The original 'Brandlehow Road School' was a three storey building and opened on the site in February 1902,[3][4] the site was hit during bombing in World War Two, the London County Council Bomb Damage Map (1945) shows many buildings were damaged beyond repair.[5][6]
Building
The existing building was designed by Ernő Goldfinger, it was built in 1950[2][7] and then opened by broadcaster Wilfred Pickles in June 1952.[8]
Goldfinger's design used his own innovative prefabricated reinforced concrete-frame system,[9] also used at Greenside Primary School in Hammersmith and which used half the steel of standard steel-framed buildings at the time.[10] The building frame was infilled with red bricks in an L-shaped layout around the playground, with a single storey, including a taller assembly hall with full-height windows looking into the playground on the west side, with classrooms on the north side, and a brick tower at the site entrance.[2]
An extension was designed by Goldfinger in the 1960s, this was not prefabricated and had less glazing.[11]
The building was listed as Grade II on 30 March 1993.[12]
Recent additions
In 2005 an extension by team 51.5° architects was added also using prefabricated techniques,[13] the new building opened in 2006[14][15] and included a new wooden playground.[16]
The original Goldfinger designed school keeper's cottage was illegally demolished in 2007 by developer Rajiv Laxman,[17] Director of Abrus Ltd.[18] Laxman was fined £37,000 plus costs of £3,000 under the Planning (Listed Building and Conservation Areas) Act 1990[19] and the cottage was subsequently restored in 2013 as part of a residential project.[20]
Further plans for building on the school were proposed in 2019.[21]
