George Clay Partnership
The firm’s origins began with Adolphus C Rayner, 1841-1908, who moved from Leyton, east London to join his father William, a Master Builder in Gravesend, becoming W and AC Rayner, Builders.
By 1886 Adolphus was calling himself a surveyor, and had built an office in their builders yard in St James Road (the building remains but has been extended). Living close by in Darnley Road were three young men: LFL Bridgland (Auctioneer and Surveyor), AE Kidwell and George Edward Clay.
Bridgland and Kidwell went into partnership with Rayner, forming Rayner, Kidwell and Bridgland circa 1888. Kidwell left after 2 years, and in 1889 the co. was listed as Messrs Rayner & Bridgland Architects, Surveyors, Auctioneers co. at no. 16 New Road. Neither partner qualified as an architect (the Royal Institute of British Architecture qualifying examination was established in 1882), and it is not clear if the co. had any architects in their employ. If not then it would seem that the practice of misusing the title ‘architect’ has a long history.
George Edward Clay returned to Warrington, Lancashire to study for his RIBA qualifying examination, and qualified as an architect in 1899.
Documents show that George was an employee of Rayner & Bridgland during the early 1900s; that George kept records of designs attributed to Rayner & Bridgland dating to 1899 (the Terminus Hotel) suggest that he may have been the author of these designs and had been working for Rayner & Bridgland sometime during the late 1890s.
George left Rayner & Bridgland and set up his own practice in 1904 at 27 King Street. Ted Clifford, the practice historian writes ‘he was very fond of one of Rayner’s daughters, Kate, but her father was not in favour and Kate never married’. In 1907 the partnership between Rayner and Bridgland dissolved. Adolphus Rayner passed away on 27th October 1908. In 1907 Bridgland joined with George Edward Clay forming Bridgland & Clay, moving in next door in 1908 into the newly erected no. 28 King Street.
George once described Bridgland to Ted Clifford as a ‘bullet headed, stiff built man’. In later years, he did not get on with George Edward Clay. Bridgland was more interested in surveying and auctioneering than in architecture, and was very much involved in The Gravesend Land Company. The firm were also agents for The Royal Insurance Company.
The partnership dissolved around 1926. George Edward Clay was trading under his own name by 1929, until 1944 when he retired.
George Edward’s mother and father moved down from Warrington, Lancashire to live close to their son. George’s mother Leah came from the Airdrie, Lanarkshire area of Scotland and was the daughter of the leading Engineer on the Forth Bridge Rail Bridge, William Inglis.
George Edward married Jessie, another scots lass and they had four children, George Inglis, John Arthur, William and Nell. George and John later qualified as architects (George Inglis at the Architectural Association, John at Cambridge and then the Architectural Association).
Ted writes: ‘I had met George Edward and his family and in my opinion George took very much after his father in manner and ways, John and his sister after their mother, who was very nice.’ Both of the George Clays were very dominant personalities, they were not slow in informing you of what the situation was and their staff were very much on edge when dealing with them. They were also very fair, tell you off one moment and it was completely forgotten the next.’
Source: Ted Clifford, former associate
“On 25 October 1904 Capital & Counties Bank (est. 1877) opened a branch at 77A New Road, Gravesend. The site was owned by F J Tolhurst, a well-known local solicitor. He was proposing to have new offices built for himself. He suggested his architect, George E Clay, approach Capital & Counties to see whether they would be interested in opening a branch in the town and, if so, whether the building could be incorporated with his own project. The Directors of the bank approved the scheme and George Clay designed the premises. The building was in Gothic style, with a vaulted roof, leaded windows and oak panelling. Many people, on entering the branch for the first time, enquired as to whether it had once been a church. The bank decided to adopt the same style of architecture for all its new offices opened in that part of the country.
In 1918 Capital & Counties was absorbed by Lloyds Bank. In 1961/62 alterations and extensions were carried out at the branch. The character of the original building was retained.
In June 1973 the branch moved to temporary premises at 195 Parrock Street, whilst the New Road premises were rebuilt. In March 1975 it returned to its former site, renumbered 78 New Road. The new premises were part of a £3.5million shopping development, and the bank was one of the first three tenants in what was known as the Anglesea Centre.
The outside walls of the branch were faced with black granite and contrasting stainless steel panels to emphasise the bank's black horse motif. The architects were Peter Beake, Buckler & Partners, and the general contractors were A E Symes Limited. The interior of the banking hall was lined with laminate board, with a suspended ceiling at two levels. The counters and fittings were finished in white melamine, and the main cashiers run had a bronze coloured glass frontage below the counter top.
In September 1975 a Cashpoint machine was installed at the branch. On 11 October 1999 the branch merged with the former TSB 45 New Road branch in the former Lloyds premises.”
Electric Theatre Windmill Street
(also see 1930’s Cinemas)
By 1919 half the population went to the cinema at least twice a week; most of the large towns had a cinema by the outbreak of the First World War. Designed by the George Clay Partnership, the Electric Theatre on Windmill Street (later renamed the Plaza Cinema in 1929) opened on the 19th July 1911 and was the first purpose made cinema in the town. The Gem Picture Theatre (later the Regal Cinema), designed by Charles Lovell on New Road opened in 1914. The Popular Picture Palace on New Road was first converted in 1909 from the lower hall of the Public Hall (opened 1891) becoming a full time cinema known as the Empire Picture Palace after 1915.
Curtis’s and Harvey Limited’s Cliffe Explosives Factory has been identified as important in English Heritage’s study on the history of gunpowder and military explosives manufacturing. Curtis’s and Harvey absorbed several gunpowder manufacturers in the 1890s and then founded a purpose-built explosives factory on the Cliffe Marshes. The facility is nearly one mile in length, covering 60 acres, with a loading bay and two jetties— the river was used to transport products including cordite and nitro-glycerine.
Only chemical explosives were made on this site; the site was heavily guarded, originally built for storage but at some stage was converted for manufacturing with nearly two thousand employed at its height. The factory consisted of small separate huts spaced equidistant throughout the site, some surrounded by
an earth bund— to contain the risk of damage or fatality in the event of accidental explosions. The most dangerous operations in the manufacture of nitro-glycerine were carried out in a circular building known as ‘The Hill’ or Round House. The factory was a dangerous place to work. There were a number of fatalities over the years, one of the worse incidents, recorded in the Chatham, Rochester and Gillingham News Saturday February 27th 1904, involved an explosion at the Round House, which killed five.
The havoc wrought was simply appalling. The “Round House” in which building the nitrating house was included, was blown to atoms and only huge timbers which were snapped like sticks and the mound which had surrounded the house , remained, the debris being strewn all over the factory. With regard to the numerous other buildings on the works, which cover an area of several acres, all were more or less damaged, but those on the north side , towards which the wind was blowing at the time, suffered most, some of them being completely wrecked.
The shattered remains of the three of unfortunate men who were at work inside the building at the time were found among the debris on the site. The manager who accompanied the Coroner and jury, explained that at the time of the explosion, there were 2,000 lbs of nitro-glycerine in the house - 1,000 Ibs refined and 1,000 lbs in a raw state - this being the maximum quantity allowed. The explosion it was stated, was supposed to be due to the “fuming” of the dangerous compound which was likely to occur at any moment, “fuming” being set up by decomposition or the presence of some foreign matter, such even as a man’s cap falling into a tank containing the mixture. A large tank filled with water was provided at the top of the building with the idea of flooding the tanks in case of “fuming”. The water had, however, to be turned on instantly otherwise an explosion was bound to follow.
It is not exactly clear how much involvement Messrs Bridgland and Clay had in designing or building the explosives factory, but amongst the practice’s earliest correspondence in the archives are letters between George E Clay and the factory manager, works manager, and Curtis’s and Harvey’s head office at Cannon Street, involving quotes for a leaded glass front door from Humphries Jackson and Ambler in 1910, heating ranges and stoves for the boy’s and men’s mess from Clay’s Wholesale Ironmongers in 1918, and an estimate for a range of lavatories from John H. Turner and Lisney in 1918. There are plans for a proposed laundry building dated 1918. The factory closed in 1920.
Source on the history of the factory:
www.kenthistoryforum.co.uk
Truman’s were clients of the George Clay Partnership, with pub repairs and refurbishments providing steady work for the practice up ‘til the end of the ‘80s recession.
When Duncan Hiscock took over looking after pubs from partner Denys Hall in 1964, Truman had about 160 pubs between Erith and Sheerness, mostly in Gravesend and the Medway Towns, “one in every corner in those days”.
The practice built a number of local pubs between the 1920s and 1960s, including
Whitehill Tavern (1923 /24, now converted into a Tescos minimart)
The Tollgate Inn (1926, later extended into the Tollgate Motel, now vacant and up for sale)
The General Gordon (1932, burned down)
Dickens Inn (1934, demolished in 1996)
Old Prince of Orange (1933, rebuilding of an older pub)
The White Hart (1937, demolished in 1999 to be replaced by a Harvester Restaurant), during the war a drinking hole for air force pilots from the nearby Thong Lane airport
The Central Hotel (now called the Ascot Arms)
The Fleet Tavern (1936, in Wombwell; now demolished)
The Black Prince (Bexley, 1930s, now part of a Holiday Inn), in the 60s and 70s a popular live music venue— where Eric Clapton allegedly played his last gig with John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers in 1966
WWII was something of a renaissance for the pub, seen as crucial in fostering community spirit. Since the 1950s the number of pubs has been in steady decline. Now up to 5 pubs close every day in England.
The oldest record of pub design uncovered in the course of the history project are drawings of the Terminus Hotel attributed to Rayner & Bridgland ‘Architects’ (in the collection of former associate Ted Clifford and dated 1899). Rayner was a master builder working in partnership with Bridgland, a surveyor— George Edward Clay was the architect in their employ and very likely the designer of the hotel.
The Terminus Hotel was so named because it stood opposite the former Gravesend West Station at the bottom of Stuart Road, the end of the Victoria to Gravesend line which led onto a pier connected to the Batavier Line— steel hulled steamships ran a daily service to Rotterdam.
The London to Rotterdam line was favoured by those who wished to travel discretely, such as the British diplomatic service and members of the Dutch Royal family.
The service ceased with the outbreak of WWII in 1939 and the occupation of Holland. Post-war services were rerouted to Tilbury.
In the 1960s a famous jazz club occupied the upstairs clubroom of the Terminus Hotel. There is a photograph of George Chisholm, a well-known trombonist and TV comedian of the Black and White Minstrel Show in the club pushing over a collection of pennies into a blanket for the Kent Blind Association.
Gravesend West Station closed to passengers in 1953 and to freight in 1968.
The Terminus Hotel was owned by Russell’s Brewery (one of 4 local brewers). Russell’s, with its distinctive shrimp brand logo, was taken over by Messrs Truman, Hanbury, Buxton & co. of London in 1939, which were in turn taken over by Grand Metropolitan Plc in 1971 and rebranded as Truman, which finally closed in 1989.
The Terminus Hotel closed in1988 and has since been demolished.
Source on the Terminus Hotel, John Mason
www.closedpubs.co.uk/kent/gravesend_terminus.html
http://deadpubs.co.uk/KentPubs//Gravesend/
TerminusHotel.shtml
www.ghs.org.uk/downloads/archive/Local Inns & Public Houses.pdf
Many early cinemas were cramped and uncomfortable; and from the 1920s were replaced by grander buildings. The Majestic Cinema on King Street, designed by the George Clay Partnership, was opened by Mayoress Mrs J.H. Austin on the 1st October 1931 with Ralph Lynn in the comedy “Rookery Nook”. Seating was provided in stalls and circle levels; the auditorium illuminated by concealed lighting. The proscenium was 40 feet wide and the stage 10 feet deep, and there were 4 dressing rooms and a café for the convenience of its patrons
.A Compton 2Manual/7Ranks organ with an illuminated console and grand piano attachment was installed when the cinema was taken over by Union Cinemas in 1933. Opened by organist Reginald New, the Compton rose from the front of the stalls to play in the interval between the main film and the supporting programme.
Cinema going peaked in 1946 and fell into decline thereafter. Taken over by Associated British Cinema in 1937, the Majestic was renamed the ABC in 1963; the Compton organ was removed in 1968. The cinema was converted into a 3 screen theatre in 1972. It was taken over by the Cannon Group in 1986 and became the MGM in the early 1990s. In 1995 it was taken over by Odeon Theatres and leased to an independent operator with a proviso that it did not screen English language films; for a time it screened Bollywood films under the name EMD Cinema.
Closed in 2002, it was taken over by the United Church of the Kingdom of God and an application submitted for a multi-purpose conference centre, exhibition hall, career training and counselling services, library, crèche and bookshop associated with a place of worship. UCKG remained in occupation until 2006 when the building became vacant.
It was later acquired by Lali Enterprises Limited who during 2007 and 2008 made an application to redevelop the site with retention of the King Street Frontage for offices, community and cinema uses with a 7 storey residential development fronting Brewhouse Yard (refused permission in October 2008). In 2009 a major fire brought the roof down, and the empty building was demolished.
Designed by renowned architect W.S. Carpenter (who designed Lancing College Chapel), Christ Church was completed and consecrated in 1856 to serve the huge increase in local population (which in Milton grew from 2,769 in 1821 to 9,927 in 1851). The church tower and spire were not built as designed because of lack of funds— locals called it the ‘barn at the top of Parrock Street’.
When Milton Barracks were built on neighbouring land, more than a decade later, the nave of Christ Church was extended by 2 bays in order to accommodate troops on church parade.
The roof of the extended nave began to fail.
“If you don’t want the roof to tumble about your ears,” said the Architect when he looked at it, “You had better close the church at once and hold the Services somewhere else. It will cost you fifteen hundred pounds to put it right.”
Fifteen Hundred Pounds! I stood looking at the closed door, wondering how on earth we would collect this sum of money. “If only I could think of a good slogan…” While I was thus pondering, who should come up to me but Mr Frank Oaten, a London journalist? I explained the situation and asked him if he could suggest a slogan to chalk up on the door. Without the slightest premeditation he said, “What about this one?”
“Church closed to save lives, Re-open it to save souls.”
That did it! I was snowed under with contributions. Pound notes? Hundreds of them! Shillings and pence? They simply rolled towards me. They came from rich and poor, from Church-people, from non-conformists and from people who belonged to no Church or Chapel. The terrifying sum of £1,500 became “a mere bagatelle” in our eyes. “Why not pull the Church down,” someone said and “rebuild it near Echo Square?” “Why not indeed,” said the powers that be.
Rev J.T. Phillips, Vicar, 1919-1936
The George Clay Partnership completed dismantling the church on Parrock Street in 1934 and reassembled the church (with a number of alterations, including a tower) in 1935 on Old Road East, to serve the southward expansion of the town. The Bishop of Rochester Lynton Smith described the efforts of the people of Christ Church as one of the two outstanding achievements of its kind in the diocese.”
George E Clay kept business going during the war with war damage repairs. Building materials were unavailable for anything else and domestic floor areas were controlled. George I. Clay and Denys Hall were both serving in the Royal Air Force as flying instructors. John Clay was a Sapper—he lost the top of the finger during the war.
In 1939 the RAF requisitioned Gravesend Airport in Thong Lane as a satellite airfield for Biggin Hill. The Air Ministry also created two dummy airfields— one at Cliffe Marches, the other at Luddesdown— in order to deceive German intelligence and encourage the Luftwaffe to strike elsewhere.
The first V1 to be launched against Britain fell on Gravesend at 4.18am.on the 12th June. 1944 V2 attacks began on Britain in September. Gravesend received two hits in heavily populated areas causing considerable damage and some casualties. The first rocket landed near Echo Square demolishing houses and killing four people. The second V2 exploded in Milton Place in November, just outside the Fort Gardens. Unlike Echo Square this happened at night and a local bandleader and his girlfriend were killed.
In the 19th Century North Kent developed as an important location for the paper industry; the River Thames provided access to timber imported from Scandinavia and North America. The area produced newsprint to serve the newspaper industry, mainly in London.
In 1872, Swedish chemist Carl Ekman developed a modified version of the George Fry method for processing pulp into paper—rather than bleaching mechanically produced pulp, Ekman cooked the pulp under pressure in a solution of bisulphite of magnesia to manufacture superior paper. Working with Fry, the new process was introduced quickly into paper production, first into Fry’s Ilford plant, then a newly built mill at Northfleet in 1879. Ekman emigrated to England in 1883 where he set up practice as a consulting engineer in the erection of pulp mills, including a second mill in Northfleet completed in 1886 and owned by the Ekman Pulp and Paper Company, partially owned by Fry.
Sued for polluting a limestone quarry near the mill in Northfleet, Eckman died soon after losing the suit in 1904. The New Northfleet Paper Mills took over his business in1903. The site was sold and cleared in the 1970s. In 1934 The Swedish Cellulose Association unveiled a black granite monument at Northfleet Cemetry in Ekman’s memory.
The Inveresk Paper Company Ltd, set up in 1922 in Musselburgh, Scotland acquired a number of businesses associated with papermaking including a trading estate in Northfleet on the site of the old British Vegetable Parchment Mills. The company was noted for the manufacture of strong ply sacks used to transport commodities such as tea, flour, sugar, potatoes, chemicals and minerals. The Paper Sacks Factory, designed by the George Clay Partnership and completed in 1948, featured a pre-stressed concrete shell roof. The site closed down in the early 2000s and has been developed as a housing estate. Other companies located in the area include the large Imperial Paper Mills (redeveloped in the 1980s as the Imperial Business Estate), Bowaters Paper Mills and smaller Kent Kraft Mills.
The paper industry in North Kent went into decline from the ‘70s and sites were gradually redeveloped. The GCP designed Northfleet Industrial Estate for the Inveresk Paper Company, half a million square feet of reinforced concrete portal frame warehouse and light industrial units built in 3 phases between 1971 and 1976.
In the 1980s, the GCP designed the neighbouring Kent Kraft Industrial Estate for the Regent Office Furniture Ltd (now Kent Kraft Estates Ltd)— work involved the conversion of existing paper production buildings and erection of new steel portal frame industrial units. In 2000, Railtrack began discussions with Kent Kraft Estates over the compulsory purchase of part of the estate for Section 2 of the HS1 or CTRL route, which cuts the estate in two as it leaves Ebbsfleet International Station and dives under the Thames at Swanscombe Peninsula. Clays were employed by Kent Kraft Estates to produce plans of the changes to the Estate during negotiations.
In October 2012, plans were leaked of proposals for an 872 acre Paramount Theme Park and Entertainment Precinct in the Swanscombe Peninsula, scheduled to open in 2019. It is claimed that the project will create 27,000 new jobs in the area. The entrance to the proposed theme park coincides with the entrance to Northfleet and Kent Kraft Industrial Estates.
“In 1954, Northfleet Urban District Council applied to the Minister of Housing and Local Government for permission to borrow £80,084 for the erection of 60 houses on the Painters Ash Estate.” Source: Discover Gravesham
The Ministry of Housing and Local Government was formed in 1951; in 1954 the Minister of Housing and Local Government was Harold McMillan.
George Clay Partnership partner Denys Hall ( who was in the practice between 1936 and 1969 ) was the partner responsible for designing all of Northfleet’s post-war council homes as well as Painter’s Ash, New House Lane and Coldharbour Road Estates. A newspaper clipping from 1969 covering Hall’s retirement from practice refers to “over a thousand homes… now in this area with their accompanying shops and facilities.”
The first 10 years after WWII were subject to rationing; industry was still recovering. Between 1955 and 1970, the economy began to prosper leading to a period of large housing construction schemes not before witnessed in the country. Families grew in size, increasing the demand for housing.
Post-war council housing was shaped by a new approach to town planning enshrined in the ‘Greater London Plan’ of 1944 by Professor Patrick Abercombie (1879-1957) –- the idea of neighbourhood units and new towns. Post-war construction was also shaped by two housing reports: the Dudley Report of 1944 and the Parker Morris report ‘Homes for Today and Tomorrow’ published in 1961, which led to the Parker Morris Standards, set out in the Ministry of Housing’s ‘Design Bulletin 6— Space in the Home’. This provided typical dimensions for the typical items of furniture for which the dwelling designer should allow space, and provided anthropomorphic data about the space needed to use and move about furniture.
In 1974 Northfleet UDC merged with the Borough of Gravesend to form Gravesham Borough Council.
The George Clay Partnership designed the Tollgate Inn in 1926 (replacing an earlier Toll Gate Inn built on Watling Street in 1824, which made way for a road widening scheme in the 1920s). Between 1960 and 1970, new owners Grand Metropolitan Hotels Ltd commissioned Clays on a number of contracts to extend the inn into a motel (frequently used by visitors to the races at Brand Hatch).
Contracts over the years included a new restaurant & kitchen to the main building, conversion of the old garage building into 8 en-suite letting rooms, a motel with 24 rooms, an additional 30 rooms and meeting room, and finally a 60 bedroom block (since demolished to make room for new A2). Partner Duncan Hiscock was the architect for the ‘60s contracts.
The hotel ceased trading in 2007, and was part of a compulsory purchase by the Secretary of State for Transport to enable the realignment and widening of he A2 between Cobham and Pepperhill. There are currently reports of plans to demolish the hotel to make way for a petrol station, M&S Food and McDonalds.
The Franciscan Missionaries of the Divine Motherhood (FMDM), founded in 1947 are an international religious congregation of Catholic women living and practicing in the spirit of St Francis and St Clare of Assisi in 11 countries in the developed and developing world. Ladywell is the Motherhouse of the Congregation, situated in Surrey Countryside, ‘home’ to FMDM sisters around the world.
George I Clay was on good terms with the Mother General, and the FMDM were an important client and source of work for the practice between the ‘60s and the ‘80s. In the ‘60s the practice completed various buildings at Ladywell Convent including the chapel, the novitiate, refectory, kitchen and printing room.
In the early 70s George I Clay built a maternity unit at Mount Alvernia Hospital Nursing Home in Guildford, Surrey for the FMDM. Designs included a striking hexagonal Chapel on the third floor over the maternity wing. Other works at Mount Alvernia included a 90 bed surgical unit (four floors as built). Richard Fullbrook later took over work at Mount Alvernia from G I Clay to build an operating suite.
For same client Clays built Sunset Residence, an old people's home on Gilbraltar.
Half a million square feet of warehouse and light industrial units over three phases. The structure used reinforced concrete portal frame units and had over 20,000 sq. ft. of roads.
Client: Invernesk Paper Group Ltd, Contractor: Costains
Huggens College, designed by architect, W. Chadwick, was built in 1847 by John Huggens as almshouses, with its own chapel and croquet lawn. The original college was demolished in 1968 and new bungalows and a chapel were built on part of the site, the remainder being sold to the Northfleet Urban District Council, who built blocks of flats known as Wallis Park. The chapel extension and new alms houses were designed by the George Clay Partnership.
Hexagonal chapel on third floor over maternity wing.
(See 1960s panel on FMDM & Ladywell Convent)
Housing for Northfleet U.D.C on Northfleet High Street
In 1968 the opening ceremony was performed on phase one of the £256,117 Northfleet High Street redevelopment scheme. It consisted of 15 two-bed flats, 12 one-bed flats, 24 three-bed maisonettes, 13 shops and 28 garages, and was named “The Hive”.
The name derived from the large residence Hive House and its surrounding Park, which once stood there. The house and lands were divided and sold during the second half of the 19th century.
The area— houses and shops— was badly bombed during the war and eventually cleared for redevelopment.
Redevelopment proceeded over two years and included two terraces of shops and a six storied building.
Denys Hall & Brian Heathfield worked on the block with the pitched roof. Duncan Hiscock worked on the shops and 6 storey building.
A mix of different factors led to the burst of post-war school building that peaked in the ‘50s and late ‘60s: the 1944 Education Act, raising the school-leaving age to 15 in 1947, the post-war ‘baby boom’, and an inheritance of Victorian school buildings— many of them bomb-damaged, inadequate, or outmoded (with rooms designed for rote-learning in large classes).
The new schools built during the post-war boom are generally of light construction with flat roofs, using pre-fabricated and standardised parts— with an emphasis (theoretically) on speed and economy. In retrospect the lightweight constructions were difficult to heat, ventilate and control acoustically; the flat roofs were a maintenance issue— in worst cases— 20 years into the life of the building.
But the programme delivered; in England, a new school was built every day between 1950 and 1970. Under partner Jim Ward, partner Brian Heathfield and associate Stan Cokayne; the George Clay Partnership built a handful of new schools over a 15 year period stretching from the ‘60s to late ‘70s for the Diocese of Rochester, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Southwark, Kent County Council and Sussex County Council Education Departments.
Schools completed by the practice during this period include:
-St. John’s School at Rochester Road, Denton, Gravesend (designed by Jim Ward and Brian Heathfield with a nursery by Associate Ted Clifford) completed between 1960 and 1965.
-St George’s C of E Secondary School at Meadow Road, Gravesend, completed around 1968
-Longfield Junior School (designed by Jim Ward)
-St Botolphs C of E Primary School, Dover Road, Northfleet completed between 1976 and 1977 at a cost of £100,000.00 (designed by Stan Cokayne)
-Holy Trinity C of E Primary School, Northfleet (designed by Brian Heathfield) officially opened in 1978 after 2 years construction (the original 1852 school building, one of the oldest in the borough, burnt down in 1962)
The practice carried out a number of jobs for King’s School, Rochester up until the mid-80s. Projects include an ergonomically designed triangular boat house on the banks of the River Medway (designed by Mike Kilgour).
Commercial development for EC Gransden & Co. completed circa 1986.
The development housed BBC Radio Kent ( originally BBC Radio Medway, the station became BBC Radio Kent in 1983 as part of the BBC’s policy of operating countrywide stations ) from 1986 to 2001, when the station moved to Tunbridge Wells, merging with BBC Radio South East.
Church of St Peter’s, Bearsted
New build RC church in Bearsted, Maidstone completed in 1984.
Completed in 2003 for Swale Borough Council, the Sports England and SBC funded Faversham Gym Club was the first fully realised design by the ‘new’ Clays, and set the template for subsequent projects.
Built on a tight budget, the design incorporates an economic portal frame structure and a passive stack ventilation strategy using openable industrial louvers activated by thermostat control— saving on mechanical ventilation costs. Clays took on the ‘QS’ role during the construction phase and the project was completed within budget (£811/sqm). Brett Construction were the builders.
Completed in 2003 for Swale Borough Council, the Sports England and SBC funded Faversham Gym Club was the first fully realised design by the ‘new’ Clays, and set the template for subsequent projects.
Built on a tight budget, the design incorporates an economic portal frame structure and a passive stack ventilation strategy using openable industrial louvers activated by thermostat control— saving on mechanical ventilation costs. Clays took on the ‘QS’ role during the construction phase and the project was completed within budget (£811/sqm). Brett Construction were the builders.
We first made contact with Medway Council in 2001, competing unsuccessfully for the Sunlight Centre project in Gillingham. This however led to discussions with Medway Council’s Education Team and Building and Design Services Team about potential future school projects in 2002/2003; there was a palpable excitement within the authority about Classrooms for the Future, and about how and when investment would trickle down to enable the building of new classrooms and schools.
Whilst details of the programmes were being worked out at Government level, at local authority level the manager of the BDS team (Steve Gilberthorpe) was gearing up for future school work by establishing relationships with local consultants like Clays and commissioning feasibility studies on existing schools— as a precursor to, and in preparation for, the future school building programme.
We carried out feasibility studies for a number of primary schools including Walderslade Primary School, Maundene Primary School, Borstal Manor Primary School and St Mathews Primary School; and a number of Sure Starts. Detailed designs were carried out for a new sustainably designed primary school in Shorts Way, Rochester but these were later abandoned— in response to local objections to development on land bequeathed to the public by the Shorts Brothers— in favour of a contractor designed new school on the site of the former Borstal Manor Primary School.
We did however complete (in 2006 / 2007) a key stage 1 and foundation wing at Danecourt School in Rainham, designed for pupils with moderately learning difficulties including pupils on the autistic spectrum; and Fairview Community School in Rainham, the amalgamation of an infant and junior school involving extension, alterations and refurbishments stretching over 2 years. We also prepared designs for Sure Starts at Kingfisher Primary School in Walderslade and St James CE Primary School in Grain. Both Sure Starts were completed by contractors on a design and build contract.
When details of Building Schools for the Future were finally revealed in 2005 / 2006, the programmes were procured via a long, arduous and costly tender process in which large private consortiums bid to form Local Education Partnerships (LEPs) with the Local Authorities; essentially a form of PFI (Private Finance Initiative). The LEPs were not only responsible for the construction of the buildings but also for co-ordinating and overseeing the educational transformation and community regeneration that the investment can support. These contracts were far beyond the resources of many SMEs, local consultants and contractors.
We did however, get commissioned by the Council in 2009 to start design work on Walderslade Primary School, as one of the first projects in the Council’s Primary Capital Programme. This project was completed in 2011 and won a Kent Design Award for Best Public Building in the Education sector in 2012.
On 5 July 2010 the new Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove, announced that following a review, the Building Schools for the Future programme was to be scrapped. BSF projects which had not achieved the status of 'financial close' would not proceed, meaning that 715 school revamps already signed up to the scheme would not go ahead. It was the end of an era.