Reflections of Sir Edwin Lutyens’ Henrietta Barnett School from an Old Girl

by Shana Nieberg-Suschitzky

Ever since my twenty year school re-union in 2010, I have become increasingly nostalgic about my time spent at Henrietta Barnett School which is both striking and beautiful, and was a great inspiration to me in my formative years, so much so that I went on to gain a degree in Architecture.

Therefore, to help celebrate the Centenary of the School, I wanted to create a unique souvenir to mark the occasion. This culminated in my designing a special, handpainted model of the School’s main building.

The Henrietta Barnett School was founded in 1911 by the social reformer and philanthropist Dame Henrietta Barnett (1851-1936). She had pioneered many different educational and social projects since the 1870’s.

In 1904, she began developing Hampstead Garden Suburb, inspired by the Garden City movement. She worked closely with Sir Raymond Unwin and Sir Edwin Lutyens to produce an estate that, in my mind, has a unique architectural identity.The Henrietta Barnett School is situated on the east side of Central Square, in the heart of Hampstead Garden Suburb, which is in North West London. The School occupied the Hampstead Garden Suburb Institute, which was built over a period of 21 years from 1909-30, and the Junior School on Bigwood Road was opened in 1938. The school took sole possession of the Central Square buildings in 2004.

I have always enjoyed model-making and I wanted to give both the current pupils at HBS and other enthusiasts the opportunity to construct their own unique replica.Therefore I designed my model to be sold as an A4 “Flat pack Maquette set”, which comprises hand-painted components that are printed onto a lightweight card, to be cut out and assembled, forming a scale model of this beautiful historic building, please see the photographs provided.

You can purchase one of these sets through visiting the “Hampstead Garden Suburb Gallery” or “The Oxfam Bookshop, Highgate”. Mail Order is also available through the Gallery, via their website: hgs.org.uk.

For any further enquiries or details of stockists, you can reach me on:
shanarama@btinternet.com