Carla McKenzie, Managing Director, MYA Consulting Ltd
The refectory, canteen, cafeteria—call it what you will—is often the beating heart of a school. With that in mind, MYA embarked on a radical redesign of the catering facilities for both the City of London Boys and Girls Schools.
The project involved creating two brand-new kitchens and dining rooms—a dream brief for the MYA creative team. The girls’ school is set within the brutalist masterpiece of Geoffrey Powell, Christoph Bon, and Peter ‘Joe’ Chamberlin’s Barbican, while the boys’ school sits in a 1980s building in the shadow of St Paul’s Cathedral on the north bank of the River Thames.
Each school came with its own challenges. The boys’ school urgently needed a kitchen upgrade, along with a crucial redesign to separate incoming and outgoing traffic. Additionally, a high-calorie grab-and-go café was introduced to cater for students engaged in lunchtime sports activities.
The girls’ school had already undergone several design iterations to relocate its dining room. However, with a fresh approach, the MYA creative team incorporated a new covered queuing system, a remote dishwasher, and a state-of-the-art kitchen and serving area. As a result, the dining space evolved into a relaxed social hub, now complete with an impressive new coffee shop.
To ensure operational efficiency, the MYA data team developed footfall prediction models tailored to each dining space. This allowed the design team to test and refine the operating model before the build phase commenced.
At the heart of any great restaurant is quality food. Working closely with the school’s catering operator, new specifications were developed to accommodate the different energy needs of boys and girls, as well as their varied tastes. These changes were designed in alignment with the fact that students have access to London’s finest food offerings right on their doorstep.
The projects were overseen by MYA in collaboration with the City Surveyor’s Department, ensuring that design guardianship was upheld throughout. Crucially, both schools’ stakeholders were actively involved, shaping and guiding the design process.
The result? Each dining space remains unique, tailored to the specific needs of its students. We are immensely proud of these two prestigious projects.
Of the projects, John Hall, Chief Operating Officer for both the boys’ and the girls’ school said the following:
“MYA were our trusted partner in transforming the dining experience at our schools. They blended support for optimising the operation with design experience to make us fit for the future. The end results have positively transformed the dining experience at our schools.”
Contact us today to discuss your next exciting project.