Reading Blue Coat School, Reading

Reading Blue Coat School, an independent day school for boys founded in 1646, moved to the magnificent Holme Park estate in Sonning-on-Thames, Berkshire in 1947. Over the last 15 years the school have invested heavily in their facilities and now boast a portfolio that is the envy of many similar establishment.

One aspect remained that concerned Jesse Elzinga, the school’s Head Teacher: “We’re worried about transport and traffic in the local area, we want to reduce our carbon footprint as a school. We have a number of staff and pupils who cycle to school every day and our bike shed in recent years was a bit tired and had not been upgraded in line with other buildings and facilities on the school site.”

Having already commissioned Streetspace for various projects around the school site including several attractive glass over-door canopies, the school approached us for a solution. We provided a complete package including the removal of the existing cycle shelters, resurfacing of the area, installation of drainage, a Triton Maxx 6.5m x 6.0m polycarbonate roof canopy and stainless steel Sheffield-style cycle stands.

The new cycle shelter provides cover for up to 48 bicycles and the Head Teacher is extremely satisfied with the project’s outcome: “I’m delighted that in the past year we could update this to a really smart site. Now we have a purpose-built bike shed which keeps pupils and staff bikes out of the rain. It has good drainage and also plenty of space. We even have dedicated staff parking spaces in the bike rack!”