Architecture
Pimlico School, London
Architecture
Pimlico School is a gun-metal grey battleship adrift amongst the genteel stucco Georgian terraces of Pimlico. Built between 1965 and 1970, and designed by a team headed up by GLC architect John Bancroft, Pimlico School was initially well received, winning a clutch of awards for its daring glass and concrete structure. Yet fast forward to January 2008 and the future of this innovative slice of late period Brutalism hangs in the balance. Demolition is imminent - minor works have already begun - and a bland design for a new school, an uninspiring U-shaped cream box, waits in the wings, part of the Labour government’s much-vaunted Building Schools for the Future programme.
Click here to see images of the school inside and out
Surrounded on three sides by tall terraces, Bancroft’s building, variously described as a 'futuristic-aircraft carrier' and a 'greenhouse', could not be more at odds with its neighbours. The site is huge, sunk deep below street level with ample space for tennis courts and playgrounds. In the middle, the building rises up like a docked submarine, its stepped multi-layered structure containing classrooms, halls, a library, special sixth form common room, indoor swimming pool, gymnasium and more.
Pimlico School has not been without its problems, from the vandalised air conditioning system that generated greenhouse-like internal temperatures to a systematic lack of maintenance that shows in the crumbling concrete walls and generally tatty feel. But although the UK’s architectural establishment has called for a programme of sensitive refurbishment - the RIBA, CABE and Twentieth Century Society amongst them - the building’s end is now in sight.
Not even the vocal support of Richard Rogers and many of the school’s own teachers, pupils and parents have managed to swing the balance. Unless there is an eleventh hour reprieve, Bancroft’s self-confessed 'Hippocratic Oath' of a building for 'solidity, utility and delight' will all be for nothing, as his landmark work is painstakingly picked apart around the school children who will be subjected to its every dying groan.
Subscribe to Wallpaper* magazine
Sign up for our free weekly newsletterINFORMATION
