The Adult School Hall, Croydon

The Adult School Hall, Croydon

This is an adult education hall designed by William Curtis Green and completed in 1908. It was paid for by Theodore Crossfield for the Society of Friends. The building is constructed of yellow stock brick with brown pantile roofs, timber casement windows and plastic replacement windows.

The hall is rectangular in plan with aisles running north to south. At its north end, it is attached via a colonnade with pantile roof to the Croydon Quaker Meeting House of 1956, which is listed separately.

The exterior is defined by a deep sweeping roof with an A-frame profile, set low to cover the aisles. At clerestory level runs a continuous band of small-paned hopper glazing, with six eight-paned windows in each bay beneath a dormer roof. These windows were replaced in the late 20th century but in a sympathetic style, while the ground-floor timber casements are original. The south end features a deep hipped roof porch with timber bracing, with steps down to the original entrance and steps up to the gallery inside. The main entrance has double timber doors with triangular cut-out glazing lights beneath a wide segmental arch articulated in vertical and horizontal flat brick tiles. Above this is a diamond-shaped stone plaque recording the opening date of 1908 and the motto "Caritas Vero Aedificat CAS" (Charity Edifieth, I Corinthians 8:1). At the north and south ends are tall five-part windows under segmental arches; the southern window has been sympathetically replaced while the northern is original. The ground level has been built up at the south end and the east wall slightly altered to accommodate this. An early 21st-century garage has been added to the south end.

The interior is largely a single open space dominated by a striking timber roof structure that resembles an aeroplane hangar or medieval barn. The structure comprises scissor-braced trusses with passing braces running from the ridge to the aisle plate and long raking struts to the arcade posts. Each bay contains a short tie across the aisle and a short raking strut. The boarded ceiling structure includes raking struts and slender purlins. Clerestory lights set at the midpoint of the gambrel profile roof provide generous and atmospheric light. At the south end is an original gallery with latticed balustrade, now partly enclosed by a later brick wall into a room, though the roof and gable window remain exposed. Double doors at the base align with the main entrance doors. Flanking doors leading to toilets and the gallery stairs appear to have been added soon after the building's completion. Two small later interventions occupy the southernmost bays: an enclosed brick vestibule to the east allowing a side door to serve as the main entrance, and a one-room kitchen to the west. The walls are exposed brick interspersed with small sections of flat brick tiles. Shallow segmental arches over original openings are formed in flat brick tiles. An original platform occupies the north end with flanking lobbies.

The Adult School Hall was designed by William Curtis Green (1875-1960) and opened in 1908, the same year its design was exhibited at the Royal Academy. Curtis Green obtained the commission through his wife, who was part of the Quaker Crossfield family. The hall was built to serve the Adult School Movement, in which Quakers played a guiding force. In 1908 the movement was at the peak of its popularity, with the Croydon branch having nearly 1000 members. The hall was designed to seat about 900 people and accommodated school classes, lectures, social meetings and community uses.

Curtis Green later developed the hall's roof design in his inter-war churches, though none appears as dramatic as the 1908 hall. A similar roof can be seen at the nearby Grade II Church of St. George, Waddon from 1932, though that does not rely on timber alone. The hall's roof structure has been noted as reminiscent of Albert Richardson's Church of the Holy Cross, Greenford (Grade II*), completed in 1939, which has a timber-framed interior resembling a medieval tithe barn, also with clerestory lights. Richardson may well have drawn inspiration from Curtis Green's churches. The Croydon design thus proved influential.

The building held considerable importance within Curtis Green's own career. His obituary in the RIBA Journal for June 1960 singled out "the Adult School Hall at Croydon" for special mention. Green's own nomination papers for Fellowship of the RIBA in 1909 describe it as "a public hall in Croydon to seat 1000 persons, for G. T. Crosfield Esquire." He selected this building for exhibition at the Royal Academy and for his FRIBA submission, both clear signs of the importance he attached to the project.

The special interest of the hall lies primarily in its interior. The open aisled space features a remarkable timber roof structure of scissor trusses bolted rather than pegged, which in form resembles an aisled medieval barn. The exposed structure demonstrates a high level of craftsmanship and exemplifies the Arts and Crafts idiom. There is a meaningful connection between the honest construction of the roof structure and Quaker tradition, expressed in the careful detail of materials and construction and in the quality of space created. The structure remains remarkably complete and retains the drama of the original design, published at the time and considered by Curtis Green himself to be an important work of his career. The Adult School Hall has group value with the adjoining Quaker Meeting House of 1956 by Hubert Lidbetter.