Exceptional learning facilities for primary school girls

Royal High School Bath
Cranwell House, The Royal High School

Cranwell House is a Grade II-listed Victorian mansion house set within a significant historic landscape in the World Heritage City of Bath. It was purchased by The Girls' Day School Trust as the future home for the Junior School of The Royal High School Bath, which was looking to move from outmoded facilities on its existing site elsewhere in the city centre.

The main house has been sensitively refurbished, reinstating the principal rooms of the house as new teaching spaces. A contemporary and sustainable extension building sits within the immediate context of the listed building and the wider parkland setting.

Key Information

Sector: Schools

Client: The Girls' Day School Trust

Location: Bath

Completion: December 2013

Size: 1,807 sqm GIA

Throughout the many sensitivities of the planning and conservation processes, the design team never lost sight of the most important people in all of this - the pupils

Rebecca Dougall, Headteacher

A landscape for learning

Designed to exploit the hillside site, the new building sits low in the landscape, behind the main house, respecting its position within the wider World Heritage City. The new building is fully clad in slate - part of a natural materials pallet chosen carefully for this landscaped site.

The school provides an extraordinary place of learning for 4 to 11 year olds, with exciting specialist teaching spaces, a multi-purpose hall and associated support spaces across the new and existing buildings. These facilities are set within a safe, ecologically diverse site offering wonderful opportunities to the children for outdoor learning.

Team

Main Contractor
Beard Construction
Structural Engineer
Mann Williams
Quantity Surveyor
Thornton Firkin
M&E Engineer
QED Engineers
Landscape Architect
Land Use Consultants
Photographer
Fotohaus

FCBStudios Team Leads

Awards

2015
Civic Trust Awards: Regional Finalist