The Chronicle, Summer 2019

5 ST EDWARD’S CHRONICLE

Rock on the Roof ‘Topping out’ the Quad Development By Sixth Former Alicia Bouaziz

In June, as many pupils and staff as the site team could accommodate were invited up to the top floor of what will become the new Library to see the facilities taking shape. It is usual to mark reaching the highest point of a new building with a ‘topping out’ ceremony. Often these occasions feature the laying of a brick or similar but given the range of creative talent available in School, it was decided to give the event a Teddies twist – and so Rock on the Roof was born. The Catering Department provided delicious canapés and rock shandies (keeping the theme going…) to make the event a special one. It was fascinating to see how much progress had been made and it was wonderful

The ‘rock’ came in the shape of a guest appearance by popular pupil band, the Sofa Heads, featuring Oscar Ross on vocals and Joel Lytton Cobbold on guitar. Their soulful, expressive performance of two songs they had composed themselves, Walk and Talk and Countryhousecatman , brought originality to

the occasion and the music was a fitting prelude to the Warden’s talk about the building’s future. He explained that we were standing in the middle of what would become the elegant Reading Room, looking down on the emerging first floor of the Library where pupils would be able to share ideas and study together. Matthew Albrighton, Deputy Head Academic, spoke next praising the ‘wonderful teamwork’ that it had taken to reach this point. When I interviewed the head architect, Nick Hardy from TSH Architects, I asked him what was behind the design of the Development as a whole. He explained that the Library and Reading Room had been inspired by the libraries of Oxford University and that the oval shape of the Hall was intended to represent the inclusiveness of the Teddies community.

to be able to appreciate the structure of the buildings from the inside.