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An artist’s impression of the new Pimlico School building |
Iconic school to be bulldozed despite last-minute appeals
Pimlico’s problematic ‘eyesore’ to be replaced with controversial £35m building
THE iconic Pimlico School building will be demolished despite last-ditch appeals from three leading architects.
Architect Richard Bancroft, the son of Greater London Council architect John Bancroft, who designed the original building in 1964, said advice from the government-funded Commission for Architecture and Built Environment (Cabe) had been “ignored”.
Planning chiefs voted unanimously in favour of plans to build a new £35 million school in Lupus Street, despite a report from Cabe in November that concluded the designs from Architecture PLB were “not fit for purpose”.
Mr Bancroft said: “The council has been gunning for the school for years and I have been fighting them.”
Architect Richard Rogers, Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) president Sunand Prasad and Observer architecture critic Stephen Bayley also appealed against the decision at the planning meeting last month.
In his letter to council leader Simon Milton, Sunand Prasad warned the building was a record of its time which would be “lost forever”.
He said: “A worthy replacement would have to be at least as distinguished a piece of architecture in the context of our own times. This is manifestly not the case as regards the present application, however worthy and functional it may be.”
The RIBA president added that he was convinced refurbishment of the building was possible, despite the building’s “shortcomings” in terms of environmental comfort and weather- proofing performance.
Lord Rogers said that the school was of “considerable” architectural importance.
“I believe we could get better value out of the school if it was carefully renovated,” he added.
Mr Bayley also objected to the planning application, as do the Twentieth Century Society and modern movement group Docomomo.
But chairman of the planning committee, Councillor Robert Davis, at a meeting last month called the school an “awful” building which needed to be bulldozed.
Councillor Davis said: “This is an exciting application that gives a good range of facilities not only for the school but also for the local community.”
He said: “It’s an absolute eyesore – and has been a problem since day one.” He said he was “happy” with the new designs and that “changes made to the school library were to our satisfaction although we have said we are not happy with the materials and exterior design of the assembly hall.”
NUT members went on a one-day strike in November in protest at the council’s refusal to decant the building during the works, which are expected to begin in February. |
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