THE CONNAUGHT SCHOOL EXHIBITION WILL GO TO THE REGENCY TOWN HOUSE
The exhibition about the Connaught School, devised by the Brighton Society, will go to the Regency Town House, 13 Regency Square, Hove, in time for the Heritage Open Days 10, 11 and 12 September 2010.
Brighton & Hove City Council is now hoping to buy the Connaught from City College to meet the demand for primary school places. The Connaught surely provides a better solution than Portacabins which would cost £1 million, the same cost as the essential repairs to the Connaught. Which would be better value for money?
Could the Connaught be used as a primary school on the ground floor retaining the Adult Education Centre on the first floor? In this way adult learners would be segragated from children and would therfore not have to undergo CRB checks.
Will parents whose children would have to travel a long way to school to be educated in Portacabins, cold in winter and too hot in summer, join us in our campaign to establish this dual use for the Connaught?
‘About Hove’ Quiz answers to the photographs displayed during the day’s festivities at the Connaught School on 20 March 2010 can be found here.
SUMMARY ARTICLE
Some of the arguments put about why the Connaught School should be listed have appeared in articles here in the Brighton Society website over the last few months. Below we set out a summary of the points made in those stories.
- - - - - - -∞ articles summary
The Connaught Board school is a fine example of the versatile Queen Anne brick and sash style of educational building. Evocation of the liberal and progressive ideology which inspired the board schools, the Connaught has many exquisite external details.
The external fabric has hardly been altered since it was built in 1884, and internally the original layout of corridors and classrooms remains intact.
The Brighton Society commissioned an independent survey on the building by Ron Martin MRICS of the Sussex Industrial Archaeological Society. His report confirms that the building is largely sound and intact, both externally and internally.
The Connaught Centre is a valuable example of an educational building designed by Thomas Simpson and is the only educational building by Simpson remaining in Hove, in addition the only remaining board school built for the School Board in Hove.
English Heritage, in their letter confirming the listing wrote:
“The Secretary of State . . . has decided to list the Connaught Centre at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Of special interest as an architecturally distinguished and well-preserved board school.
An early and distinctive use of the Queen Anne style in school design outside London, expressed through features such as the elegant shaped gables and façade detailing;
Retention of internal features of interest.
It is therefore of sufficient special architectural or historic interest to merit listing.”
see also : connaught centre gallery
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