Former Dining Shelter At Aspen House Open Air School

Former Dining Shelter at Aspen House Open Air School

This is a former shelter built for an open-air school, originally used for meals and the children's afternoon rest during wet weather, later repurposed for teaching art and crafts. Designed in 1924 and built in 1925, it opened in November of that year.

The building has a square plan measuring 2,300 square feet and is raised off the ground on timber posts, which support joists carrying floorboards. It features a saw-tooth roof clad in roofing felt incorporating 1920s rooflights. When first constructed, the structure was fully open to the elements above timber half walls, but windows were inserted sometime after 1929, almost certainly during the 1950s. These are continuous casement windows positioned above a dado rail that fold back and can be held completely open by means of catches. Timber doors at each end have glazed upper halves; originally these were half doors like stable doors, opening only above dado height.

The interior is defined by a four by five bay arrangement of timber columns with bracing to roof beams. Three central columns have been replaced with rolled steel joists to create a more open teaching space.

Aspen House School was purchased by the London County Council in 1920, with plans for the new open-air school approved in 1924. This was the fifth open-air school built by the LCC, but the first constructed to an 'improved design' that subsequently became standard for such schools and for similar institutions serving children with tuberculosis. The school provided classes for anaemic, asthmatic and under-nourished children, following a creative educational policy based on Pestalozzi principles, with lessons devoted to nature study, physical exercises, gardening and creative play. The garden was central to this educational approach, with trees from the former orchard disturbed as little as possible and shrubs and bulbs added for the children's interest. Children received three meals a day and were required to rest for an hour in the afternoon (longer in summer) on beds in the open air, using this dining shelter only during wet weather. Pupils typically spent an average of eighteen months at the school in classes of no more than 32 children per teacher, with a nurse permanently attached. Though the outdoor conditions appear harsh by modern standards, the stimulating teaching methods emphasising self-awareness and discovery were advanced for the period and part of a wider movement for fresh air and informal teaching methods that became widespread only after 1945.