Finding a stair

We were asked to design a science lab for a primary school in North London with a budget made by selling cupcakes. Here we had to be especially resourceful in all we did. One idea that excited us was to find a reclaimed stair, both for its sustainability and the sense of history it could bring to the space. We came across a promising listing on eBay—a cast- iron stair that looked like it might work. The sale was ending soon. Surprisingly, it turned out to be located not all too far from the school, on Portland Place, London not far from the BBC. I took this as an opportunity. With time running out, we sent the link to one of the teachers, and I jumped on my bike to see it in person.

When I arrived, the stair was there in the front lightwell of a construction site. I met the seller, who was thrilled to hear it might be reused in a school and immediately wanted to help. I called the teacher and urged him to place a bid. We ended up getting it, and to our surprise, the seller offered it to us at a reduced rate. The stair design was clever. It could be easily disassembled into pieces and put back together again. I brought over our trusted metal worker and put him to the task of reassembly and adaptation to the new mezzanine, a reading space for the children.

It was like a transplant, now siting quietly in one of the Victorian school’s grand double-height Victorian spaces. Carrying with it over a hundred years of history, now another chapter in the life of the stair.