In a new series, Estates Bursar David Anderson takes a look at the history of some of the College’s best known buildings, discussing how and why the ever-evolving campus came to look the way it does today and updating us on current and future building plans. As work gets under way in earnest on the new Music School project, David shares how the current re-build project is progressing.

In 1984 there were around 500 boys at the College and we are now at 765. Other spaces have been extending and upgraded to deal with these numbers and now it is the turn of music. As you can see from the new designs, we have tried to keep the essence of the music department at Radley with the existing Music School and Silk Hall remaining at the centre of the project.

 

The architects for the new Music School are Design Engine, who designed Clocktower Court and the extension to Shop. The design theme and feel will therefore be familiar to the campus and sit comfortably in its surroundings. Construction started in summer 2024 and we hope completion will be in late November 2025. The building contractor is LifeBuild and the contract value is £9 million.

As with the Science Block, which was completed in 2019, the trick is to use the core of the existing building and extend and enhance so that the scale is commensurate with its surroundings.

In mid-September we put significant scaffolding support in the existing Music School to hold up all of the floors and roof. We are now removing the side wall that faces Silk Hall and will be incorporated into the new Foyer space.

Over the Michaelmas Weekend we installed a tower crane which stands 25 metres tall so that we can distribute materials to every area of the site. The photo below shows the foundations for the tower crane. The radius of the crane will encroach onto Bigside rugby, which would be fine if Radley didn’t have the tallest posts on the circuit, so this has given me the odd sleepless night… however, there is a seven metre gap between the top of the posts and the crane and all is well.

You can read more about the plans for the new Music School here.