Roger Ascham School Gymnasium And Attached Classroom

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 15/11/2016

TL 46 SE 19/10013

ASCHAM ROAD Roger Ascham School: Gymnasium and attached classroom

II Classroom and attached rest shed at open-air school, now gymnasium. 1927 by G W Teasdale, borough architect. Flemish bond red brick and timber with hipped plain tile roof with deep eaves.

Plan: Rectangular plan. 6-bay open-fronted rest shed and integral classroom on left (North west) end, the front and sides glazed with large opening windows. The rest shed is now a gymnasium and its open front is now glazed.

Exterior: Single storey. 3:6 bay South West front.6 bays to right originally open and with wooden posts between, now glazed, the glass screen set back behind the posts. The 3-bay classroom to left has glazed double doors at centre with side lights and large 4-light folding windows with glazing bars and top lights to-left and right. Similarly glazed left (North West) return.

Interior: The rest shed (gymnasium) is open to the roof which has queen-strut trusses.

Note: The first open-air school was opened in Charlottenberg near Berlin in 1904 and several open-air schools were established in England before the First World War. By 1931 there were over 80 and by 1949 127 had been built. The schools were intended as recovery schools for children whose development had been impaired by illness, so that they could be eventually integrated into normal schools. They had considerable influence on the design of C20 schools.

Roger Ascham School was a day school and is one of the most intact open-air schools remaining. It was established in 1916 in wooden buildings in Vinery Road, Cambridge, but moved to Ascham Road in 1927. It comprises an admin building and hall, detached classrooms and a rest shed (qv).

Sources: Board of Education lists of special schools, 1920, 1927, 1974.

Listing NGR: TL4545660067