School House at Haggerston Girls' School

735/0/10128 WEYMOUTH TERRACE School House at Haggerston Girls' School

20-FEB-04

GV II Caretaker's house to Haggerston Girls' School. 1964-5 to the designs of Erno Goldfinger for the London County Council, subsequently the Inner London Education Authority.

Dark grey brick with concrete floor slabs and exposed concrete roof slab, the latter bush hammered and treated as a cornice to the composition. Metal windows punched into the composition, that to living room renewed. Square, cubic plan reflecting the constructivist composition of the principal elevations. Entrance to side facing school, with renewed door in white surround, with panel to side incorporating letter box and toplight over, and with hall window in separate brick surround. The living room window is renewed in timber within the original opening; the other windows are metal with coloured soffits; set-back clerestorey on main facade gives the sensation that the cornice is floating, a favourite Goldfinger quirk seen in the parapet designs for his large blocks of flats.

Haggerston School is Goldfinger's only secondary school, and a good, rare example of his mature style from the finest decade of his career. The caretaker's house is an integral part of the composition.