Secondary school for girls for 500 students in Islington, North London. The site is surrounded by early Victorian streets and squares. The compact character of the district is being preserved as far as possible, and for this reason the school is closely related to the street frontage. The school is now for 480 girls, but it will be extended later on and used as a county college. The scheme is based on two different sets of requirements. The central idea of the county college is the exchange of interests – students should meet, talk and relax together in their spare time. Students' rooms will be the pivot of the college plan. The ground floor of the school is left open to allow for extension and the playground passes under it across the whole width of the site. A shambles of basements was cleared to make a sunken playground where children can play without fear of breaking windows. Across it at ground level runs a bridge sheltering some of the playground and making a covered way between the school and the gymnasium. The bridge links the three entrances to the site and is a vantage point for watching games. Traffic on Gray's Inn Road and to the north of the school is heavy, and each space in the school is sited according to its tolerance of noise. A mature walled garden, open to the public, meets the west side. The end of the garden is closed by the new assembly hall. Seen from or through the transparent hall, this quiet space has precisely the qualities expected of a college precinct. The hall is used for assembly, dining and theatrical work and its simple form is flexible in use. The roof is slightly raked to give the height needed for equipment over the stage. The teaching block is double banked with most classrooms facing south-east away from the structure on a 13ft. 4in. grid. The gymnasium is the first of three to be built at basement level, closely associated with the playground. Heat is piped to the school from a boiler house in Mecklenburgh Square and is shared by several buildings in the district.

A glazed curtain wall system using laminated timber was developed for the assembly hall and gymnasium. This might well be simpler, cheaper and more flexible in design than any known proprietary system. The fixed windows in the east wall of the teaching block have been glazed without frames direct to the concrete structure. The teaching block hardwood frames are designed to exploit the use of joints with waterproof adhesives in tension. The apron walls are glazed with prism-faced glass to spread light into the cavity behind and disperse the heat of the sun. Special eaves details have been developed to prevent irregular staining of the concrete, eliminating drips and capping and reducing cost. Colours have been used to define volume and spaces rather than planes and enrich the natural colour of materials. Externally openings are dark colours, and the structure is expressed. The tender price was £192,540 and the school was completed on 31 March 1959.


Architectural Design, Vol. XXIX/6 June 1959, pp. 232-235

Prospect County College for Girls was later renamed Starcross Secondary School.
The building has now been demolished.