Description

GATESHEAD

1001/0/10032 JOICEY ROAD
23-MAY-08 FORMER JOICEY ROAD OPEN AIR SCHOOL

II
Open-air school. 1937 by F H Patterson (Borough Engineer)

MATERIALS: stretcher bond red brick with brick dressings and hipped and pyramidal roofs with deep eaves and tall brick stacks

PLAN: open plan formation aligned east-west on a sloping site comprising: a main T-shaped building with a basement under the right range; the front range contains administrative functions, behind which the main dining hall projects; caretaker's house immediately to the right and a large 3-sided corner rest shed to the left with three detached and staggered square classrooms, all linked by covered walkways to each other and to the main building.

MAIN BUILDING: EXTERIOR: The main (north) elevation is of single storey construction with hipped roofs; it comprises five bays, those at the ends and centre are projecting. The central bay has three full height round arched windows with brick detailing and projecting eaves formed of tumbled-in brickwork. The other bays have rows of three square windows, all with 12-light wooden casements. Attached to either end of the main building there are slightly lower round arched girls and boys entrances leading into attached flat roofed latrines lit by three rectangular 6-light windows. The rear (south) elevation has a large projecting central wing forming the dining hall; this has a centrally placed door flanked by 4-light folding windows. To the right there is a single storey range with windows of various sizes and to the left there is a two storey range incorporating the central heating system and boiler house on the ground floor. INTERIOR: intact plan with the front range containing cloakrooms, toilets, shower rooms and medical rooms separated from a specialist classroom, head teachers room, staff room, kitchen and scullery by a central corridor with roof lights. The rooms are mostly open to the roof with the complex roof structure visible. Internal fixtures and fittings include: original flooring, a fireplace in the medical inspection room, showers, toilet partitions, coat pegs, original doors and fitted cupboards. A large dining hall occupies the main axis of the building forming a single large space with a temporary classroom at the south end which could be separated by sliding partitions. Glazed on three sides with glazed brick window sills and plinth course; original paired wooden doors and cupboards form the fourth side. The roof is composed of a series of arched braced roof trusses supported on brick and tile with decorative corbels, with the common rafters spanning between the wall plate and ceiling level.

REST SHEDS: EXTERIOR: a single storey range of fifteen bays formed by pairs of brick piers, under a hipped roof. With the exception of paired bays at the north and south ends forming a temporary classroom and a bed store respectively, these rest sheds were formerly open to the west. The end walls have identical paired openings with sliding folding wooden screens and narrow entrances. Four of the formerly open bays have been fitted with folding doors and seven have their lower parts in filled with brick and fitted with large four-light folding windows with glazing bars at the time of inspection. The sheds are attached to the main building by a wooden covered walkway of timber slats supported on wooden columns. INTERIOR: single large space arranged around a corner site with glazed panels to front and end walls and three groups of three small windows to rear. Exposed roofs formed by a series of king post roof trusses; the temporary classroom at the north end has simple wooden book shelves.

CLASSROOMS: EXTERIOR single storey square classrooms with pyramidal roofs, brick plinths and brick corner piers. North sides are blind with an entrance in the north east; east, south and west sides comprise a single large rectangular 8-light folding window with glazing bars and top lights. INTERIOR: single space, glazed on three sides with exposed roof.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: the caretaker's house, air raid shelter, walls, railings, gates and remaining pier do not have special interest.

HISTORY: The open-air school movement was founded in Switzerland in the late C19. The first school to be opened in England was at Bostall Woods, south east London in 1908, which took as its model, an open-air school of 1904 in a pine forest in the suburbs of Berlin at Charlottenberg. Further schools in London and Bradford followed in 1908, all based in pre-existing buildings with large grounds, but the pioneering effort in terms of plan form was Uffculme School at King's Heath, Birmingham in 1911 which pioneered the characteristic staggered classroom plan. By 1914 open air schools had been built in a further eight cities and by 1923, largely due to the efforts of Margaret McMillan, pioneer of the English C20 infant and nursery schools, there were 23 open-air nursery schools. Open air schools continued to be promoted during the inter-war period and their numbers slowly mounted including further examples in London and other cities such as Bristol and Newcastle; by 1939 there were a total of 127 open air schools. Open air schools were rarely built in the post-war period; with the advent of antibiotics and the decline of tuberculosis there was instead a widening of open air principals to general English school planning.

The provision of an open-air school in Gateshead was first considered in 1925 and land on Joicey Road was acquired in 1926 at a cost of £2480. Plans were prepared by the Borough Engineer's Department and a tender from Messrs. Alex Anderson was provisionally accepted in July 1931. However, the financial crisis of 1931 intervened and the project remained in abeyance for four years until it was revived in 1935; tenders were re-advertised and that of Messrs. Alex Anderson was again accepted. Building began in 1935 on what was then called `Whinney House', and the school was opened as Joicey Road Open Air School on 25th May 1937 by the Mayor of Gateshead, Alderman James White; the school's first head was Miss E R Telford. The completed buildings accommodated 150 children of both sexes aged between 6 and 14, divided into five or six classes. The school day was from 09:30am to 4:15pm and its diet comprised pasteurised milk and a biscuit in the morning, a two-course meal at 12:15pm followed by a rest period on beds in the rest shed. After afternoon school in summer, the children received another meal of pasteurised milk, brown bread and butter and when possible, fruit. After tea, there was free play until 5:30pm. In winter, the children returned home at 4:15pm immediately after school. Classes were conducted in the open air when possible and the classrooms with folding windows on three sides were only used in times of bad weather.

SOURCES:
S Taylor & D Lovie `Gateshead: Architecture in a Changing English Urban Landscape', p24-5 English Heritage 2004;
Official Opening of The Joicey Road Open Air School unpublished.1937;
A Saint `Early Days of the English Open Air School' in L'école en plein air : Open-Air Schools : Une expérience pédagogique et architecturale dans l'Europe du XXe siècle : An Educational and Architectural Venture in Twentieth-Century Europe (Broché) ed A-M Châtelet, D Lerch, J-N Luc 2003

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: this inter-war open air school is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

* Surviving open-air schools such as this example are rare and there are only a handful of listed examples nationally

* The open air movement reflects early C20 social and educational policy which is clearly reflected in this school

* It retains a complete plan which is unencumbered by later extensions and accretions

* It survives in a largely unaltered state and its function is highly readable

* Key features which characterise the movement are retained including the rest sheds and stepped pavilion classrooms with original folding windows

Reasons for Listing

Joicey Road School constructed in 1937 is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

* Surviving open-air schools such as this example are rare
and there are only a handful of listed examples nationally

* The open air movement reflects early C20 social and
educational policy which is clearly reflected in this school

* It retains a complete plan which is unencumbered by later
extensions and accretions

* It survives in a largely unaltered state and its function is
highly readable

* Key features which characterise the movement are present
including the rest sheds and stepped pavilion classrooms
with original folding window panels

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26671817

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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