Geoffrey Chaucer School

The new Southwark Academy, located off the New Kent Road, close to the Elephant & Castle, is part of the government's ongoing academy programme and is sponsored by the charity ARK. It will replace the existing Geoffrey Chaucer School, an under-subscribed and failing secondary school, and incorporate an adjacent primary school, housed in a listed Victorian building. The latter structure is to be retained and restored but the buildings of Geoffrey Chaucer School, also listed and dating from c1960, are largely unsuitable for present-day educational use. The decision was taken to seek consent for their demolition, retaining only the 'Pentagon', always acknowledged as the most interesting element of the complex designed by Chamberlin, Powell & Bon and to be faithfully restored after years of neglect.

The new Academy has been designed by Future Systems and will offer outstanding facilities in an area where educational underachievement is common. Although the project won the support of Southwark Council and the local community, it was necessary to secure English Heritage's approval for the considerable degree of demolition proposed. DP9 assembled an expert team to research and present the case for the project. Many discussions took place with English Heritage officers and the members of its London Advisory Committee, which was anxious to establish that approval of the project would not set a precedent for the demolition of other listed buildings. The scheme was reported to Southwark's planning committee with the support of English Heritage and was approved, despite objections from the Twentieth Century Society.