St Paul's School

ST PAUL'S SCHOOL, BARNES, LONDON

New Music School/Recital Auditorium for 320

Barnsley Hewett and Mallinson were commissioned by the Mercers’ Company to design and procure a new Music School and Concert Hall for St Paul's Boys’ School. This is a highly specialised acoustically designed building with a concert hall for an audience of 320 and an orchestra of 80. The concert hall was acoustically designed purely for music (rather than drama). It will also double as an Assembly Hall for 500. The classrooms and practice rooms have very high acoustic separation. The project was started with a feasibility study and strategic plan to identify the possible location for such a building on what is a very limited footprint. Also the school is on the main flight path to London Heathrow and the acoustic design had to overcome (successfully) this problem of noise. The project was completed in 1999.

BHM had worked for the Mercers' Livery Company designing the £7m City Technology College in Telford. The St Paul’s project was started with a feasibility study/strategic plan to identify the possible location for such a building on what is a very limited footprint in an area which is designated Metropolitan Open Land and therefore had severe planning restrictions. We are building on the site of one of the original System Built boarding houses which has now been demolished. Construction of the new Music School started on site in February 1998 and will be completed for the summer 1999.

Completed in the summer of 1999, this building has become one of the most important music recital halls in London. Designed and constructed specifically for the performance of music, it will seat 320 people with a full, 80 piece orchestra. The auditorium is surrounded by specialist practice and teaching rooms, recording facilities and a full music library. Each practice room has been specifically designed for different types of performance, including a jazz/rock room, a percussion room and a room dedicated to early music.

Comments; webmaster@bhmarchitects.com: Last updated February 14, 2008.