Centre For Literacy In Primary Education (Former London County Council Special School)

Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (former London County Council special school)

A special school built in 1916 for the London County Council, now the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education. The building is situated at the north east end of Webber Row, on the corner with Webber Street.

The stock brick building is designed in the Arts and Crafts style and features steeply-pitched hipped roofs with flared eaves. Three long blocks lie adjacent to each other, forming a roughly rectangular plan.

The south elevation is the principal and most attractive façade of the building. It is symmetrically arranged with a row of classrooms fronting this side, featuring six hipped dormer windows to the roof. The sections at either end have two pairs of glazed doors below, while the central range steps forward slightly and has eight pairs of glazed doors below. Pivotal windows sit above the glazed doors, and the glazing of all these openings is original. Four chimney stacks define the central section of the south elevation, with additional stacks at either end.

The second component is the hall, with a roof featuring large semi-circular windows in each gable end, two ridge lights and three clerestories to each pitch. The ridge lights are visible over the entrance façade, which forms the third section of the plan. This entrance has double doors with a shaped gable and projecting hood, breaking through the eaves of the roof. Most of the symmetrically placed fenestration retains its original glazing.

The Webber Row elevation is formed by the return wall of the south range, together with a small block with a hipped roof which screens the central range standing behind it. This elevation contains a handsome hipped vent in the roof and a door with a large hood canopy.

Internally, the building comprises an east-west hall with a row of classrooms running along its south side and a block containing entrance lobby, teacher's room and WCs running along the north side. Extending east from the hall is a corridor with further classrooms to the south and small offices to the north, leading to a second, smaller hall space. Few alterations have been made: all classrooms retain their fireplaces and chimney flues, and the iron roof trusses and timber doors remain in situ throughout. The hall is the most impressive space, with its semi-circular gable end windows and ridge lights providing substantial natural light. The interior is of considerable significance for the survival of original features, which is uncommon in educational buildings.

The school was purpose-built to accommodate children with physical disabilities and opened on 11 September 1916, as recorded in the minutes of the London County Council. The site had been in LCC ownership for some years and was originally intended for a lodging house for women and a sixth housing block to accompany the five that were subsequently built and survive today. In the London Directory of 1921 the school is described as "London County Council School (Physically Defectives)". Since 1890, the London School Board had provided purpose-built accommodation for children with special needs, and this LCC school is a successor to those earlier special schools of the late nineteenth century.

Very few listed special schools exist in London. The earliest period of their development is represented on the list by the Girls' Special School annexe to Hugh Myddelton School, built in 1902 as an addition to the Board School of 1892 (Grade II); the innovative techniques of the 1920s are evidenced in the Aspen Open Air School in Lambeth, which had classrooms built open to the elements (Grade II); the post-war exemplar is the Phoenix School, Bow Road, of 1951-52 (Grade II*).

The school is a carefully-designed and subtle building of special architectural interest. The Arts and Crafts style exterior, with its large chimneys, low-hanging eaves and large dormer windows, is well-executed in good quality materials. Built to serve children with physical disabilities, the school was clearly planned with their welfare in mind. While many special schools were built in the period after 1890, Webber Street/Webber Row school is remarkable for its intactness in plan and in features such as windows, doors and fireplaces, which is unusual for a building in educational use. The school has strong contextual interest within this enclave of late nineteenth and early twentieth century social welfare buildings. Its low-level domestic manner provides an attractive contrast with the tall housing blocks with which the school has group value: to the east is the Peabody Estate of 1871 (listed Grade II) and to the south the five London County Council blocks of 1905-06 (also Grade II).