Overview

LocatED was commissioned to find a site for the Fulham Boys School, a successful free school who were currently occupying temporary buildings elsewhere in the area.

Extensive site searches were undertaken and identified a disused building owned by the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime.

Following extensive discussions with the landowners and local planning authority, LocatED successfully secured consent for a mixed-use scheme, which was delivered in partnership with a private-sector development partner.

Challenge

The Fulham Boys School required a site to accommodate a permanent 800-place secondary school, including sixth-form provision, within their local area and close to their existing temporary site.

The search area was in a densely populated area of London, with very limited availability of suitable sites, compounded by strong competition for land from residential developers. Over 40 potential sites were investigated prior to the chosen site being acquired.

Alongside the requirement of the landowner to provide ground-floor policing accommodation, the local planning authority wished to ensure that an element of residential accommodation was included as part of any development of the site.

The site itself is both constrained in terms of area, being only 0.741 acres (0.3 hectares) in size and is surrounded by several commercial uses, including the access ramp for servicing a major supermarket operator.

Solution

LocatED appointed a professional team, including architectural firm, Ai (Architecture Initiative), to undertake a detailed feasibility study of the site. Following extensive negotiations with the planning authority and the use of a creative design approach, an acceptable scheme accommodating the new school, the police front counter and the residential element was agreed and detailed planning secured.

The consented scheme provided the new permanent accommodation for the school, totalling 6,562 m2 of gross internal floor area over five floors of the development (including a basement), alongside a separate police counter at ground floor, and nine private sale residential apartments, sitting over the rear part of the school building, comprising of 1- and 2-bedroom dwellings, with their own separate access point at ground level.

Impact & Recognition

The new school building successfully integrates into the local area and provides a first-class permanent home for the school trust. The site is highly accessible by public transport and, despite the constraints of the site, delivers a range of internal and external sports areas for the pupils to use.

The sale of the residential units generated a capital receipt to subsidise the costs of delivering the new school building. The work of LocatED and its partners ensured that Fulham Boys’ School went on to successfully open its doors in February 2021.

Two months later, LocatED was proud to accept the Project of the Year Award at the Government Property Awards for its work.