Project Crucible

Project Crucible is the next major development in Alleyn’s history, a transformational building project that brings together new dining, teaching, co-curricular and community facilities. It will replace the current dining hall and create modern, sustainable, and flexible spaces to support both the school and its community partnerships. 

Several existing buildings on the Townley Road campus are no longer fit for purpose. The dining hall and supporting infrastructure and environment are outdated and lack the capacity and flexibility required for our future-focused school community (having been built in 1964). Project Crucible will modernise these facilities, create a more sustainable school site, and ensure that learning, wellbeing, and community connection remain at the heart of school life for the next generation. 

No. Works will take place in usual hours for construction buildings (8am – 6pm on weekdays). These are time periods set by the Local Authority for construction works.

Hillsboro Road will not be closed during construction, so nothing will change. However, there may be times when we need to restrict access for short periods for major deliveries.

After Project Crucible is complete, the Buttery building will become a dedicated Sixth Form Centre and home to the “AlL Ways” department for careers and enterprise education. The library will move into the Great Hall, creating a central, inspiring study space at the heart of the school site. 

The new arrangement will split dining between younger and older pupils, reducing queues and overcrowding. We will offer a food-court style experience with healthy, diverse options. We will use technology to help speed up queuing and allow greater visibility for parents on what children are consuming. The design provides age-appropriate dining environments and better circulation of pupils around the school site.

The school has secured a loan to cover the cost for the building, and we will shortly be also launching a fundraising campaign which will give the whole community the opportunity to contribute. We’ve worked really hard to structure the costs of this project so that it is affordable to us and makes the school sustainable in the long term, in line with our strategic plan.  One of the many reasons why we chose the architects was their ability to deliver beautiful projects on a budget, indeed they recently won the Stirling Prize for their design of a state school.

Once our temporary dining spaces are ready, the current dining hall will be demolished to make space for the Crucible building. Every effort will be made to minimise noise and disruption during this stage, with building work scheduled outside of important school and examination periods. 

By the end of 2028, Alleyn’s will have a new, sustainable Crucible building with dining, teaching, and performance spaces; a refurbished and redesigned Buttery building; a reimagined library and sixth form centre; and a more connected, accessible, and environmentally responsible school site ready for the next century of learning. 

Regular updates will be posted on the Alleyn’s website, in community newsletters, school bulletins and newsletters, and through public engagement sessions. The school is committed to open communication throughout all phases of design and construction. 

The building project is designed to support the current number of pupils, updating some of our most out of date teaching and dining areas as well as creating some extra teaching space to alleviate pressure on the timetable.

Most of the Alleyn’s campus is within the Metropolitan Open Land (London’s Green Belt) and is very difficult to develop. We are proposing the replacement of an old, existing building on our school site rather than encroaching on undeveloped land, and because of the Metropolitan Open Land and the neighbouring conservation area, this is the optimal location for the Crucible building.

The building is three storeys at its highest point but has been developed in a way so that it steps back from Hillsboro Road. Whilst the proposed building is taller than the current dining room, it fits in terms of height and style with the existing buildings on the school site, and we feel the design fits in with the architecture of the local area. Close attention has been paid to every angle to ensure we take our neighbours into consideration whilst also making sure we develop a building which meets our needs.

Across several carefully planned phases over the coming two years from Summer 2026 we will: 

• Install new catering facilities on our Upper Quad, in two purposely adapted shipping containers to provide modern, flexible food service space for pupils and staff and a seating area. 
• Refurbish our “New Gym” (part of our swimming pool building) into a temporary dining hall for the whole school (this will become a permanent facility that accommodates both dining and sports for the Junior, Lower Schools and co-curricular activities after the project completes), including a satellite kitchen space in an existing storeroom.
• Create temporary kitchen facilities in the Junior School Car Park to support our catering operation during the build process, and a temporary marquee by our pavilion for our staff dining.
• Demolition of the existing current 1960s dining hall, to be replaced by a new building called The Crucible.
• Refurbish “The Buttery”, to become the new Sixth Form and Careers Centre.  
• Move our Library from the top floor of The Buttery building to our current Great Hall.

If planning is approved, the project begins in summer 2026 and will take around two years to complete, with the new Crucible building opening in autumn 2028. Early enabling works begin in Easter 2026, with the first stage including the installation of a box park style ‘Ned’s Kitchen’ in the quad and the second stage including the conversion of the New Gym into a space that can be used for both dining and PE in Summer 2026. 

We have planned the project really carefully so that teaching and dining can continue with as little disruption as possible. Our box park-style 'Ned’s Kitchen' will  be a place for ‘express dining’ and sixth formers can continue to dine in the Edward Alleyn Building and The Buttery. The New Gym will serve as a dining hall for all other pupils, using foldaway “VersaTables” so that the space can be switch quickly between lunch and sports. Temporary kitchens in the Junior School Car Park and a temporary staff marquee near the Pavilion will also be put in place. Our academic and co-curricular timetables will continue as normal.

It's really important to us that we limit extra traffic as much as possible. We will carefully control when and how construction vehicles come to our site to limit disruption during peak school hours. We will share these traffic plans with residents during the planning process and keep them updated regularly throughout each phase of the build. 

The Junior School Car Park will be out of use for a short period during construction, as this area will accommodate the temporary kitchen facilities needed to support the project. We will move the school minibuses and help the small number of staff who use that space to find alternative parking and transportation. 

As a school we are very committed to sustainability, and it is central to Crucible’s design. The building will have an Energy and Data Centre on the ground floor to support renewable energy use and our ambition to become net zero in the future; efficient systems to reduce energy consumption and carbon output; reduced food waste through pre-ordering technology and smart kitchen systems (we’ll be moving away from gas stoves to induction hobs); use of recycled and low-carbon materials in construction; and expansion of green spaces and biodiversity around the site where possible. 

We’re also taking a sustainable approach to the demolition of the current Dining Hall where possible, seeking to recycle elements of the current building to lower our environmental impact.  

No, the arts, sport and all our other co-curricular activities will continue throughout the building work. The Old Gym will remain a dedicated dance and drama space. During construction, the New Gym will host  dining for pupils but return to full sports use outside of lunch hours. Once the Crucible building opens, this New Gym will continue to be used for dining by our junior school and lower school pupils, reducing queues and allow us to introduce age appropriate dining environments.