YERBURY PRIMARY SCHOOL
Tufnell Park | London
A dedicated, flexible learning space to encourage questioning, lateral thinking and cross-disciplinary experimentation for primary school children
As seen in Deezen
-
Formerly used as a cloakroom and storage space, Yerbury School’s science lab, called ‘Q’ (for Questioning), was unveiled by Dr Chris Van Tullekan from the CBBC television series, Operation Ouch!
The open plan room is defined by four elements: a cast iron spiral stair, lab workspace, library mezzanine and a cabinet of curiosities. The stair was repurposed from a historic building in central London. It connects to a mezzanine for reading and experimenting. A ‘cabinet of curiosities’ provides an ever-changing exhibition of inspiring artefacts including an old camera, animal bones, plants, spiders, rocks and even a resin cast of Einstein’s brain. In this room children watch chickens hatch, test how sound travels through materials and explore why things go up and why they fall down.
The work was completed on a very tight programme during the Summer to avoid disruption. The project was funded by money raised by the Yerbury Home School Association.
the tall Victorian classroom split on two levels
FROM DISUSED STORAGE SPACE TO ITS OPENING CELEBRATION
Transforming a room once called the ‘plum jam room,’ began first by stripping everything back to its bare bones. As this was taking place, we found a cast iron stair on Ebay. It was an old external stair access to a building on Portland Place in London. The stair was disassembled in all its components and reassembled at the school. The images below are of the stair before and after finding its new home. The room was ceremoniously opened byDr. Chris Van Tullekan of CBBC television series, Operation Ouch!
