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The Old School, Garlinge, Kent is a flint and stone-clad, brick building constructed in 1860 as an east-west axis Hall to serve the small farming village just to the west of Margate. It was extended in the early 1870s by the nearby St James' Church, Westgate with a north-south wing creating a cruciform plan and fine stone tracery southern window with metal-framed opening lights. A new, larger school was built to the east in the 1930s, and this hall continued to serve the local community as a Village Hall, owned and managed by St James' Church until it was closed in 2018, citing low use, vandalism and high maintenance costs.
The building is about to be revived by our client Alex Calinescu, a painter who plans to live and work on the site. We're currently preparing a quinquennial - a 5-year plan - for repairs and alterations to protect and preserve the building and make it suitable for continued use.
1860 OLD SCHOOL
Garlinge, Kent
2021+
Above: An aerial shot from Google Earth, showing the north and eastern faces towards the village.
Left: This photo appears to date from the 1950s, and clearly shows the original line of the road and front wall, with separate boys' and girls' entrances, leading to separate doors wither side of the bell porch.
In the 1960s the road was widened to accommodate the new housing developments in the village and the front wall was pushed right back to the porch, causing considerable harm to the appearance and use of the front area.
Right: The condition of the building is fair, but the metal windows, stone surrounds and mullions, and flint wall cladding all need urgent attention to prevent progressive damage. For example, the gentle expansion of the rusting 1870s steel-framed windows is causing the surrounding stone framing to crack and splinter, and the deep recesses in the mortar around the flints allows rainwater to penetrate deep into the wall causing saturation and damp. Now is the time to instigate a careful 5-year plan of repairs to prevent further decay.
Alongside material repair, we are also considering new, less invasive and more cost-effective and environmentally-responsible means of servicing (heating and lighting) the large-volume building for use as a painting studio.
Top: The 1872 Map shows the cruciform of the School in 1973. The plan of the northern (original) wing was divided in two, with girls on one side and boys on the other, with separate entrances, classrooms and playgrounds.
Above: By the time the photo above was taken, presumably around the early years of the 1900s, boys and girls were mixed.