Classroom C At Aspen House Open Air School

Classroom C at Aspen House Open Air School

A classroom built in 1925 by the LCC Architect's Department as part of an innovative open-air school for children with health difficulties. The building is constructed entirely of timber, with a hipped timber roof clad in felt and deep overhanging eaves. It has a square plan and is raised off the ground on timber posts which support joists carrying floorboards.

When first built, the classroom was fully open to the elements above timber half walls. Windows were inserted sometime after 1929, almost certainly in the 1950s. On three sides, continuous windows above dado level consist of paired side-hung casements with catches to hold them when fully open. The windows on the entrance side are three-part folding windows, also fitted with catches. All sides have opening top lights. Two doors reached by a short flight of steps provide access; the door to the right is a later insertion made at the same time as the windows but matching the style of the original door, with three glazed panels to the upper half. The interior has exposed roofs.

The site was purchased by the LCC in 1920 and plans for the school were approved in 1924. This was the fifth open-air school built by the LCC, but the first to an improved design that subsequently became standard for such schools and for similar institutions caring for children suffering from tuberculosis. The school provided classes for anaemic, asthmatic and under-nourished children. It operated according to a creative educational policy based on Pestalozzi principles, with many lessons devoted to nature study, physical exercises, gardening and creative play. The garden was central to this approach, with trees from the former orchard on the site preserved as much as possible, and shrubs and bulbs added for the children's interest. Intervention was kept minimal, limited to small paths, sheltering hedges to encourage wildlife habitats, and the children's own activities.

Children were given three meals a day and required to rest for an hour in the afternoon (longer in summer) on beds in the open air. Those whose poor health hindered their education in normal schools typically spent about eighteen months here, in classes of no more than 32 children per teacher, with a nurse permanently attached to the school. Though the conditions would now seem harsh, the stimulating teaching—with its emphasis on self-awareness and discovery and the importance of open air and landscape—was advanced for its time and formed part of a wider movement for more fresh air and informal teaching methods that became widely adopted only after 1945.