Ripon Cathedral Primary School – St Cuthbert’s Community Building

Client: Grosvenor House Group

Location: Ripon, North Yorkshire

Area: 100sqm

Value: £340,000

Procurement: Traditional

St Cuthbert’s community building will provide services to both the school and wider community of Ripon. The school will use the building primarily for pre- and post-school clubs, as well as for various ancillary functions during the school day.

As the building is open for use by the community it is not to be overtly focussed towards the school. However there are a number of references to the Cathedral in the main entrance and the gable-end picture windows which act as an aide-memoires to the religious focus of the school.

The community building is sited in the South East corner of the school grounds, where it shares uninterrupted reciprocal views with Ripon Cathedral and lies adjacent to Ailcey Hill, the site of a medieval monastery founded by St Cuthbert. The positioning of the building creates a protected enclosure through landscaping rather than fences. It is orientated such that the building aligns to the cathedral, maximising views whilst the roof is aligned to the gable end of the school, creating a continuity of built form.