Western Park Open Air School

In 1897 the Leicester Corporation bought Western Park, just outside the town, for £30,000.[1] In 1904, the construction of a tramline provided better access to the park.[1] Open-Air Schools increasingly appeared in the early 1900s to prevent further spread of tuberculosis by providing ventilation and fresh air.[2][3]

Western Park Open Air School, located in Western Park, was the first open air school in Leicester, for children with respiratory problems.[4][5] It opened on 7 November 1930.[6]

The building was designed by James Osbert Thompson, and constructed using brick between 1928 and 1930.[7] The roof is tiled.[7]

The three terraces of the school are built on a slope and connected by concrete steps and pathways.[7] The central administrative block is an L-shaped building with two floors and a basement.[7] To the north is a single-storey building with dormer windows.[7] To the north-west are three chalet-style blocks grouped together.[7] A long single glazed single-storey is located to the south-east, and to the east is a single-storey pavilion-style building.[7]

In 1974, covered walkways made with plywood and plastic were added to provide connections between the buildings.[7] South of the chalets is a playground with tiered borders around the edges.[7] To the east of the U-shaped building is a gate and paved area, which leads to a plot likely to have been a vegetable garden.[7] The north-east wall is partly buried.[7]

Wide opening windows permitted fresh air.[7]

In 1931, Leicester's chief school medical officer of health Allan Warner, in the committee minutes, described the school as having a "healthy environment" that could put right a "child's nervous activity which has degenerated owing to disuse".[4] Two years earlier he had maintained that "many health movements" had produced a "health conscience" which in turn expanded the Leicester School Medical Service.[4] The school had modern electric light, lots of sun, access to fresh air and the most recent heating arrangements.[4] He described the aim of the school as to "so train the children that they would eventually become hardy men and women", something he felt was important for a good citizen in the interwar years.[4] In contrast were the "overcrowded sunless rooms" of the schools in the city centre, with "stagnant humid atmosphere of the overcrowded house".[4] This he felt "resulted in children that were "incapable of strenuous muscular action and over sensitive to pain".[4] In one later report, Warner recited George Newman: "the existence and strength of the nation ultimately depends upon the survival of its children and their physical and mental health".[4] In 1937, the school was chosen by the Royal Institute of British Architects to illustrate its Modern Schools Exhibition.[4]

The building is a rare example of a surviving open-air school, and is of historical architectural interest.[4] Many of its original fixtures and fittings remain; slow combustion stoves, carpentry, heaters, cupboards, doors and windows.[4]

The school closed in 2005.[8] In 2011 it was listed Grade II by Historic England.[9] In May 2022 it was damaged in a fire.[10]

• George H. Widdows