Former Treyew County Primary Infants School, Truro, Cornwall

Summary

Former infants’ school, later used as a community centre, 1959-1961, by FK Hicklin, Harry Dootson, Michael Kirkbride and G Harper of Cornwall County Council Architects’ Department. Extended in the 1970s.

Description

MATERIALS: the school is constructed on a steel frame with pre-cast concrete roof units. The external walls mainly comprise large areas of glazing within uPVC framing above solid coloured panels (some aluminium-framed units survive) and Delabole slate-stone cladding. The flat roof has an asphalt covering.

PLAN: single-storey with five hexagonal spaces (or units) linked together in a cross plan, orientated north-west to south-east, with a further hexagonal unit to the north. Each classroom unit has two external access doors and the main entrance is on the south-west elevation of the north-west unit.

EXTERIOR: each elevation is formed of the canted walls of the octagonal units: those to the south and east have three faces, whilst to the north and west have two forming a V-shape. The elevations comprise areas of slate-stone cladding and framed and glazed units with horizontal-sliding two-pane windows (these are replacement uPVC unless stated) above solid coloured panels. A clerestorey rising to a timber fascia runs around almost the entire building.

The entrance elevation faces south-west where there is a double-height stone-clad tower, louvred on its south-east elevation and with a shallow monopitch roof; and a recessed entrance fitted with a replacement door. A boiler flue rises from the roof adjacent to the tower. The north-facing elevation includes the two-storey tower with access to the boiler room, and double doors to the former kitchen; the classroom unit to the left has aluminium-framed windows and doors. In front of the north elevation is a raised apron with slate-stone boundary walls. A covered way connects the main building to the extension to the north. The pattern of glazing used on the main building continues on the extension; the south-west and north-east elevations are fully glazed (with no stone cladding) and all glazing and doors are aluminium framed, including within the covered way where there are two pairs of double-sliding doors opposite each other to the main building and extension. The main entrance to the extension is to the north-east. To the east of the extension concrete steps lead up away from the building; these originally led to the adjacent primary school.

At the rear (east and south) of the building the canted elevations form small courtyards accessible from the classrooms and central hall. The glazing system continues here with double doors central on the hall elevations, above which is an additional clerestorey. The eastern courtyard is on two levels to serve the hall and north-east classroom unit on the lower level and the south-east classroom unit on the upper.

INTERIOR: the main entrance leads into a small lobby with slate-stone walls (this is the only area inside the building where this material is used), with an inserted reception window to the left and the opening-ceremony plaque from 1961 to the right. The lobby leads to an inserted door and screen; beyond this the corridor turns to the right. Service rooms are located off the corridor: a reception area; the former larder and kitchen (now subdivided and the kitchen refitted); two cupboards and a WC. The entrance corridor floor is woodblock, and the former kitchen, the cupboards and WC have concrete tile flooring. Doors to the cupboards and WC are plywood; all have ribbed-glass transom lights. Double doors with full-height glazing and a ribbed-glass transom light at the end of the corridor lead into the central hall.

Opposite the entrance doors in the hall, timber steps with simple timber handrails lead up to the south-east classroom. The classroom doors are plywood and comprise a two-leaf folding panel to the right and an inserted door to the left within a further two-leaf panel. All folding parts are fixed. Flanking the steps are cupboards with aluminium louvres containing services with smaller cupboards above; these have plywood doors and ribbed glazed transom lights. Either side of this the external walls are entirely framed and glazed across three bays divided by vertical steel stanchions, with double-doors placed centrally. To the left of the entrance doors are plywood double-doors to a cupboard, and to the right is the replacement kitchen which is open to the hall. Flanking these are eight-leaf folding screens to the north-east and south-west classrooms. The screens are fixed and that to the left has a single door inserted; that to the right has a double door. Services and pipework are hidden behind plywood fascias above the windows and screens around the entire space. The floor is covered with linoleum.

Each classroom has an identical layout, with two ‘pods’ on two of the external walls with an external door between, and heating units and fitted cupboards (possibly with replacement doors) below the windows on the opposite wall where there is a further external door. The pods have glazed transom lights and blackboards facing into the classroom space; some plywood doors with horizontal aluminium push-plates survive. As described above the south-west and north-east classrooms are linked to the central hall by folding screens, now fixed; recessed handles are located on the classroom side. Floors have linoleum and carpet coverings, although there is some concrete tile flooring in the pods and concrete skirtings to the ‘messy’ areas; the ‘messy’ area floor is complete in the north-east classroom and an original double sink survives in the ‘messy’ area of the south-west classroom. The extension, or annexe, to the north east has the same layout and fittings as the classroom units and retains a complete woodblock and concrete-tiled floor.

Throughout the interior, where doors are stated as plywood with ribbed glass transom lights they are part of the original specification. All of the ceilings are suspended below the original ceilings, and wall finishes and light fittings are modern.

SUBSIDARY FEATURES: the southern courtyard has a low central octagonal ‘stage’ constructed of triangular concrete slabs with concrete steps facing it on three sides; this forms a small amphitheatre-like space accessed from the central hall and the south-west classroom unit. The triangular concrete-slab paving continues around most of the building and it is also used to form half-hexagonal steps for the external classroom entrances.

History

Malabar Community and Children’s Centre was constructed from 1959-1961 as Treyew County Primary Infants School on land to the west of Truro, to serve new council housing known as the Malabar Estate. A primary school was planned contemporaneously to the north which opened in around 1971, and Penwethers County Secondary School, opened on the same day as Treyew but now demolished, was located half a mile to the west.

Treyew Infants School was designed by FK Hicklin, the County Architect, with Harry Dootson, Assistant County Architect, and KMG (Michael) Kirkbride and G Harper, also from the County Architects’ Department. FK Hicklin was County Architect from 1958 to 1963, and during that time he took on many newly-qualified architects as job architects for new public buildings throughout the county. These included county secondary schools at Penryn, Helston, Wadebridge and Camelford; libraries at Saltash and St Austell; and New County Hall in Truro, only 400 meters away from Treyew Infants School.

The brief for Treyew Infants School was to provide a three-class school for 120 children equipped with a kitchen and rooms for staff and storage. The detailed planning was carried out in collaboration with specialists under the County Secretary for Education. Work began in August 1959 and was completed exactly a year later. The main contractor was E Jewell of Redruth, with the external stone-walling supplied by the Old Delabole Slate Company. The total cost of construction and fit-out was £22,155. Treyew Infants School was officially opened on 7 July 1961 by Sir David Eccles, the Minister for Education, along with nine other new Cornish schools.

The single-storey school was formed of five hexagonal spaces (each about 1,000 square-feet in area) linked together in a cross plan; three classrooms formed the arms and foot of the cross, interlocking around a general teaching or assembly hall area. Due to the falling ground across the site, the south-east classroom was raised above the hall and could be used as a stage if required, as shown on a photograph from the early 1980s. Each classroom had its own WCs and cloakroom; its own external entrance with the roof cantilevered to form a porch; and was lit by large windows. The varied topography also allowed for clerestorey windows. To the north-west, the head of the cross comprised a small kitchen with a larder, WCs, a staff room and boiler room. Local materials were used in the form of pre-cast concrete roof units (possibly using china-clay waste) and external slate-stone cladding supplied by Delabole Quarry. Painted surfaces were minimal to reduce maintenance, the hall and classroom floors were Iroko woodblock, and ‘messy’ areas, WCs and stores had concrete tile flooring. Plywood doors were specified, and fitted cupboards including a casing for heaters were provided in all classrooms. There were no covered exterior play areas, but the surroundings were landscaped in concrete and a small ‘outdoor arena’ was also provided; an optimistic planning consideration based on the Cornish weather. The outdoor spaces were easily accessible from the classrooms and assembly hall, with the walls to the latter entirely consisting of a range of single doors.

Treyew Infants School was written-up as a building study in the Architects’ Journal on July 12 1961 in response to it being included in a Ministry of Education bulletin that June for its ‘maximum flexibility of use’ and ‘the largest possible teaching area with the minimum of circulation’. The article also noted that the school has ‘an aesthetic which, without any theoretical or phoney aspirations to produce a regional character for the building, has achieved something which is specifically Cornish, whilst being thoroughly in line with the very best forward-looking ideas on primary school design.’ The school won a commendation in the 1963 Civic Trust Awards. A nursery wing, also a hexagon, was added between 1967 and 1976. Most of the external aluminium walling units have been replaced at some point. The school closed in around 2005 and was more-recently used as a community centre.

Reasons for Listing

The former Treyew County Primary Infants School, Truro, Cornwall, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* for its progressive and early plan of linked hexagons, a development of the cluster plan as pioneered by David and Mary Medd;
* interiors survive well: folding partitions enable flexibility in the configuration of spaces; classrooms are self-contained with child-scaled cloakrooms and dedicated areas for messy work; and clerestory glazing lights the hexagonal units;
* the permeability of the building, and the interrelationship of the external spaces with each classroom and hall can still be read, despite some alterations;
* the outdoor ‘arena’ is a significant survivor and is intrinsic to understanding the requirements of post-war primary and infant school planning;
* for the use of locally distinctive materials including Delabole slate-stone and pre-cast concrete panels, possibly made from china-clay waste;
* as a significant example within the public buildings designed by the County Architects’ Department under FK Hicklin from 1956-1963.

Historic interest:

* as an early example of Cornwall’s post-war local-authority school building programme;
* for the recognition given to the school at the time of construction, used as an exemplar by David and Mary Medd in the Ministry of Education Building Bulletin, and postively critiqued in the Architects’ Journal.

External Links

Historic England Listing

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