Locations and Buildings
The school currently is located on Shepherds Lane, Dartford at the top of West Hill, having moved since lessons were initially given in the high street above the Corn Market house, which was demolished in 1769. The school moved to its present location in 1864. The original school house (facing Dartford Road) is now referred to as the Hardy Building, named after the novelist Thomas Hardy who was an assistant architect to Arthur Blomfield, the main architect who designed the building. The original field is now used to house the building additions, which started with the Science block in 1928 (now named the Stephenson building after the late head of Science Dr Brian Stephenson), followed by most of the remaining buildings in 1940. The three-floored classroom building is named after Major Harold Pochin, Headmaster from 1920 to 1946.
Other buildings include the Gwyn building, named after Edward Gwyn, one of the school founders, containing technology and business teaching rooms, as well as the Kaika (Sixth Form) centre, where in 2008, 5 new teaching rooms were opened, mainly for sixth form use, named the 'John Field Suite' after the late chair of the governors, John Field. The Beckets Sports centre is shared with the public in agreement with the school, in the same way as The Mick Jagger Centre, a £2.2 million development financed with National Lottery funding by the Arts Council of England. The Mick Jagger Centre was opened in March 2000 by The Duke of Kent, hosts a number of performing arts events. From Summer 09 to Spring 10, the Mick Jagger Centre and part of the Pochin and Stephenson blocks went under a major redevelopment, which provided a brand new drama studio, a new science lab, a food technology lab, a new staff room, new art rooms and classrooms.
The Keyes Building, named after the aforementioned Sidney Keyes contains many classrooms and also the large Learning Resources Centre (School Library). The current school field is located next to Dartford Technology College, where the pavilion was extended and refurbished in 2008, and dedicated to Arthur Jones, a previous student of the school.
Read more about this topic: Dartford Grammar School
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