Brook Community Primary

Hackney’s rose-tinted spectacle

Fresh-start additions and makeover to Brook Community Primary School, Dalston, London

“We have undertaken considerable work with this firm and have been delighted with both the process and the outcomes.”

Rebecca Abrahams, Headteacher

“Scabal’s intervention is nothing if not bullish, but … it appears to have been conceived in the very much the same spirit as the original building. Separated by over 100 years, the projects share an ingenuous conviction that a school is an institution capable of broadcasting a message of optimism and progress. At Brook, of all schools, it is a belief that can’t be asserted enough.”

Ellis Woodman, Building Design May 18 2007

This initiative aims to give the school a new identity, provide the highest standards in education for pupils and turn the school into a valuable asset for the wider community. A Mirador repairs the north façade ruined in the Second World War, providing new access, identity and activity in a spectacular full-height face to the playgrounds.

The addition of a new access and identity-giving entrance marker, a pink glazed Mirador or three storey balconies on the north elevation which also provides generous break-out spaces for reading recovery and other informal uses and houses the new lift, making all main floors of the existing building accessible including the playground on the roof.

Service: Architects

Location: Dalston, London

Client: London Borough of Hackney and the Learning Trust

Cost: £1m

Dates: Planning June 2005 / 2011, Mirador Completion January 2007, Nursery Canopy Completion October 2011

Awards

Winner Hackney Design Awards 2006

Publications

Building Design, 18 May 2007

Hackney Today, 5 February 2007

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