Newham Collegiate

Rick Mather Architects lead the refurbishment works for the Edwardian Grade II listed Old Technical College in East Ham to house a new Sixth Form for the London Borough of Newham. The building forms part of the larger East Ham Civic Campus and was the next phase of works to be completed following the Customer Service Centre & Library which opened to the public in March 2014. These projects form part of a wider masterplan for the Campus which gained planning and listed building consent in 2011.

The project required accurate replication of the various decorative wall tiles and fittings enabling authentic spot repair of the original tiles on site. The team at Craven Dunnill Jackfield developed glazes and re-modelled the original profiled pieces to reproduce new tiles for installation which were almost identical to the originals on site. Traditional soft oxide glazes were applied by hand dipping the biscuit tiles. The method of glazing combined with the glaze recipe helped recreate the depth of glaze colour found on the exquisitely sculpted embossed decors and profiles.