A once-abandoned Mayfair schoolhouse is set to become London's ultimate destination for crafted arts

London gallerist Sarah Myerscough has been a champion of craft for as long as the city's design community can remember. She founded her gallery in 1998, and her set up has since been somewhat nomadic, occupying various spaces across the city while championing creative voices working on the cusp of craft, design, and sculpture.

Now, the gallerist is ready to put down much firmer roots as she opens the doors to The Schoolhouse, in a formerly abandoned school building in Mayfair, which will not only serve as a gallery space, but also as a hub for crafted arts in the city.

Sarah Myerscough on setting up a new gallery at The Schoolhouse

Myerscough had been in the area for most of the nearly 30 years of her collecrible design operation, and was keen to stay in Mayfair. 'I happened to mention to Grosvenor that I was setting up a charitable foundation and that's when they mentioned an old derelict schoolhouse that had been left empty for 10 years,' she recalls. 'My first impression was that it would be difficult to create a credible gallery space. It was a warren of tiny rooms, false floors, blocked windows from years of changed usage, from schools to theatres.'

The space and its location intrigued her, however, and as she went back for several visits, the space, she notes, 'slowly revealed itself.' A few features stood out: high ceilings, 25 original windows that had been partly boarded up, but were still intact. She took the plunge, and as she took ownership of the space, she uncovered 'a myriad of original features...each visit thereafter was a revelation.

'It was a real Alice in Wonderland moment when I first realised there was a 7000 sq ft hidden gem long forgotten behind a block of Victorian flats, designed originally as the first social housing project in the Victorian era.

Opening this month, the gallery (which is accessed from an unassuming brick façade and is surrounded by Victorian apartment blocks) is set over two floors, a ground floor space with a 5.5 meters high ceiling, and a more intimate upper gallery. 'The work I represent in the Crafted Arts is not dependent on walls, so this freedom allowed me to highlight the expanse of windows, to flood the rooms with natural light and keep the whole building intact - to reveal the spirit and essence of the place,' Myerscough explains.

Among the building's features that she restored are original glass windowpanes, old gas light fixings, terracotta tiles, aged pine wood floors, cast iron coal plates with flag stones. 'I wanted to keep the spirit of the schoolhouse very present yet simultaneously create a subtle backdrop to the artwork to tell its own story,' she explains.

Making its debut, the gallery will display works by German woodworker Ernst Gamperl and pieces in leather by London-based artist Frances Pinnock, a fitting example of the breadth of Myerscough's operation.

The resulting exhibition spaces are white cubes with personality, an interior that both bears the mark of history while becoming a backdrop for the displays that will take over the gallery at periodic intervals.

The most significant contemporary addition to the building is a minimalist, floating staircase connecting the two exhibition floors, replacing the 1980s enclosed stairwell.

In Myerscough's future vision, this building will also become a collaborative canvas, shaped over time by the gallery's cohort of artists and craftspeople through a series of site-specific interventions. This, Myerscough notes, will be 'a homage to the arts and crafts movement' and currently-commissioned elements include a hand-stitched leather handrail by Bill Amberg.

'We want to attract the most revered artist, designers and makers working in this exciting art field today,' she says. 'Creatives that push the perception of craft - removing the limits of traditional art categories and instead focus on the material and conceptual understanding of the artist's practice.'

With this new opening, Myerscough also sees an opportunity to both expand her gallery's mission, and to foster the field of crafted arts in a new, meaningful way. 'We are taking this moment to really carve out our niche: it is a moment to redefine a neglected area in the arts that we passionately believe is so relevant and significant in the new cultural landscape,' she says. 'By naming it the “crafted arts”, we define our journey moving forward in this splendid new home. The exhibitions we hope will be landmarks in this new movement.'

As part of this new mission, the gallery's basement rooms will become the permanent home of the newly-launched Crafted Arts Foundation, which will focus on education in craft by helping acquisition for museums, offering spaces to craftspeople including workshops, lecture rooms, and a new library. 'Our mission is that every child should have the opportunity to “make”, to protect such skills for the future and create a passion for making from a young age,' Myerscough explains of her vision. 'These skills are more and more threatened through lack of investment and appreciation. Material and visual intelligence is so undervalued in our educational system and this needed to be championed for future generations

'It’s all about building a community around contemporary craft now and in the future . The positive energy in the schoolhouse on the opening night was palpable, in times of untruths , the crafted arts will offer solace. A genuine, authentic voice in the arts that believes in the visceral connectivity through art and our relationship with the natural world.'

The Schoolhouse, 18 Balderton Street, Mayfair, London, W1K 6TQ

sarahmyerscough.com