Description

Location

ASL is located in an affluent low-density residential neighbourhood within the St. John’s Wood conservation area. The school’s rectangular site is bounded by residential streets on all sides and is overlooked by blocks of flats on the eastern side.

The eastern and southern boundaries front onto quiet streets and views into the school site from street level are limited. The western and northern boundaries front onto busier streets where the school is more visible and has a greater community presence. The main school entrance, situated on the eastern boundary, is modest and welcoming.
Boundaries

The school stressed in the initial brief to the landscape architects that ASL should sit quietly within the surrounding neighbourhood while creating a secure and easily policed edge with an attractive, understated frontage appropriate to the local conservation area. This was achieved by creating a clearly defined yet simple boundary edge to the school by using unobtrusive mesh fencing between two and nearly four metres in height. The fencing choice allows light into the school site, whilst also providing a trellis to encourage green walls for privacy.

One of ASL's most innovative features is the boundary treatment along the street edge of the lower school playground. From the street view, mesh fencing is interspersed between eight, two-metre high white concrete walls, but within the playground these walls form colourful three-sided playhouses, some with roofs. Shrubs and mature trees, some growing through the playhouses, have been retained along this boundary which provides screening from the street.

Access and security

To meet the school’s security and monitoring needs, all pupils, visitors and staff use the main entrance on the eastern side, while older pupils and staff also have the option of using a guarded gate on the western side of the site. CCTV cameras observe the perimeter along with hired uniformed and plain-clothed guards.

As the catchment area for the school covers all of London very few pupils walk or cycle; half the pupils are bussed door-to-door while the others arrive by private and public transport. Car parking for staff is limited, with most preferring to cycle or take public transport.

Recreation areas

The three-story school building sits on the northern two-thirds of the site, with the remaining third dedicated to the middle and high school recreation area. The outdoor playground for the lower school is located along the northern boundary edge. Pupils’ main access to the middle and high school recreation area is along a narrow external walkway running the length of the western boundary; outdoor circulation between the lower school playground and this western walkway is not encouraged.

Within the lower school playground an undulating rubber landscape surrounds a large climbing frame, and leads to an open area of artificial turf. Timber totem poles have been placed along one edge of this open area and footholds have been fixed into an adjacent brick boundary wall to provide a climbing feature for students.

The large recreation area for the middle and high school is split-level, with two large multi-use play areas separated by an engineered embankment that has been redesigned into a rock wall. The rock wall provides informal seating and opportunities for physical activity.

Adjacent to the rock wall is a playground with colourful rubber flooring that is designed for older pupils. Staggered fencing separates this playground from the upper multi-use play area. The fencing arrangement keeps the balls in but allows easy access and circulation between the two areas and does not confine each area to a particular type of play or sport. The lower multi-use play area is flanked to the north-west by the blank brick elevation of the school building, into which footholds have been installed to provide a climbing wall for students.

Other spaces

Intimate spaces have been created around the school site, with seating areas ranging from sculptural seating for individuals and small socializing groups through to circular wooden benches for gathering larger classes.

An outdoor space for the kindergarten pupils is sheltered within the school’s walls adjacent to the school’s main entrance. The space occupies two levels, an atrium space enclosed by colourfully painted walls and a higher terraced space with a sand pit and play area in front of the kindergarten classrooms. Both levels are used for outdoor teaching and play space, and to display art work.

The playing fields to the north of the main school site are used for recreation and food growing. An allotment has been created using timber planks and tractor tyres to create raised beds for growing fruit and vegetables, and tree logs arranged as seating areas for teaching. An old cricket pavilion is used for teaching on rainy days and also provides kitchen facilities where students cook meals from the vegetables they have grown in the allotment.