McCrum Yard at Bekynton Field, Eton College
McCrum Yard at Bekynton Field, Eton College
Acknowledging over 600 years of development at Eton College, John Simpson Architects’ masterplan conceived of Bekynton Field (on the south side of the college) as a new academic quadrangle.
Bekynton Field is a collection of buildings, some of which dated back to the 1960s. The project involved the demolition and redevelopment of both the current ‘Birley Schools’ and ‘School of Mechanics’ building; allowing the college to provide purpose built school rooms.
We acted as structural engineers for this £13m project designed by John Simpson Architects which involved building two new teaching buildings of three storeys and a new theatre. To the east and north, an L-shaped red brick building with stone dressings houses the Department of Modern Languages. Replacing a line of twentieth century buildings, the west side is formed by a new yellow stock brick building for the Department of Economics and Politics and the Department of Divinity, which sit either side of double height arch giving views into the new quadrangle from the street.
A new auditorium primarily for debating and lectures for up to 300 people has been flexibly designed so it can also be used for theatrical and musical performances and has high-performance acoustics to enhance the performance and prevent external noise penetration into the auditorium. High quality finishes have been used to both the auditorium and entrance lobby areas. The existing music recital room has been altered and refurbished to upgrade to current-day performance standards.
Collectively, the academic buildings has a concrete frame with solid unjointed external masonry walls. The quadrangle is completed by the theatre, a stone building with a copper roof and augmented with stone sphinxes and a fountain. The theatre is a loadbearing masonry structure with concrete floors and an interesting long-span roof. The project incorporates raised ground floor slabs with voids below them to allow for flood water to flow under the building. The lower entrance areas are designed with flood resistant features. Inside there is a polychromatic debating chamber based on the Council Chamber at Priene and an exhibition space to display the college's impressive collections of ancient artefacts and other works of art.
The new Lyttleton & Elliott School room buildings which replace a line of twentieth century buildings on South Meadow Lane. Five different bricks were used on the masterplan so that it reads as a collection of buildings around a new quadrangle, and not to simply read as a one mass block. The buildings feature a self-supporting fill brick flemish bond masonry constructed with an independent internal frame. This provides deep window reveals which help with shading from the sunlight.
Client: Eton College
Architect: John Simpson Architects
Text and images: Courtesy of John Simpson Architects