Refurbishing schools.
Andrew Bomford reports tonight from Elm Court School in Lambeth, in response to this report from English Heritage.
Jump to more content from this blog
About this blog
PM The evening news and current affairs programme presented by Eddie Mair.
iPM The programme that starts with its listeners. Join the discussions online and contribute ideas for a weekly programme presented by Eddie Mair and Jennifer Tracey.
The PM Privacy Commission
Read the final report of the PM Privacy Commission.
- Full Audio and Transcripts
- Hugh Tomlinson QC
- Zac Goldsmith MP
- Max Mosley
- Stephen Abell
- Hugh Grant
- Sir Charles Gray
- Alan Rusbridger
- Helen Wood
- Max Clifford
- Marcus Partington
- John Kampfner
- Christopher Graham
- Louise Mensch
- Andy Trotter
- John Mullin
- Avril Sanders Royle
- Jimmy Wales
Meet the commissioners, view the terms of reference and hear the Commission Chair Sir Michael Lyons explain his approach.
RSS feed
Email us
Our Twitter
Listen to PM
~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~02~RS~)
Comments
Sign in or register to comment.
Is the cage on the side for keeping the naughty ones ?
Complain about this comment
Why don't they get rid of those pre-fab things that were built fifty year or more ago?
Complain about this comment
Is this the one the head teacher wanted to bulldoze? Bit of a short term mentality really - unsuitable or not - it was there before she was around and will be around a lot longer (if left alone) than she is likely to be a teacher - Better value for money than the Government's current PFI madness!
Complain about this comment
It is great that Elm Park is being re-used. I was happy with it when it was an adult education centre. But as Alan Johnson thinks this is a luxury is was never going to be reinstated as that. I supported the use of the building a a special needs school. It appears to be for excluded children?
However it was not left in a state as the reporter suggested.
I live next to it for past 22 years and know it as lovely building with homage to arts and crafts.
However the 2 years of building work did take away some of its character (mainly the greener feel with trees out front replaced by a very sterile car park.
And sadly Apollo were very shoddy with us residents.Living next to the building work was hell. It was noisy, vibrated our kitchen ! and the pavement unusuable.
I was knocked off my bike by one of the many lorries constantlky turning in and out. Contractors threw there rubbish every where (not just take away food but even gallon tins of bitumen, glue guns, nails and van detritus)
There was no disruption meeting with residents.Ever.The pavement was out of use for a year on one side of the road.The rest of the time it was a muddy cementy mess. We had early morning expleteives and contractors changing in vans. And of course no where to park near home with over 20 work vehicles some days!
So not the best organised contract ever. Not one person contacted me until 2 weeks before the over running contract was over.
And now its running we still have to provide parking spaces for staff!
Complain about this comment
There is a certain irony about this report, considering that over the last couple of decades Lambeth closed several Victorian schools and sold them off to developers to convert into flats - for instance what is now known as College Green in Barrington Rd; the old school at the junction of Mandrell and Lyham Roads, and another educational establishment down Ferndale Road, whose name I've forgotten. A great deal of Lambeth Council property was sold when properties were at their lowest value in the mid-nineties. I hope the children have nice classrooms and it's not just an architect's showpiece. A friend who went to look at the recently built Jubilee School on nearby Tulse Hill said she wouldn't want to send her own children there as it had massive spacious corridors but pokey cluttered classrooms.
Complain about this comment
I definitely think it's better to refurbish old schools that have been well-built, rather than knock them down and replace with superficially-attractive shiny new schools which turn out to be shoddily constructed of flimsy materials and look scruffy within a few years. I used to take my daughter to drama classes in one of those fancy new PFI places a few years ago. It had only been open a few years, & was already looking tatty, half the toilet fittings didn't work, and everything appeared to have been done on the cheapest possible budget. Horrible.
The school she attends now (local comprehensive) was built in the 1930's, with a wide red-brick frontage, huge playing fields, mature trees along the road frontage, tiled corridors, and gracious staircases. It's so much more uplifting to go in there than it was to go into the new-but-cheap-looking other school - I know where I'd prefer my taxes to go!
Complain about this comment
View these comments in RSS