Richmond Adult Community College, London – Projects

Richmond Adult and Community College (RACC) has long been a pioneer in adult education, with a history that stretches back to 1895. Before merging with Hillcroft College in 2017, RACC moved onto one site, at Parkshot in Richmond, where it invested in a £5.4 million redevelopment to expand its offerings – and community access to them – in order to secure its future.

Located within the Central Richmond Conservation Area, the original RACC school building was constructed in 1909, with various extensions added between 1930s and the 1980s, including a gymnasium and Queen Charlotte Hall, a community theatre. Morris+Co’s design consolidates RACC’s activities in one place, refurbishing existing Edwardian and 1950s buildings and creating a new block of art studios, a central courtyard and the single-storey ‘Hub’ that links buildings and serves as the community’s ‘common room’. The refreshed campus now provides new and improved learning and maker spaces, a studio theatre, cafe, shop, and central courtyard.

One of the college's central aims was to improve access and flexibility, and to create new space that would allow an offsite facility to be closed. Elliott Wood began by conducting an initial assessment of the existing buildings and their suitability for reuse, which revealed a complex picture of individually well-built buildings with floors at widely differing levels, making unified access impossible. Our solution was to retain them as brickwork shells, with new steel frames inserted. The Queen Charlotte Hall auditorium, considered too big for RACC’s needs, was reimagined within its retained shell as a studio theatre accompanied by classrooms and breakout spaces. The new complex is more spatially efficient, with improved settings for existing buildings and reorganised ‘curriculum hubs’ which allow departments with similar needs to share facilities.

The celebrated redevelopment laid the groundwork for the 2017 merger that would establish Richmond and Hillcroft Adult Community College. The state-of-the-art facilities Elliott Wood helped create at RACC now support the new college’s mission of “empowering adults and communities through education, skills and enterprise,” regardless of age, ability or background.