The Britten Pears Building, Snape Maltings

The Britten Pears Building, Snape Maltings

A former mid-19th-century barley germination building and store built for Newson Garrett, converted between 1976 and 1979 by Arup Associates to house the School of Advanced Musical Studies. The building was partly refurbished in 2009 to 2010 by Haworth Tomkins with Price and Myers.

The main building is constructed of red brick with gault brick piers, both brick types believed to come from Newson Garrett's own brickworks in Aldeburgh. The roof is covered in red clay pantiles with timber doors and windows throughout. Iron pattress plates are evident at regular intervals along the length of the building at internal ceiling height.

The former store is rectangular in plan, aligned east to west. It comprises a single-storey structure with attic and basement at the eastern end, a three-storey main range of 17 bays, and a single-storey return with attics at the western end. Together these buildings form the southern, eastern and western ranges of a small courtyard, with the concert hall forming the northern range.

The south elevation maintains the character of the former barley store. Built in a pier and panel design with gault brick piers marking the bay divisions, it features segmental arches over all openings at basement, ground floor and first floor levels, while upper floor windows sit level with the eaves. The basement is ventilated through iron grills. Four raking dormers are evenly spaced along the south roof slope. The fenestration now comprises 20th-century timber-framed windows inserted into what were originally ventilation openings. Two timber doors and four windows were inserted in the eastern gable at the time of conversion. The west gable is largely blank except for two ground floor windows and a tall lateral stack. The western range, formed from the remains of the former single-storey turning gallery, is used mainly for storage with access via two 20th-century timber doors from the courtyard. The section adjoining the concert hall has been converted to offices with access from within the concert hall. The western elevation of this range retains the rhythm of the original structure with six bays marked by segmental arched windows on the ground floor and raked dormers in the pantiled roof.

The single-storey range forming the eastern arm of the courtyard is similar in character to the western side, with fenestration replicating other window openings and segmental arches on the ground floor. Raked dormers are closely spaced in the pantile roof. A doorway in the east elevation provides access to a small terrace.

Within the courtyard, attached to the northern elevation of the Britten Pears building, is the late-20th-century Peter Pears recital room, built of red brick with a pantile roof. A raised central roof with timber weatherboard cladding references the lucams and bluffs visible across the maltings complex, echoing the industrial heritage of the site. Access is via a timber-panelled double-leaf door on the west elevation with two adjacent segmental arched windows.

The interior of the Britten Pears building is accessed through a glazed timber door on the east end of the southern elevation, leading to a reception area and open-plan reception rooms with 20th-century fittings. The interior is dominated by brick jack-arches carried on cast iron beams running north to south across the building. The exterior iron pattress plates and associated tie-rods align with these jack-arches and function as reinforcing elements.

The ground and first floors, formerly used as germination floors, are well-ventilated open-plan spaces. The first floor has been subdivided in the late 20th century to create individual practice rooms accessible from an east-west corridor, although the earlier function remains legible through the jack-arched ceiling construction. The second floor houses the Holst Library, the contents donated by Imogen Holst, an artistic director of the Aldeburgh Festival from 1956 to 1977. This is a large open-plan space spanning almost the full length of the building with an exposed simple open truss timber roof structure with embedded purlins resting on simple sawn timber corbels. The vaulted brick ceilings of the lower floors mark the growing floors of the former barley store, while this top floor was used for storage. Internal carpentry, subdivisions and fittings are 20th-century in design.

The single-storey return at the eastern end was refurbished in 2009 to 2010 and now houses the Trask Artists Café. At that time, disabled access was improved and access to an external terrace to the east was provided.