Walters & Cohen was commissioned by The King’s School to resolve two challenges on their site: to modernise and co-locate science facilities, and to increase dining provision. We undertook a space audit of the school’s teaching accommodation within the historic buildings of the Precincts of Canterbury Cathedral to explore how to offer better configurations of space and fit-for-purpose classrooms. This resulted in a number of projects, including two key areas of improvement:
Mint Yard
Mint Yard sits just within the City Wall and is characterised by Grade I and Grade II listed buildings. We demolished a ‘70s day house (the occupants moved to the new Mitchinson's, completed in 2018), replacing it with a new building containing high quality, state-of-the-art science labs and a lecture hall. This links to existing science accommodation in the Grade II listed Parry Hall, creating departmental clarity. The cladding is random snapped quarried flint, with occasional horizontal bands of square knapped flint which help to break up the elevation and provide rhythm to the facade. With Portland stone and a gabled roof, the new building knits seamlessly in with its neighbours and is an elegant addition to this highly sensitive site.
Dining
Dining currently takes place in a Grade I listed formal hall at first floor level, overlooking Green Court and the Cathedral. Our design reconfigures the ground floor to create an informal café in a space currently occupied by services and kitchens; this makes the most of views to the Cathedral and gives pupils more choice of venue at lunchtimes. The project will start once the science refurbishment has been completed.
We also remodelled an undercroft used for storage to create a student social space, careers centre and IT lab.
In addition to works to listed buildings, the site also has multiple historic designations including Scheduled Ancient Monument, Conservation Area, Area of Archaeological Importance, and World Heritage Site.
