FULHAM
Rydon has delivered a £25m redevelopment on the site of the former Fulham Police Station to accommodate 800 pupils, nine new residential apartments and a new front counter service for the Metropolitan Police.
The school was the first new cross subsidised Free School delivered by LocatED, the Department for Education’s new property company.
The cost of the scheme was funded by the Education Funding Agency. It was cross subsidised by the development and private sale of nine new apartments Heckfield House as part of the scheme.
LocatED is a government-owned property company, responsible for buying and developing sites in England to help meet the Government’s commitment to build new free schools, and help create 600,000 new school places by 2021. LocatED will secure sites to help deliver the additional 110 free schools announced in the March 2017 Budget as part of this remit.
Architecture Initiative was appointed by LocatED to design this innovative scheme on the highly constrained site, maximising area by including a 4.3m deep basement with a three court sports hall, performance studio and performance/theatre space to retain some of the plot for outdoor amenity space at ground level. Works outside the site will improve the public realm including the creation of a safe pedestrian zone in Heckfield Place. It is anticipated that the school’s facilities will be made available for community use out of school hours.
Set up by local parents and teachers three years ago, Fulham Boys School was housed in temporary accommodation nearby. The new facility will provide the accommodation required for the school to reach its full capacity of 800 boys in September 2020, comprising a 600 place secondary school with a 200 place sixth form.