New photographs have recently emerged documenting a little known aspect of the AA’s history -the Practical Training Yard established in 1946. During the Second World War a set of buildings on Tottenham Court Road, backing onto Morwell Street (and the rear of the AA), were severely bomb-damaged. At the end of the war, facing a huge growth in student numbers, as returning service men and women applied to resume their studies, the AA took over this bomb site and erected a prefabricated Nissan Hut and two temporary annexes, to serve as overflow studios. In addition, a Practical Training Yard was created… A site where 1st, 2nd and 3rd year students were given hands-on experience of construction methods and materials – each year building between them, a full-scale structure, from foundations to roof tiling…
As reported in the AA Journal of Aug/Sept, 1946 – the first iteration of the scheme meant that “the brickwork, carpentry in roofs and floors, and timber framing was carried out by the First Year. Masonry and other walling, breeze and terracotta partitions, and roof coverings was the work of the Second Year, while the Third Year was responsible for reinforced concrete and shuttering, asphalting, floor finishes, wall and floor tiling, rendering and plastering.”
