King Solomon Academy

King Solomon Academy

Secondary boys school, now a mixed lower school of a comprehensive on three sites. Designed in 1958 and built between 1959 and 1960 by Leonard Manasseh for the London County Council. The building uses reinforced concrete with steel-framed hall and gymnasia constructed from cavity brick and steel trusses. Roof-top pyramids are clad in green slate; otherwise the roofs are flat.

The plan is characteristic of London County Council comprehensives and secondary schools built on tight urban sites. The main teaching block, 91 metres long, is a three-storey structure housing all teaching accommodation, main offices, a caretaker's flat, dining hall and boiler house. A hall flanked by a gymnasium on either side is linked to the main building by a central glazed link that continues the line of the entrance hall from a projecting entrance on Penfold Street. A ROSLA block added to the north of the hall range in 1975 is not of special interest.

The structure features a reinforced concrete frame, mainly precast, with three-storey-high structural columns at 3 feet 8 inches centres exposed both inside and out, giving the building its distinctive rhythm. An internal lip supports glazing and blue-grey infill panels. Deep beams, similar in width to the columns, span inwards from each elevation to a central corridor, where concrete walls infilled with glazed brick provide bracing and rigidity, aided by staircases at either end. The outer walls of the long elevations feature a virtually continuous run of windows between these columns, with vertically pivoting openings. A slate-clad water tank on the roof takes the form of an upside-down pyramid. A pair of projecting curved concrete boiler flues project from the roof. The grid of glass and mullions continues through the link and hall, but with transoms providing a more horizontal pattern. Hall glazing is set in heavy-section timber frames which take part of the wind load. Broad timber fascias line the hall and link. Aluminium glazing is used to the gymnasia. A pyramidal slate roof covers the centre of the hall. Glass and timber doors complete the external design.

A projecting timber canopy on Penfold Street has steel gates to the front, flanked by dark brick walls on either side. The wall continues down the north side of the canopy, with railings on the south side. A horizontal slit in the south wall allows sculpture to be viewed from outside. Similar dark brick is used for a raised planter in the courtyard, positioned in the angle between the hall and link. A raised brick platform and steps in this courtyard also form part of the composition, with planter tops and platforms featuring similar square paving.

The central entrance hall is lined in Carrara marble, with a lined marble floor and timber ceiling. Sculpture by Hubert Dalwood is an integral part of the original building. Every detail of finishes and light fittings has been carefully considered. Spinal corridors to the teaching block were originally blocked by storerooms but are now continuous on all floors. Varnished concrete and tiled surfaces were designed to be durable in a boys' school environment. A black dado band continues across simple timber doors with a narrow glazed strip above. The second (top) floor features a renewed continuous roof light. The ground floor has a curved-arched ceiling to create a higher corridor (where the curve is expressed by fanlight arches) and lower offices to the side. Staircases with open timber balustrades are set behind glazed screens to the corridors. All classrooms have deep concrete beams exposed and varnished; art and science rooms and workshops have timber cupboards inset along the window edge. The library features an angled coloured glass window designed to catch the evening sunlight and has a marble shelf; the motifs in this glass were originally repeated in a shaped cabinet in the entrance hall, which has since been removed to create a reception area. The hall has a central flat floor beneath a pyramidal roof surrounded by a balcony on three sides; a stage on the fourth side has now been converted to other accommodation and is masked by curtains. Timber stairs lead down to the hall floor, with timber linings to the walls. Open stairs with timber balustrades flank either side of the entrance doors leading to balconies, which retain original tip-up seating.

Marylebone Lower House was originally built as Rutherford School for 780 boys, as part of the London County Council's secondary school building programme. A model was exhibited at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in 1958. The structure was designed for rapid erection and was innovative in its use of large precast elements. The columns provide both rhythm and brise soleil to the main building, while the use of quarry tiles and glazed bricks internally echo traditional finishes found in London board schools. Marble is another durable, durable material distinctive of Manasseh's work.

Leonard Manasseh considers this to be one of his most successful works, and it stands as one of the most important buildings by an architect who was also a noted teacher and planner. Michael Marland, headmaster of the school, described the building as distinguished in concept and finish, with a very good sense of relationship to the surrounding terraces whilst having an unusual structure itself. Local historian Jack Whitehead characterised it as a piece of sculpture, perpetually altering as one walks through it, both functional and exhilarating. The Architectural Review considered it a new and important contribution to the enrichment of educational architecture. Every detail of the school is carefully considered and firmly composed, combining imagination with practicality. Though innovative structurally, the school avoided gimmickry in favour of a particularly humane environment. It represents a high point in the development of secondary school design.