20 C O N T E X T 1 1 9 : M A Y 2 0 1 1 Chris Pond and Graham Tite are architectural researchers and writers.Tite, a former open-air school pupil, came across this architectural topic while employed at Greenwich in conservation. into the smoke-ridden cities. Children were frequently malnourished, failed to enjoy proper rest and play, and as a result they were often prone to respiratory illnesses. Pioneering efforts to combat the poor conditions in child health were led in Birmingham from 1910 by the philanthropists Barrow and Geraldine Cadbury, who founded an open-air school at Uffculme. Located in the King’s Heath district, Uffculme is the site of the Cadbury family’s new country house of 1891 in whose grounds, 20 years later, the pioneer school was constructed as a private venture. A number of websites can be consulted.The full story is very well told in A Breath of Fresh Air: Birmingham’s open-air schools 1911–1970 by Frances Wilmot and Pauline Saul (1998, Phillimore, Chichester). The authors refer to The Modern Building Record, 1912 (MBR) for the identity of the architects, Cossins, Peacock and Bewlay (CPB) of Birmingham, and for a full list of the school’s suppliers of everything from roofing slate to the groceries, bread and dairy products. A nutritious diet with rest periods after meals, garden activities as well as bathing and the maximum degree of exposure to fresh air at most times and in all weathers were at the core of the recommendations of the openair school movement. Other buildings by CPB include the listed Ice Factory and Cold Store at Digbeth and Saint Peter’s Church, Sutton Coldfield. The MBR documentation includes a site plan and a general photographic view of the newly constructed school buildings.The scheme was laid out facing due south to trap the rays of the sun, and with the classrooms and the open-sided ‘resting shed’ staggered so that the westerly breezes and afternoon sun could be enjoyed across all the buildings occupied by the young pupils. These school sites today mainly have the remaining traces of buildings either reduced to architectural fragments or wholly lost. The original purpose may barely be recognisable. Prior knowledge derived from historical research is often needed even to locate the sites. A shining exception to this rule was placed on the lists in 2002 at Grade II. Rachel McMillan Nursery near Deptford, SE8 (London Borough of Greenwich) carries the name of the school’s founder (1859–1917), who was prominent in educational as well as many other contemporary social and political campaigns. Even though she does not enjoy the household name status of Maria Montessori (1870–1952), McMillan and her sister, Margaret, participated in early efforts at reform in these fields in Bradford (including school meals, resulting in a rather overlooked Act of Parliament in 1906).The title of this Context article, ‘A good start in life’, is taken from the list description of the school’s buildings. Of Scottish descent, the McMillan sisters were born to emigrant parents in New York, later moving to Yorkshire and thence to London. Their writings on child labour and early childhood were published about 1900, and the London school was opened in 1914. The buildings today reflect the original work by Edward Unwin (son of Raymond Unwin of garden city fame) and numerous later additions and alterations to the school during London County Council and Greater London Council days. Although the building has had many years of continuous use, it still contains the essential open-air plan of open-sided classrooms, arranged along an east-west axis facing the sun’s rays and with the playground on an open site in front. This school on the Greenwich/Deptford border is not the only open-air school to enjoy listed status, although it does appear to be the earliest. Images of England indicates that a school in Lambeth, south London, constructed by the London County Council in 1925, and a beautiful modernist example of 1939 in Rotherham, are also listed. One of the pairs of twostorey smallholding houses designed by Charles Holden for Fels, as altered, in March 2011 (Photo: Chris Pond)
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