Demolition of Chaucer school etc.

Has any one been to see the plans yet?
I phoned a very helpful young lady called Kristina who agrees that these plans should be available online.

I wonder where they will re-interr the tens of thousands of bodies there, some dating back to Roman times? I wonder how long it will take for the school to be re-built and hope that this latest venture will not be destroyed in two weeks like the last time in when the rate payers shelled out for new works in the playing area!

Jan

Are you sure the graveyard wasn't excavated when the current school was constructed in the late 1950s???

I can well imagine that three generations of local kids have been spooked by some local folk myth of bodies just below the playground tarmac.

I hadn't realised that a planning application has finally gone in. I was aware that ARK (the sponsors of the new academy) and their design team had been talking to various bodies including English Heritage) because the 1959
school buildings are listed - it looks like they are planning to keep the five sided assembly hall and refurbish it.

Does anyone know whether Future Systems are still the architects working on it? If so it could be an interesting addition to the area.

Southwark website wrote:

Application Type: Full Planning Permission
Location: GEOFFREY CHAUCER SCHOOL,& JOSEPH LANCASTER SCHOOL HARPER ROAD & LAND TO THE WEST OF DEVERELL STREET

Planning Case File Number: TP/1422-T

Proposal: Provision of a new City Academy (Class D1) comprising of a nursery, primary school, secondary school and sixth form including demolition of all buildings except the Pentagon and Joseph Lancaster buildings which will be refurbished, erection of a single storey Early Learning Centre, a three storey secondary school building including sixth form and sports hall, a single storey building for use as a woodchip boiler, hard and soft landscaping, provision of 48 car parking spaces and 120 cycle parking spaces, alterations to and erection of boundary walls including retention of existing random rubble wall, alterations to existing and creation of new highways and pedestrian accesses including provision of servicing access off Deverell Street and other incidental and enabling works.

But no signs of the planning drawings themselves on the site so far.

Yes, there are many thousands of burials under the playground.

I was at a briefing a couple of months ago.

There is quite a complicated programme to keep the school operational whilst removing the burials and putting in the new buildings on the current playground site.

I will try to find my notes which have more details.

Now that the planning application has gone in we ought to do a news item on it.

I'm astonished to have heard nothing on the local history/archaeology grapevine about plans that would involve so many disinterments.

Lang Rabbie,

they have found complete burials in lead coffins, absolutely fascinating, in my garden when i moved in i repeatedly dug up bones and hair, the chapel that used to be at the end of my garden also had a small burial ground...but this site such as it is goes back to Roman times, and when you think about it the grave of the female gladiator was not too far from here...and thinking about it what a wonderful opportunity for pupils to see first hand real non t.v. based history.......I hope locals get chance to peruse such treasures....

It's going to be all go along this bit of Harper Road not too far in the future as not only are they rebuilding the school, but they will be demolishing the very tatty two-storey block of flats between Symington House and Harper Road and will be building a whole load of flats to rehouse people from the Heygate estate. There are plans (but no application)about this on the Elephant and Castle website, and the new flats will be right next to the enlarged school site.

When i last heard about the plans Future Systems were still the architects, and they had developed a plan for the site which would minimise the need for moving bodies, by avoiding the area where most of the bodies are. There's going to be a big U shaped school building around the central hall (which is being kept and refurbished) with the back of the U being pretty much along Deverell street.
The new school will cover all ages from nursery to leaving age. They're keeping the old victorian primary school building and will move the nursery from the building on the Lawson estate on to the Geoffrey Chaucer site.

Hope this is helpful

JP

Lang Rabbie , I received the details via e-mail...pretty big...113 pages but fascinating stuff. did you want me to forward it?

There's an ad on page 32 of this week's Southwark News

Disused Burial Grounds (Amendment) Act 1981
Notice of intention to remove human remains from the former New Bunhill Fields Burial Ground, Deverell Street, New Kent Road, SE1 (also known as Hoole & Martin's Burial Ground).

There's some history of the burial ground here:
http://www.doubleo.fsnet.co.uk/bgnewington.htm

A lady who attended the meeting was told that they may knock down Symington House! great considering how many people they would have to find new properties for...

Heygate Estate,
Woodene Estate
Aylesbury Est.,
and Symington?

where would all these people go?

Just read in South London the amount of graves in the school grounds amounts to thirty eight thousand...smallpox sufferers..according to S.L.P buried inches from the playground surface. I bet theres more under the school itself.