South Hampstead High School digs deep to modernise

Published: 09 September, 2010
by DAN CARRIER

RADICAL proposals to demolish a Victorian wing of South Hampstead High School and replace it with a new building sunk three storeys beneath the ground have been unveiled.

The private school, in Maresfield Gardens, Hampstead, has been attempting to move or improve its buildings for nearly a decade. It has now settled on a plan that will involve digging out a new subterranean sports hall. 

The school has gone back to the drawing board after facing stiff opposition to similar proposals in 2008. 

A Development Control Forum meeting held at the school on Monday, attended by more than 70 people including parents and neighbours, heard Stephen Barnett of architects Hopkins describe how they had considered nine different options for the site. 

South Hampstead, which has a selection policy, and boasts that it enjoys Camden’s highest exam scores, has had three tours by the Independent Schools Inspectorate – and each have severely critical of the cramped classrooms and buildings. 

Mr Barnett said the current buildings would be no loss to the conservation area the school sits in. He added: “They have no cohesion. It is an absolute eyesore. It looks like a prison not a school.”

The scheme would see one building at No 3 Maresfield Gardens, demolished. Next door a building called Waterlow would be clad in new terracotta tiles, mimicking the designs of neighbouring houses, while a listed building called Oakwood would be kept on site. 

Headteacher Jenny Stephen said that the school had searched for new premises but found nothing suitable. She revealed that they had bid for one property only to discover a private buyer was ready to shell out up to £6m more than the school could afford to buy the site. Ms Stephen said her staff are now using buildings that are no longer fit for purpose. “We  are teaching in Victorian classrooms,” she added. “Children do not learn by sitting in rows any more.”

Heath and Hampstead Society chairman Tony Hillier, who was at the meeting, said the group had run a long campaign to strengthen planning guidelines regarding basements. But he said that while the school’s plans would create one of the largest ever proposed in the area, he was not against it – as long as engineers could guarantee it would not cause subsidence or flooding. 

Neighbour Elsa Nelson, whose daughter Tanya is a former South Hampstead pupil, called for the plans to be withdrawn. “Why should we have this monstrosity here? It looks terrible,” she said. 

“It needs to decrease in size. They have grown too much with too many pupils on site and used up their space.”

Ms Nelson said that she feared the plans for the deep basement would lead to serious structural damage in neighbouring homes. 

She added: “This school sits on a hill and it is not suitable because of subsidence. I am also worried about the numbers of lorries needed to remove such a large amount of earth.”

Dr Mayer Hillman, who lives in Maresfield Gardens, said: “There are still a lot questions that remain unanswered about how this may be built and its suitability.”

The school hopes to apply for planning permission in the coming months, with work starting in the summer of 2011 and finishing two years later.