New Creative Arts Centre for Downsend School

Date posted: July 5, 2019

ArchitecturePLB has recently achieved planning consent for a new Creative Arts Centre at Downsend School in Leatherhead. The project is part of a wider development plan which will allow the school to introduce a 3-year GCSE programme from September 2020 – providing an all-through experience for all children at Downsend, starting their journey from age two, right up to 16. The project also includes the remodelling of existing internal spaces to provide new lower and upper school ‘learning hubs’.

The New Creative Arts Centre is a key component in the school’s GCSE offering, with new specialist teaching spaces as well as a 200-seat flexible hall for assembly, performance, music and drama. The new Centre will also provide a venue for wider community use and has therefore been designed to operate both as an integrated part of the wider school, and as a stand-alone facility for use in the evenings and during weekends and holidays.

The enabling activities for an intense programme of Summer works have recently commenced on site with construction of the new Creative Arts block due to start later this year. Completion of the whole is programmed for early 2021.