| Summary : Anthony Bek Community Primary School was built in two parts. The later school, one of the last designed by Widdows, was completed in 1936. The earlier school is shown on the 1916 OS map, and is not designed by Widdows. Widdows' school is built of red brick with tile roofs. Its plan is linear and forms an L shape, with a short narrow wing at the top of the L. Verandahs to both elevations of the long south wing survive, but there have been some modifications to these at the point where the two wings meet, and there is a single storey flat roofed extension at the north end of the east wing. |
More information : This school is being assessed for listing as part of an English Heritage thematic survey of the surviving schools designed by George Widdows in Derbyshire in 1906-1936. George H. Widdows (1871-1946) is nationally acknowledged as a leading and influential designer of schools in the early 20th century. He was appointed as architect to Derbyshire County Council's Education Committee in 1904, and in 1910 became Chief Architect to the Council. By the time he retired in 1936, he had designed some sixty elementary and seventeen secondary schools. Nine of these have already been listed.
Widdows responded to concerns about health and hygiene in schools by developing a series of revolutionary plan forms which introduced cross ventilation and natural daylight. His schools are characterised by open verandah corridors and large expanses of glazing, including hopper and pivot windows. There are four characteristic plans for the elementary schools built to his designs before 1914. The earliest was the 'marching corridor' type; only five schools were built to this experimental and rather expensive plan. The second type was linear in form, with a larger classroom at each end and often a freestanding hall with linking corridor to the rear. The third type was the most dramatic, a butterfly-shaped plan with pairs of classrooms leading from the corners of a central hall. The fourth type was designed for irregularly-shaped sites and had a corner hall, octagonal in plan. Widdows' designs for elementary schools in the inter-war period were often based on a collegiate system of quadrangle plans. His secondary schools were larger ensembles and tend to have a greater architectural presence. Assessment of these schools takes into account architectural quality and the extent to which the surviving fabric represents Widdows' design innovation in a national context.
Anthony Bek Community Primary School was built in two parts. The later school, one of the last designed by Widdows, was completed in 1936, and appears on the OS map of 1938. The earlier school is shown on the 1916 OS map, and is not considered as part of this assessment. Widdows' school is built of red brick with tile roofs. Its plan is linear and forms an L shape, with a short narrow wing at the top of the L. Verandahs to both elevations of the long south wing survive, but there have been some modifications to these at the point where the two wings meet, and there is a single storey flat roofed extension at the north end of the east wing.
This school is not a notable example of the work of George Widdows. It is a very late version of his linear plan type, and although the original plan form is legible it has undergone some modification and extension. Original window joinery also survives, but by the time the school was built both plan form and detail had been deployed in Widdows' schools for some thirty years, and their use cannot be seen as innovative. The design of the exterior also uses elements employed by Widdows to better effect in earlier buildings, and it is not of distinctive architectural quality. This school does not have special architectural or historic interest on a national level and does not fulfil the criteria for listing. (1)
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