St Pauls Cathedral Choir School

St Paul's Cathedral Choir School, built 1962–7, incorporates the surviving tower of St Augustine Watling Street (or Old Change). The school was designed by the Architects' Co-partnership, with Leo de Syllas as lead architect; after his death, Michael Powers completed the project. The building uses load-bearing cross walls on a reinforced concrete framed lowest storey. It is clad in roach Portland stone—stone with a high proportion of shells—in differing shades of grey, with a leaded roof on the projecting attic storey. Windows are metal-framed and vertically arranged in three panels, with the central panel a sliding sash. At the time of inspection, these were under consideration for replacement.

Exterior

The exterior is characterised by full-height recessed vertical slits containing windows, arranged asymmetrically without a regular pattern. Between the windows are varying widths of Portland stone wall, constructed with large rectangular blocks of differing colours and pronounced texture, contributing to the overall design. Dominant above is the projecting attic storey with full-height dormer windows, intentionally not aligned with the strip windows below.

The school is organised into four blocks. The entrance block is long and low, mostly blind, with a steep mansard roof. The foundation stone is set to the left of the main door. The rear elevation of this block, facing west towards the cathedral, has similar tall vertical slits, together with a series of tall apertures with windows and doors opening onto the playground.

The five-storey blocks to north and south follow the same detailing as described above. A freestanding block to the south-east holds accommodation for the boarding choristers; this has uPVC doors and windows at lower ground level.

Interior

The entrance at ground floor level on New Change has double wooden doors, part-glazed, either side of a vestibule, then a hall with wide, stone-lined steps down to the lower ground floor. Immediately south of the entrance is a former court, now an office with a glass lantern roof added around 1987.

The spine corridor runs north–south with a repetitive concrete beamed ceiling and is generously lit by the slit windows facing west towards the cathedral. The corridor has a fully glazed partition overlooking the lower ground level hall. In the classroom block to the north, classrooms—including library and practice rooms—are generally plainly finished. A few partitions have been removed according to the original drawings, such as in the practice rooms.

The hall is a sunken, double-height space overlooked by the ground floor corridor. The north and south walls are fully lined with polished hardwood panelling; the east wall has climbing apparatus. A similar concrete beamed ceiling features two strip skylights providing diffused light.

South of this, the dining hall was extended around 1998 to the south, removing a four-light window. It now opens into an L-shaped range, meaning the formerly external stone loggia is now incorporated within the seating area.

At ground floor above this, the head teacher's apartment features a timber staircase with stick balusters and a moulded handrail that returns to join the newel post, which has a rounded head and an indentation to hold the handrail. The sitting room has an off-centre fireplace with metal surround and shelf mantle, set on a black tiled hearth.

In the south wing, services are at lower ground floor. At ground floor level, the common room with chapel was refurbished around 1998 and now includes a circular quiet space and a nursery, although the pair of mosaic windows with a swirling, multi-coloured design remain in situ, as do fitted cupboards. Above this, former dormitories have been converted to classrooms, fitted as in the north classroom block.

Attached to the south end is the St Augustine's church tower, with a staircase that serves as a fire escape and communicates with the south range at each floor. The freestanding accommodation block to the south-east has bedrooms and bathrooms for the boarding choristers, plainly fitted out and with some alteration.

History

The St Paul's Choir School was founded in at least the 12th century. A blue glazed City of London plaque in the south-east wall announces that 'Near this spot from 1512 until 1884 stood St Paul's School founded by Dean Colet'. When the present school was rebuilt after the war, it had been operating in buildings that dated from 1875 and the 1930s. The decision to rebuild was partly taken because of the new road system around the cathedral precinct, but it seems they also wanted a landmark new building, although on a tight budget.

The idea for placing the new school on a site adjoining the remains of the bombed St Augustine's Watling Street went back to Charles Holden's and William Holford's proposals for rebuilding the City of London, published in 1947. The area had seen extensive debate over the merits of traditional versus modern architecture. A first-rate architect was sought for the school after a traditional design by Seely and Paget was discredited by the Royal Fine Art Commission, and a competition was held in 1962.

The brief was for a small public school with boarding for about forty choristers, and dictated that the new building should incorporate the restored spire of St Augustine and that no part of the school would be higher than its cornice. All that survived above ground on this site was the tower of Wren's St Augustine Watling Street, completed 1695–6. In 1966, the spire was reconstructed according to its original Hawksmoor design by Paul Paget of Seely and Paget.

The competition entries were varied, including a very traditional scheme by Raymond Erith, although most were modern designs such as that by the significant post-war firm Robert Matthew, Johnson-Marshall & Partners. The Architects' Co-partnership scheme was chosen for three reasons reported in the Architects' Journal at the time: the original and informal layout of the design that made sensitive use of the tricky site; the appropriately quiet and collegiate nature of the scheme and the perception that 'the building will stand the test of time'; and the belief that it could be built within the tightly constrained budget. The job architect was Leo de Syllas, who was killed in a car crash soon after the commission began, and Michael Powers took over the job. The school initially accommodated forty boarding choir boys and flats for a number of the cathedral and school officials. The foundation stone was laid by the Dean, the Very Reverend W.R. Matthews, on 24th November 1965.

Significance

The 1962–7 Architects' Co-partnership choir school was successfully designed to stand at the foot of St Paul's Cathedral, perhaps one of the most auspicious bombed sites in post-war London. The brief not only required the utmost sensitivity to this major landmark, but also to the surviving Wren tower, which is separately listed at Grade I.

The resultant building is an early work of modern architecture in the capital where the site was a priority consideration. The school's elegance is not in its deference to Baroque masters in any formal sense, but instead in the way it manipulates materials, proportion and massing to make its own mark, while respecting the humbling context in which it sits.

The primary interest is the exterior, although there are special spaces throughout the interior as well. The choice of roach Portland stone with a lead-covered attic storey reflects the materials of its 17th-century neighbours, and the vertically oriented recessed windows refer to the pilasters of the cathedral, essentially abstracting the core elements of Wren's design and interpreting them in a modern way.

The skilful use of the site provides a clear view of the east end of Wren's cathedral, which remains visible and framed by the deftly placed blocks of the school. It also forms a powerful juxtaposition with St Augustine, one of the more admired City church spires with its restored Hawksmoor spire culminating in the distinctive elongated onion dome, and which is separately listed at Grade I.

The school justifies listing at Grade II* as a significant piece of post-war modern yet conservation-minded design, that survives well and forms an important component of this historically rich and layered setting.