Eastfield Primary School

Eastfield Primary School

A primary school built between 1966 and 1968 to designs by Ahrends, Burton and Koralek. The building has a steel frame faced in white brick laid in stretcher bond, with a felt-covered roof.

The plan is organised around different levels, responding to the steep site. It comprises a compact rectangle with a central open courtyard. An ambulatory separates activity areas from the main classrooms, which are grouped in pairs on the north and east sides. The library is located on the west side by the higher and most important of the two entrances, and the hall is positioned on the south side. The fall of the site allows offices and an entrance hall on the west side to be located over the kitchen and caretaker's accommodation.

The steep site results in the building having many level changes. The main access is on the west side, leading into the upper level of the two-storey block, while the rest of the building is generally single-storey. The walls feature a low brick plinth with the upper part fitted with aluminium-framed patent glazing angled inwards for top-lighting, which builds to its greatest height over the courtyard. This creates a canted form for the glazing over the classrooms. The shared space between each pair of classrooms has a higher brick wall with a mono-pitch glazed roof. Along the east side, the central covered work space sits under a higher canted glazed roof and has a retaining wall and screen for weather protection. On the south side, the hall is accessed via two pairs of adjoining double-leaf glazed doors with wide softwood frames and a wooden band along the bottom. To the left are a projecting PE store with a blind wall and a small lavatory block with a blind wall.

From the main entrance, steps descend to the main floor, from where two routes lead past common shared spaces—the hall, library and internal courtyard—to the class teaching spaces grouped around two sides of the courtyard. The class spaces open onto a shared practical space equipped with sinks and work benches, and are connected by sliding or folding doors to a quiet room shared with the adjacent classroom. Each class space has direct access either to the surrounding paving or to the central courtyard for outdoor working.

The interior is mostly partitioned by brick walls faced in white sandlime bricks that stop short of the roof. Staircases are of reinforced concrete. Floor finishes include vinyl tiles, woodblock and quarry tiles. The hall and most classrooms have suspended ceilings, although the original ceilings remain.

Single-storey extensions added in the early 21st century to the east and south sides, which are brick-built and flat-roofed, and a lean-to added in the early 21st century against the south end of the east side, are excluded from the listing.