The John Roan School (Upper School)

The John Roan School (Upper School) is a school building constructed between 1926 and 1928 in a Neo-Georgian style. It was designed by architects Percy Boothroyd Dannatt and Sir Bannister Fletcher, with construction carried out by Bovis Ltd. The building has undergone various alterations and additions during the mid and late 20th century and early 21st century.

Construction and Layout

The school is built of red brick with stone detailing and tiled roofs. The main school building follows an E-shaped plan over two storeys. The spine of the 'E' forms the Maze Hill façade with a central entrance bay. Classroom wings extend to the north-west (containing science laboratories on the first floor) and south-east, with a central hall range between them. A detached gymnasium stands to the rear (east). A modern rectangular science block is attached to the north, but this element is not of special interest.

Exterior

The main façade runs parallel to Maze Hill. The central entrance bay is elaborate and projects forward, featuring a hipped roof. It is distinguished by flanking fluted stone columns and raised brick quoins, with a dentilled cornice and stepped pediment above. Within the columned entrance, the main doorway consists of panelled double-doors surmounted by a broken pediment decorated with the Roan coat of arms, which depicts three stags rampant topped by a stag's head holding an acorn in its mouth, with the motto "Honore et Labore". Above this pediment sits a bay window at first floor level. The entrance bay is further enhanced by a clock tower with a cupola flanked by tall brick chimneys.

The façade has slightly projecting end bays, also hipped, with a dentilled eaves band and an oculus lighting the first floor. Between these decorative bays, the façade is heavily fenestrated with fake sashes on both floors. These appear to be traditional 24-pane sash windows but are actually metal-framed casement windows, both side-hung and top-hung, with flat brick arches above.

The returns follow a similar idiom and are highly fenestrated, though without the elaboration seen on the principal façade. They feature side doors with simple stone surrounds. A different shade of red brick is used to highlight the window surrounds, and there is a continuous tile band beneath the windows.

The rear elevation has been more substantially altered through inserted accommodation, but where original fabric survives it continues the Neo-Georgian style with good details. These include two hipped corner classroom blocks and surviving elements of the original linking covered arcade.

A two-storey attached red-brick science block stands to the north-west, now linked to the main building by a covered bridge at first floor level. Neither the science block nor the bridge is of special interest.

The detached gymnasium building to the north-east is constructed in red brick. The main block has a hipped tiled roof, roof dormers, shallow brick piers and tall metal-framed, multi-paned windows. It is flanked by attached single-storey flat-roofed entrance blocks to north and south, also in red brick.

Interior

The main entrance opens into a generous entrance and staircase hall. Although subject to some recent remodelling to create a reception area, it remains largely as designed, with columns supporting the upper landing and staircases with decorative metal balustrading providing access to the same. The entrance hall is decorated with commemorative plaques including a war memorial to old boys who lost their lives in the First World War, as well as plaques from the former boys' and girls' schools.

Two pairs of double doors provide access to the central hall, an impressive space equivalent to two storeys in height. It features a stage and proscenium arch to the east, herringbone woodblock floor, and a shallow arched and ribbed ceiling. Full-height metal multi-paned windows light the space, and there are green-glazed tiles behind the radiators and inscriptions on the wood panelling.

The ground and first floors follow similar plans with corridors overlooking the two courtyards, flanked by classrooms and offices arranged on the exterior of the building. Some corridors retain original woodblock flooring and part-glazed partitions providing separation from the classrooms. Original half-wood and half-glazed classroom doors survive, alongside occasional replacement fire-doors. Plain tiles extend to dado level in the corridors, and there is panelling on the first floor landing.

Two large and light first floor classrooms at the end of each wing have exposed braced ceiling trusses. These originally served as the elementary chemistry laboratory (north wing) and the art room (south wing). The library, located centrally on the first floor above the entrance hall, has moulded pilasters, coving and ceiling ribs. The former adjacent headmaster's office retains the school's original time-clock.

Ancillary Features

Original railings and brick walls, with brick gate piers, surround the site. The importance of the main entrance and Maze Hill frontage is emphasised by painted decorative metal railings and a grand pair of entrance gates, also painted and gilded, surmounted by the Roan coat of arms. These are included in the listing. A section of replaced railings to the south-west is not of special interest.

History

The John Roan School was founded in Greenwich through the will of John Roan (circa 1602-1644), Yeoman of Harriers to King Charles I and/or Yeoman of His Majesty's Greyhounds. His endowment established a school to educate poor children from east Greenwich up to the age of fifteen, including money towards the children's clothing. It was initially known as the Greycoat School of the Foundation of Mr John Roan, with the first schoolmaster appointed in 1690. A sister school for the education of girls was established in 1814.

The Roan School for Boys was the first occupant of the Maze Hill site in 1927. The school is now co-educational with a sister site at Westcombe Park. The foundation stone was laid by Sir George Hume, the chairman of London County Council, in 1926. The building was opened in 1927 by the Right Honourable HAL Fisher, MP (historian and politician), who was then the Warden of New College Oxford, although the building does not appear to have been completed until the following year, when a further ceremony was held in 1928.

Since construction there have been some additions to the premises, most notably the addition of a technical block to the north and the infilling of the inner courts to provide more classrooms in the 1960s. In the 1980s external ramps and a lift were provided to facilitate disabled access.

Architects

The school was designed by architects Percy Boothroyd Dannatt (1879-1968) and Sir Bannister Fletcher (1866-1953) in a Neo-Georgian style. The design was published in The Builder and was commended in the Architect and Building News in 1928.

Sir Bannister Fletcher was both an architect and architectural historian, the oldest son of architect Banister Fletcher (1833-1899) to whom he was articled, becoming a partner in the firm (Banister Fletcher & Sons) in 1889. Fletcher was the surveyor to the Worshipful Company of Carpenters, a City of London livery company, and became Master of the same in 1936. With his father he wrote, in 1896, the seminal "A History of Architecture on the Comparative Method". He received his knighthood in 1919 and was president of the Royal Institute for British Architects in the late 1920s to early 1930s. The school is probably Bannister Fletcher's most significant work after his Gillette Factory, Osterley, west London of 1936 (Grade II).

Less is known about Percy Boothroyd Dannatt, but he was a Greenwich resident who later designed the western extension of the John Roan Girls School in Devonshire Drive, Greenwich (listed at Grade II).