Sports pavilion at King Edward VI Grammar School

Summary

Sports pavilion and changing rooms for King Edward VI Grammar School, Stratford-upon-Avon. 1971.

Reasons for Designation

The Sports Pavilion at King Edward VI Grammar School is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

* Architectural: a carefully designed dual-function sports building which is intrinsically pleasing, combining careful attention in its form and detailing, whilst built within the constraints of a tight budget.
* Historical: a notable work in the public realm by the well-regarded Warwickshire architect Robert Harvey (born 1919).

History

The pavilion was designed by the Warwickshire architect Robert Harvey of Yorke, Harper and Harvey and was completed by June 1971.

Robert Harvey was born in Coventry in 1919 and studied architecture at the Birmingham School of Art. He is the most distinguished of a small idiosyncratic group of Birmingham-trained architects who were fascinated by the work of Frank Lloyd Wright before it became fashionable. Harvey corresponded with Wright during the war. In 1950 he joined the office of J Brian Cooper, whence he was given a day off work that year to hear Wright speak at the Architectural Association. Then he joined the office of Leonard Harper, father of his student contemporary and friend Ross Harper, whose house in Solihull is already listed. In 1951 this practice amalgamated with that of F W B Yorke, father of the noted modernist architect F R S Yorke, and Harvey took over the latter's Stratford office, specialising in private houses while the Birmingham office handled the more commercial work. In all Harvey designed over fifty houses, mainly in Warwickshire, and houses by him at 114, Kenilworth Road, Coventry and Debden Hollow, Barford Hill are listed at Grade II, while the house he designed for his own family, Stonecrop, Ilmington, is listed at Grade II*. His work combines a sensitive approach to natural materials and man-made ones and to rough and smooth textures which are often, as here, used in telling combinations.

Details

Robert Harvey of Yorke, Harper and Harvey. Plum brick in stretcher bond to ground floor with timber and plate glass to the first floor pavilion and a metal-clad roof with a central gutter. Two storeys.

EXTERIOR: The pavilion front has a man-made grassed bank to its lower body at either side of which flights of steps lead to a deep, stepped terrace. The pavilion has central, glazed double-doors at either side of which are three large plate glass windows. At left, projecting slightly, is a cricket score booth which also projects from the left flank [south-east] as an oriel. Oversailing the whole front is the roof which has fascia boards to its edges and projects on this front to form an canopy. This has roof-lights [replaced] at centre. Above the doors is a clock face. The left and right flanks are similar; the brickwork at ground-floor level is carefully laid with the horizontal mortar joints recessed and thus emphasised and the vertical joints almost flush with the brick surface. There is a continuous horizontal band of rectangular ventilation openings to the changing rooms with a repeating detail of four recessed and projecting headers and stretchers set between each opening. The first floor has rough baulks of timber for the side walls which are recyled railway sleepers. These have been left in an un-planed state and creosoted. The roof dips to the central gutter and the wooden-clad water tank projects above the roof line. To the centre of the rear front the ground-floor brickwork projects with a balcony above with timber parapet.

INTERIOR: The original plan form remains at both levels with changing and shower rooms for the home team and visitors at ground-floor level which include much of their original tile-work, metal gates, clothes racks and teak benches. To the first floor the pavilion is one open space with a central service island which includes lavatories, kitchen, and service counters. The solid side walls are divided into seating booths with fixed benches. Many of the original fittings survive throughout the building.

Sources

Books and journals
Campbell, L, Twentieth Century Architecture in Against The Grain: The Domestic Architecture Of Robert Harvey, Vol. 4, (), 51-59

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