The Sloane School At The Hortensia Road Centre

The Sloane School at the Hortensia Road Centre

This is a former secondary school completed in 1910, designed by T.J. Bailey, chief architect to the London County Council's Education Committee. The building is constructed of red and yellow brick with Portland Stone dressings and a tiled roof.

The rectangular plan is oriented to face east, with a central hall and classrooms arranged off corridors on three sides. Projecting stair towers rise on the west side.

The main east-facing elevation presents an eight-bay front between projecting corners. Pair of entrances feature arched overlights beneath open segmental pediments. The ground floor is dominated by tall, double-height arch-headed sash windows set within blocked stone surrounds. The upper centre is lit by three large arched (or thermal) windows with projecting keystones and voussoirs, set beneath three gables. The north corner projection contains four tiers of windows, with 6/6-pane sashes on the first, second and third floors (8/8-pane to the centre) set within arches of rubbed red brick. The south corner is blind, featuring an aedicular tablet inscribed "LCC SLOANE SCHOOL", above which is a round window within a stone frame with voussoirs and foliate decoration. Giant pilasters run the entire height of each corner projection, terminating in shaped gables with finials.

The side elevations are faced in yellow brick, with six windows to the ground floor and a raised parapet to the centre at attic level. A projecting canted bay to the west side of the flanks contains four tiers of windows; at the fourth floor level are belvederes with rows of four windows divided by engaged Doric columns. The west rear elevation of six bays is largely faced in yellow brick, with projecting hemispherical stair towers faced in red brick rising the entire height of the building, capped with a copper-sheathed dome.

The interior contains a large double-height assembly hall with galleries on three sides, carried on large scrolled consoles. Classrooms with internal glazing on three sides open off corridors. Brown-glazed tiled bricks line the walls up to dado height throughout, with similar glazed bricks lining the two stairs. Panelled doors survive widely, some within glazed arched openings.

The site was formerly occupied by the Royal Exotic Nurseries, which gave its name to Hortensia Road, created in 1903. The London County Council acquired the land in 1905. Following the 1902 Education Act, which made secondary education compulsory, plans were made in 1906 to build a secondary school for 510 girls. The budget was £32,529. The school opened in November 1908 and was noted by 'The Builder' as "the first planned and built entirely for secondary education", described as being "fully equipped with every modern requirement for a secondary school of the latest type". The original ground floor contained a gymnasium, dining hall and domestic science room, with laboratories and classrooms on the upper floors. The building served as a hospital during the First World War. Boys were later admitted, but the school closed in 1970. It subsequently housed Kensington and Chelsea College, the first adult education college in the country. The building is a highly characteristic Edwardian Baroque design and is of particular significance as the first purpose-built secondary school in the capital.