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2010 results
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| Victory Primary School, Paulsgrove. Best New Building. | The Church of the Holy Spirit, Southsea, Best Restoration. |
- Best New Buildings
- Winner - Victory Primary School, Allaway Avenue, Paulsgrove
- Commended - William Beatty Building, University of Portsmouth; Bristow-Clavell Science Centre at Portsmouth Grammar School; 101 St Thomas’s Street Old Portsmouth.
- Best Reuse
- Winner - The Church of the Holy Spirit, Fawcett Road, Southsea
- Commended -Portsmouth Guildhall’s clocktower and refurbishment of the iconic bells.
- Best Landscaping
- Winner - Somerstown Adventure Playground in Waterloo Street, Southsea
- Commended - Sculpture of St John, St John's Cathedral. Edinburgh Road, Portsmouth
The recession and local authority spending cuts do not appear to have dampened local people's enthusiasm to enhance Portsmouth with good design - in new buildings, reuses of buildings and landcscaping.
Best New Building - Victory School
We are delighted that Paulsgrove’s imaginative new Victory School in Allaway Avenue wins the Portsmouth Society’s Best New Building Award for 2011. Designed by Chris Greed, Portsmouth City Council architect and built by Warings, it is an excellent and enjoyable response to a long narrow site, bounded by the M27 and the south coast railway line. The school’s curved brick north wall gives it security from the street, while the informal wood-clad classrooms and breakout areas for 450 children between the ages of 3 and 11 open off a meandering central corridor that belies its length. Daylight floods into it from the access doors to the courtyards for each age group. There are small child-height windows on the south elevation so the classrooms don’t get too hot, while north lights give plenty of daylight.
The judges: architects Jane Green and Michael Underwood, conservation officer Ben Cracknell and president of the Portsmouth Society Celia Clark were unanimous in choosing the school. The staff, design team and local authority worked together to produce a lovely, child-centred building, and there are plans to enhance the steeply sloping outdoor areas. The school has sustainability features that should be used in more Portsmouth buildings.
Best New Building - Commendations
The three Commendations for new buildings go to the crisply detailed Portsmouth university’s William Beatty Building: the Dental Academy by MH Architects; Portsmouth Grammar School Bristow-Clavell Science Centre with its central atrium by Harrington Design; and the impressive new house at 101 St. Thomas’s Street Old Portsmouth by architects Etchingham Morris of Ringwood, constructed by builder Richard Lundbeck of Portchester.
Best Reuse Award
The judges believe that the elegant new church hall inside Holy Spirit Church in Fawcett Road Southsea should not only win the Society’s Best Reuse Award, but that it is also likely to win many others. Architect Tim Sage has inserted an unobtrusive single storey new hall, kitchen and meeting rooms into the west end of the church, in a design that enhances the church’s soaring interior with its wonderful painted ceilings and fittings, rebuilt in 1956-8 by famous Gothic architect Stephen Dykes-Bower after the interior was burnt out in WWII.
The hall has a simple detailed glass front to the main body of the church, with daylight coming down into it through skylights in the ceiling. The contractor was Norman Wright Ltd. The tabernacle screen was based on a drawing by Tim Sage inspired by the detail from the Dykes-Bower organ loft balustrading which was then realised by the coordination of sculptor John Thompson and beautifully crafted by Patrick Butler (metalwork) and Roger Tidbury (painting and gilding). The historic altar rail is reused as a balustrade to the roof of the hall. The beautiful new and massive limestone altar and font by sculptor Elliott Brotherton and the majestic suspended Christ figure by Peter Eugene Ball continue the church’s tradition of commissioning the highest quality works of art.
Best Reuse - Commendations
Portsmouth City Council deservedly win no less that two awards plus a commendation this year. The Commended Restoration is the excellent and challenging repair of Portsmouth Guildhall’s clocktower and refurbishment of the iconic bells by the city council which was project managed by quantity surveyor Alan Landridge. The judges climbed vertiginous ladders to inspect the new steel beams from which the massive bells are suspended and saw the cleaned clock faces at close quarters.
Best Landscaping Award
The Best Landscaping Award goes to Somerstown Adventure Playground in Waterloo Street, designed by Antje Eisfelder with project architect Marcelle Newbold of the Design Group at Portsmouth City Council. It was part funded by the Pathfinder Programme, and designed in consultation with the local community and the enthusiastic and experienced playleader Joan Fisher, with the children helping to construct the climbing frames. Since children climb onto roofs, they have access to the roof of the main building. The judges enjoyed the slide down to ground level and the variety of activities offered by the sandpit, playhut, roundabout and garden.
Best Landscaping - Commendation
Commended in the Landscaping category is the powerful sculpture of St. John by Philip Jackson.in front of St. John’s Roman Catholic Cathedral.
Other entries
The judges also saw the Southsea splash pool; Canoe Lake play area and water pad; the repaving of Old Portsmouth in high quality materials by Colas; the Mudlarks statue on the Hard, Thomas Ellis Owen sculpture in Ravelin Park; Brent Court: a sheltered housing scheme in Warren Avenue, Milton; eco-houses in Clydebank Road, Buckland; St. Jude’s Church, Jacob House in Fratton Road (conversion of Prime Minister Callaghan’s old school) and Garbett Court in Landport. We look forward to judging the Grammar School's new sculpture 'Celestial Microscope' and Portsmouth International Port which are among the entries for next year.
The complex arrangements for all the visits were made by David Baynes, and member Malcolm Reeves drove us around for two full days of city exploration.
How to nominate a building or scheme
If you would like to nominate a new building, restoration or landscaping scheme for consideration in the next competition please download the nomination form or contact David Baynes on 023 9283 1461.
Celia Clark, President, Portsmouth Society