By
Fred Redwood
Last updated at 2:32 PM on 27th May 2011
Most of us are relieved to have left the classroom behind years ago. But when it comes to grand, airy spaces, there’s much we can learn from schools.
With their draughty, high-ceilinged rooms, Victorian-built institutions might not suit modern-day teaching methods, but they do make excellent homes.
David Hingamp, an architect from Paris, bought his apartment in a converted school in Peckham, South-East London, in 2007.
‘I moved into what had been the school’s old gym after immediately falling for its original features, such as the 20ft-high ceiling, parquet floor, huge windows and exposed brickwork,’ he says.
Class act: The Victorian-era Oldfield Road School, North London, has been converted into housing
‘The developers had done a cheap renovation job so I started again, extending the mezzanine into two bedrooms and putting in a new kitchen, bathroom and cinema room.’
Though Peckham, the setting for TV’s Only Fools And Horses, is one of London’s edgier areas, living in a converted school feels safe.
‘The high walls of what used to be the playground make this a secure enclave, even though we are just a few minutes from the busy Old Kent Road,’ says Mr Hingamp.
‘It’s a gated development and we have communal gardens and a barbecue. Best of all, there is safe parking for our cars, which is rare in these parts.’
While closed-down city schools are often converted into flats, village primaries can make substantial family homes. Falling pupil numbers have seen the closure of many of these much-loved local institutions.
Not all schools foster such warm memories. Bowes Hall, at Barnard Castle, Co. Durham, was one of the notorious Yorkshire schools of the 19th century. These institutions were infamous for their harsh treatment of children. Bowes Hall is said to be the basis for the brutal school in Charles Dickens’ novel Nicholas Nickleby.
Famous 3 wheeler: The Only Fools and Horses gang filmed the sitcom in Peckham, still one of London’s rougher areas
After the school closed, it was used as a farmhouse until the
Fifties. Then it became derelict, before a major refurbishment in 2002.
Now there’s little to remind you of the school’s past in the
seven-bedroom, Grade II-listed mansion, with its airy reception rooms
and brand-new kitchen.
‘The only clues are the bedrooms, which were originally dormitories,’ says Ann Marie Robinson, who is selling the house.
‘Two
boys — Stratten in 1821 and D. Anderson in 1822 — scratched their names
into the old window shutters. I often wonder what became of them.’
It
is not only state schools that are coming under the hammer. At least 50
private schools have folded in the past three years and dozens more are
struggling to survive.
ON THE MARKET: CONVERTED FAMILY HOMES
Fallapit House, Devon, £335,000
One of eight apartments in what used to be Sir Thomas More School in East Allington, near Totnes, it has a drawing room with high ceilings, modern kitchen, breakfast room, two bedrooms, bathroom and shower room. There are 22 acres of communal grounds.
MARCHAND PETIT: 01548 857588 marchandpetit.co.uk
Overseal Manor, Derbys, 1.175m
This grade II-listed, six-bedroom mansion dating to 1830 was a school until it was renovated in 2006. It has a flagged reception hall and galleried landing. There is a kitchen/family room, drawing room, dining room, sitting room and two acres of grounds.
KNIGHT FRANK: 01213 627878 knightfrank.com
Harrowfield House, Dorset, £535,000
The former village school of Manston, Sturminster Newton, dates back to 1864. Converted into a family home, there is a reception room, dining room, sitting room and kitchen. One of the three bedrooms is en suite and there is also a family bathroom and a gallery used as a study
JACKSON-STOPS STAFF: 01747 850858 jackson-stops.co.uk
Developers are attracted to them because
they are easy to convert. They are likely to be structurally sound
because the authorities will have inspected them regularly to ensure
they comply with health and safety requirements.
Most have leisure amenities, such as tennis courts, well-maintained grounds and a swimming pool. Douai Abbey had to close its doors to new pupils, much to the consternation of its old boys, in 1999.
Run by Benedictine monks, the Grade II, neo-Gothic school in Upper Woolhampton, Berkshire — just five miles from Bucklebury, the former home of the new Duchess of Cambridge — had a fine reputation, but there were financial problems.
The monks spent £1 million between 1993 and 1998 covering the school’s losses before selling the site to Bewley Homes, who converted it into 33 flats and houses and demolished outbuildings to make way for a further 28 flats and 15 houses.
The development, known as Avalon, includes an underground car park for 56 vehicles.
Bewley brought in architect Robert Adam to make sure the new-build matched the old buildings as much as possible. You can hardly see the join — the new blocks are built around quadrangles in the style of a Victorian school.
Debbie Maxwell, an accountant based in Edinburgh, has owned her three-bedroom Douai flat since the development was built. She uses it as a second home as her business takes her across the country.
‘It’s in the middle of the countryside and quite a few of us are based abroad, using the homes as lock-up-and-leaves,’ she says. ‘But there’s great community spirit and we hold parties at least once every three months.’
Renovated schools have become some of the most staggeringly beautiful homes in the country. Sir Terence Conran has restored former prep school Barton Court in Kintbury, Berkshire, which he bought for £100,000 in 1971, into a Georgian masterpiece.
And Marsh Court, the Grade I-listed, Lutyens-designed, former independent school in Stockbridge, Hampshire, came on the market in 2007 at £13 million.
What is so special about living in a restored school? ‘It is so different from a stereotypical apartment,’ says Debbie Maxwell.
‘I have ecclesiastical-style windows separating my hall from the living room and a plaque on one of my walls that is centuries old. The building has a unique sense of antiquity.’
THE school gym apartment in Peckham, South-East London, is for sale for £350,000 through Wooster Stock: 020 7708 6700, woosterstock.co.uk.
Bowes Hall, Co. Durham, is for sale for £1 million through Jackson-Stops Staff: 01325 489948, jackson-stops.co.uk. A three-bedroom apartment at Douai Abbey is for sale for £450,000 through Hamptons: 01635 582111, hamptons.co.uk.
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