walk/tour
Jamaica Gate, Southwark Park, SE16 2ET
what3words: item.serves.loud
We attend primary school at an impressionable age and this is often our first experience of wider society. We use the word 'school' to denote the social institution and the physical building but both are subject to change over time. This walking tour will explore the interconnection between school building design, teaching practices and attitudes to education in Southwark between 1873 and 2022.
Surrey Quays, Bermondsey, Canada Water
South Bermondsey
C10, P12, 188, 381, 47
Start: Jamaica Gate to Southwark Park, SE16 2ET End: Rotherhithe Primary school on Hawkstone Road, SE16 2PA
There is cycle and car parking adjacent to the Hawkstone Gate into Southwark Park.
The walk is approximately 1.8 miles long but mostly on the flat. There are public toilets in Southwark Park to use before or after the walk.
We tend to take familiar building types for granted to the extent that their influence on our behaviour and how we relate to each other becomes invisible – it appears to us that these buildings are the way they are for purely ‘common sense’, practical reasons and we lose sight of the fact that they could be very different. One way to open our eyes to the impact of building design on interpersonal relations and social attitudes (and vice versa) is to look at buildings from different periods of history ostensibly designed to serve the same purpose.
This chronological walking tour will focus on three influential primary schools in Southwark: Southwark Park School built for the London School Board by E.R. Robson in 1873-4, Eveline Lowe (now Phoenix) Primary School built for the Inner London Education Authority (ILEA) by the Development Group led by David and Mary Medd in 1966, and Rotherhithe Primary School by Fielden Clegg Bradley Studios built for the London Borough of Southwark Regeneration Division in 2022.
You will be invited to think about how changing social conditions, teaching practices and educational philosophy informed the design of these very different schools. And encouraged to reflect on your own experiences at primary school and what you might have learned from the building in which you were taught.
Emma Gribble is an architect with experience working on a variety of school buildings in Southwark. She is curious about how institutional buildings influence the social behaviour of individuals and groups and recently completed a PhD in architectural briefing. She joined Open City’s Golden Key Academy to explore the institutional buildings of London and encourage others to reflect on the silent politics of architecture.
The Golden Key Academy is a course training up insightful and engaging guides dedicated to explaining London and bringing its many stories to life. It is part of a wider collection of tours created by Golden Key Academy guides for the Open House Festival celebrating their conclusion of the eight month course. Further information on the Golden Key Academy can be found here http://open.org.uk/golden-key-academy.
If you would like to attend this tour, please ensure you have booked a ticket before turning up.