Elizabeth Garrett Anderson school officially opens

Elizabeth Garrett Anderson (EGA) is a successful secondary school for girls in Islington, London. The school’s new building was officially opened today [8 March] on International Women’s Day by Shami Chakrabarti, Director of the civil liberties organisation Liberty and Chancellor of Oxford Brookes University.

The new learning facilities set over an interesting sloping site, provide a performance space, lecture theatre, sports hall, specialist language classrooms and a sun filled piazza with fantastic views toward St Pancras and beyond.

Teachers and students moved into the new building in November last year which has proved extremely popular. The school commented: “the students loved the bright colours, and the bright, wide corridors made moving around a pleasure… Our art and technology buildings are light, airy studios which inspire our creativity, and a very real atmosphere of excitement about learning pervades our classrooms. We love the new buildings and feel as if we are really part of a brand new EGA.”

The school has an ongoing relationship with Michelle Obama who visited the school in 2009 and invited a dozen girls from the school to join her at the White House on the trip of a lifetime in 2011.

BDP provided a full interdisciplinary service of architecture, engineering and landscape design for the project.  Working with the Local Education Partnership Transform Islington and Balfour Beatty, EGA is the latest of the Islington BSF schools that BDP has designed. Previously completed schools include Highbury Grove & Samuel Rhodes School, Holloway School, St Aloysius’ College and Islington Arts and Media School (IAMS).