Finding a stair

We were asked to design a science lab within a Victorian school building in North London, transforming what was once known as the ‘plum jam’ room into a new space for lateral thinking and discovery. The origins of the name hint at the room’s previous use as a place of making. Over the years, though, it became little more than a wall for hanging coats and storage space - boxes, equipment, spare chairs and tables.

The budget for the project was raised almost entirely through selling cupcakes. The extraordinary effort of the school community made it even more meaningful; every decision needed to be carefully considered. Throughout the project, the challenge was to do more with less.

One idea that particularly excited us was the possibility of finding a reclaimed stair and repurposing it for this room to access a reading area. It would not only avoid the need for something new to be manufactured, but would bring a sense of history, memory and character into the space.

Searching for possibilities, we came across a listing on eBay for a cast-iron stair on sale in Central London. It looked promising but I needed to check it out. The auction was ending soon and we sent the link to one of the teachers and, with time running out, I jumped on my bike to see it for myself. It was located on Portland Place, not far from the BBC. When I arrived, the stair was still standing in its original position, serving the front lightwell of a building for 50-100 years. I met the seller. He was immediately excited by the idea that the stair might find a new home in a school. He wanted to help make it happen. I called the teacher and encouraged him to place a comfortable bid, which we ended up winning. Generously, the seller reduced the price as it was going to a good cause. 

The stair had been cleverly designed so that it could be dismantled into individual sections and reconstructed back at the school. We brought in our trusted metalworker to carefully reassemble it and adapt it to the mezzanine reading space above.

Like a transplant, the stair was given a new life. It now sits within one of the school’s beautiful and generous Victorian double-height spaces, carrying with it more than a century of history. Once part of another building and another story, it has now become part of the life of this school.