Combined Dining Hall And Kitchen At Sayers Croft

Combined Dining Hall and Kitchen at Sayers Croft

This building dates to 1940 and was designed by T.S. Tait of Burnet, Tait and Lorne as part of a World War II evacuee camp.

The structure is built from Canadian red cedar boarding walls erected on a foundation of concrete posts cast in situ and sunk to a depth of three feet at six-foot centres. The roofs are covered in cedar shingles. The construction employed prefabricated wall units formed of four-inch by two-inch studs diagonally braced and faced with rebated cedar weatherboarding, erected directly on floor joists also built in situ.

The building comprises a rectangular dining hall with small square rooms at either end, each with their own entrance, and a slightly smaller rectangular kitchen attached to the rear. The plan is symmetrical, with a central porch featuring opposing doors in its side elevations positioned on the long elevation opposite the kitchen.

The main long elevation of the dining hall features tall four-paned windows narrowly spaced at regular intervals, with five windows either side of the porch, which is also lit by windows to the front. The porch provides the main entrance into the dining hall through its opposing doors. Verandas run the length of the building on either side of the porch. The end rooms have three-paned windows placed side by side. The kitchen's rear long elevation has pairs of two-paned windows regularly and closely spaced, while its side elevation features a block of four two-paned windows. The dining hall and kitchen have separate pitched roofs with raised vents on the apex—one centrally placed on the kitchen and one at either end of the dining hall roof, which also has a chimney at either end. The roofs of the small side rooms are flat.

The interior of the dining hall was originally a single open space, though the serving area has been extended from the kitchen into the body of the hall. A door at one end gives access to one of the end rooms, and possibly a door into a tuck room was added. The ceiling and roof are supported by angled braces placed between the windows.

The most remarkable feature is the pair of murals painted above the fireplaces at either end of the hall, depicting the life and activities of the camp in summer and winter respectively. These were designed and executed by the boys and were included on the United Kingdom national inventory of War Memorials in 1998.

The camp was constructed as part of the Government's programme, drawn up in 1938, to protect vulnerable civilian populations during war by moving children with their schools to purpose-built camps around vulnerable cities. The National Camps Corporation was formally established by Act of Parliament under the Camps Act in 1939. Initially, approximately fifty permanent educational camps were proposed to house 348 children each, with emergency expansion capacity. In peacetime the camps would provide rural education for urban children. Construction proved more expensive than anticipated, and only about thirty-three camps were built. The first camp, at Laverstoke, Overton, Hampshire, was completed in October 1939. Sayers Croft was ready for occupation in April 1940, when boys from Catford Central and Brownhill Schools in London moved there from temporary billets in Ashford, Kent. All camps consisted of the same elements and number of buildings, including accommodation huts, washblocks, administrative and class rooms, with the dining hall and kitchen block and assembly hall at the heart of each site.

At Sayers Croft, the huts are arranged on either side of Thornhurst Brook, with staff, administration and dining hall on the south-east side, and children's domestic accommodation, assembly hall and play areas on the other, connected by a bridge.

Although the camp construction was an immediate response to a particular wartime problem, it was also part of a longer-term social strategy to address the effects of urban poverty, building on existing policy to provide rural health and education to deprived city children. The camps' continued use in peacetime proved them adaptable to changing social conditions. Several camps survived as educational establishments, including Sayers Croft, which remained in the ownership of successive London Authorities and served London schools. In recent years, the field centre has extended its services to other authorities, organisations and groups to provide a wider range of courses and activities.