Take a look inside Preston's famous 1970s 'bubble classroom' at Kennington Primary School in Fulwood

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Join us for a look inside the ‘bubble’ - the UK’s first fully plastic building, which is still in use today...

The ‘bubble’ classroom at Kennington Primary School in Fulwood was designed in the early 1970s by Lancashire County Council architects, who used early computer aided design (CAD) to produce the complex geometrical designs.

Next week, the public are invited to visit the landmark building as part of Preston’s Heritage Open Days - see details below.

Lancashire Post photographer Michelle Adamson visited the ‘bubble’ this week and enjoyed a sneak peek inside the grade II listed classroom with headteacher Simon Pritchard.

He told Michelle: “Our plastic classroom, which we affectionately call 'the bubble', was originally built between 1973 and 1974. It’s always been our reception classroom.

“It was a prototype and the local authority wanted to dabble in plastic buildings and the head teacher at the time wanted an extension, so the two got together as a collaboration and built it on site.

“The idea was they wanted to build entire schools out of these structures. Unfortunately, war in the Middle East happened and the price of oil shot up and so the project was mothballed. So this is the only one in the entire world, I think!

“We think the building had an expected lifespan of about 40 years, so it's well past that now. The building has started to disintegrate, there's a lot of cracks, we get water ingress and some mould in there.

“We have tried to do some retro fitting, but it's really difficult because of the building materials and it being such a specialist project and a grade II listed building.

“So we all started to get a little bit worried about how long it's going to last without specialist attention. It would be great if we could find a way of keeping it alive, because it is part of the community.

“We know people in the community are proud of it and it does get a lot of interest, so it would be good to keep it alive, but it does need to be brought into the 21st century now.”

Simon added: “We're welcoming members of the community to come and have a look around it as part of Preston's Heritage Open Days.

“We get lots and lots of different people from all over the country, past pupils, people interested in architecture - It's a great day. So come along, if you want to have a look at our historic bubble!”

The event is free and booking is not required.

You can visit on Saturday, September 19 between 10am-12pm at Kennington Primary School, Fulwood, PR2 8ERF.

For more information see Preston Heritage Open Days website.

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