwood boarding which survives to varying degrees. The wall above is finished in pin board or plaster board for the display of work and low fitted cupboards beneath the glazing, in places with the original sliding doors, also survive but in some classrooms these are now open fronted or hidden behind curtains. Each classroom has a teacher's office / storeroom, many of which retain original fitted cupboards. At the eastern end of the classroom block was a former kiln room but the kiln has now been removed and the space extended slightly to create a large linen store cupboard.

Sources

Books and journals
Roth, A, New School Building (1966), 174-80
Glenmere County Junior School, Wigston, Leicestershire; Architects: Farmer & Dark in Builder, ,Vol. , (15 Oct 1965), 815-16
School at Wigston, Leicestershire in Wood, ,Vol. , (May 1968), 21-24
Junior School, Wigston, Leicestershire in Official Architecture and Planning, ,Vol. 28, No.9, (September 1965), 1283-5

End of official list entry