Go Ahead For Putney Art School Plan

Work to start next year providing space for an extra 1000 pupils

Putney School of Art and Design will now press ahead with ambitious expansion plans after winning planning approval for a rooftop extension to its Disraeli Road building.

The planning applications committee gave the go ahead to the changes which will provide space for an art studio and students café with new lift access.

The £800,000 refurbishment is backed by funding from the Learning and Skills Council, Wandsworth Council and the Friends of Putney School of Art.

Work will start in the new year and is expected to last nine months. The additional space will provide room for up to 1,000 new student enrolments over a full year.

Other facilities include a digital media suite, painting studio and seminar room which will be used for art history courses as well as offering facilities for film.

Planning applications chairman Leslie McDonnell said:"The extension will provide much-needed extra space for new college facilities. It will have a lightweight appearance which should sit well with the existing building.Together with the new Royal College of Art building in Battersea which the committee also approved at the same meeting, it shows how the borough is becoming an exciting hub for creative industries."

You can view the planning application at www.wandsworth.gov.uk/planning reference 2008/2716

January 5, 2009