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Camden New Journal - By DAN CARRIER
Published: 27 March 2008

School revamp causes ‘dismay’

SOUTH Hampstead High School hopes to start work on demolishing its Victorian classrooms and building a new college by the summer.
The girls’ school, in Maresfield Gardens, Belsize Park, has withdrawn its original application to transform the cramped site. It wants to scrap buildings that span from the school’s original wing opened from the 1880s to the 1970s.
The plans were attacked by neighbours and the area’s conservation advisory committee, but Ian Williams, the architect who is masterminding the multi-million pound project, said it was the only plan that would keep the school in Belsize Park and that they had considered nine other solutions to renovate the school before deciding to pull down the red brick building.
He said: “Our plans have changed but not significantly. Internal layouts have changed, as have parts of the exterior, but they are minimal.”
He added that the timing of the work had to be exactly right so it did not disrupt day-to-day life at the school.
The plans were first tabled to the council last year, but because of the amount of time it has taken to gauge views and for the scheme to reach the desks of relevant planning officers, the school have decided to start from square one and hope a decision is reached in May or June – allowing builders to get on site in the summer holidays and make a start.
But the threat to the old school building has been met with dismay by neighbours. Dr Mayer Hillman, who lives in Maresfield Gardens, said the previous plans were “more suited to a university campus in Milton Keynes than a conservation area”.
He said: “I will not pre-judge the new application before I have seen it. However, if they are simply tweaking the plans, we will remain dismayed.
“The school was designed in the 1870s to fit in with the Victorian buildings around it. The new proposals are so discordant. They simply make no gesture to the character of the area.”

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