No_3_1956 — Page 23

ALL SAINTS CHURCH & SCHOOL

Mr. N. H. Fok-Architect

का न ज ज च

LEEN MO

G A Q

Architect's perspective drawing of the new school and church building. (Below) Picture of the Church before work began,

necessary

In spite of all that has been done ground upon which the and is being done, in the cause of buildings could be erected. education in Hong Kong. it will be many years yet before sufficient ac- The All Saints Church on Yim Po commodation is provided for the Fong Street stood in the centre of children of all age groups who will the block between Soy Street and be seeking to further their educa- Pak Po Street, with open ground tion. Societies and associations of around the building, which, planted every kind, who in former years did with trees and shrubs and surround- not consider education as part of ing flower beds, endowed it with the their worries, must now by force of pleasant, almost rural background circumstances include as part of which made it one of the most at- their responsibility to their members, tractive churches in the Colony. the inclusion of at least a primary

school as part of their activities. However, the practical consider-

to erect a school with as many class-

rooms as possible.

ations of its scholastic requirements In particular, the various church made it necessary to sacrifice the and religious groups in the Colony surrounding garden, and in its place have felt that the lack of space in public schools available for the chll- dren of their own congregations has placed upon the shoulders of the of ficers and elders, the task of building furnishing and running a school or schools, particularly if they were fortunate enough to own sufficient

days without interfering with the functioning of the Church at any time, particularly on Sundays. It was possible to fulfil these condi- tions because, fortunately, the lot was of sufficient dimensions to allow for the new wings of the building to be placed along the outer edge of the lot, and to be wide enough for the full 20'0" width required for classrooms. This still allowed over 13'0" of space between the walls of the classroom buildings and the ex- isting walls of the Church. Between the Church and the School there will be, therefore, an open area, in the front section of which will be placed two stairhalls, one to serve each wing. Communication between the two sections of the School will thus be maintained by the connec- tion between the two stairhalls and the central Church entrance way.

A school building is one which requires large window areas to provide ample light and air circula- tion through the classrooms. It would, therefore, not have been pos- sible to have provided for ecclesias- tical architectural features to the school building in the shape of Gothic windows, for instance, with- out considerable additional cost. However, the architect has main- tained the prominent feature of the Church building in the centre of the new structure, and the overall appearance is quite effective.

The location and arrangement of the classrooms will be seen from the plans, and are similar on all floors except for the ground floor which will contain the Office, Headmaster's The original Church being in the room, teachers' rooms and store on centre of the available ground, the the Soy Street side, whilst on the architect's task was to fit a class- Pak Po Street side there are two room wing on either side of the classrooms with a covered playground Church so as to permit the func- extending to a sport store at the tioning of the School during week rear.

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