A new Day House for St John’s Independent School in Leatherhead, Surrey. The building is one of a number of projects Skelly & Couch have worked on for the school as part of its delivery of a five-year masterplan for the campus. It was delivered along with the conversion and refurbishment of an existing historic stable building into a 6^th Form Centre under a phased construction programme. 

The project is a new-build teaching block for Ryde School on the Isle of Wight. The new build incorporates ADT workshops, arts studios, a visitor reception and new kitchen and dining facilities for the school. It also relieves congestion and improves the entrance to the school by providing a car-free courtyard.

Hatcham Temple Grove Free School is an exciting, new, non-selective, bilingual (English/German) primary school for 420 pupils with an additional 55 nursery places, within the Haberdashers' Aske's Federation. The project involved the reinstatement, refurbishment and extension of the school following a fire which badly damaged the original Victorian building in 2010.

The Royal Greenwich University Technical College is a co-educational college for 600 14-18 year-olds. The UTC specialises in engineering and construction, with a particular focus on transport and sustainable technology, equipping students with vital technical skills that lead to apprenticeships, higher education or employment. 

The Arts Centre at the Lady Eleanor Holles School won a 2014 RIBA London award. The project was to build a new music and art department, a new 350-seat purpose-built theatre and some new teaching accommodation for a leading independent girls’ school in London.

New spaces for four million objects.

Refurbishment and extension of the grade II-listed building in Dorchester's urban conservation area to create a ‘Collections Discovery Centre'. Basement archives rely on innovative passive climate control, while gallery spaces and workrooms use HVAC systems for controlled conditions.

The development created new facilities for display, education, research, and storage at the Museum, expanding opportunities for audiences to explore collections and stories while improving access, research potential, and public engagement. It also supports the local economy, tourism, and museum collecting capacity across Dorset.

The Museum holds around 4 million objects spanning Natural History, Geology, Archaeology, Social History, Costumes and Textiles, Photography, Literature, Fine Art, and Decorative Arts. Among its significant collections are the renowned UNESCO Jurassic Coast geology collection and a Thomas Hardy Archive listed on the UNESCO Memory of the World register. The Museum also features an extensive library, archive, and a dynamic temporary exhibitions programme in collaboration with national and regional partners.

The basement archives employ passive measures to maintain optimal preservation conditions. A highly insulated fabric minimises heat transfer, while high thermal mass materials stabilise temperature fluctuations. Hygroscopic materials regulate humidity, reducing reliance on mechanical systems. Where possible, natural ventilation enhances airflow, further optimising energy efficiency.
Gallery spaces and workrooms benefit from stable temperature and humidity through tailored HVAC systems, with full air conditioning in areas requiring even greater climate control.

Skelly & Couch collaborated with the Museum from the outset to develop an environmental control strategy balancing artefact preservation and operational efficiency. Their approach integrates recent research supporting stable conditions with minimal seasonal variation, mitigating extreme fluctuations to optimise conservation and climate control.
The development enhances public access to the Museum’s collections, deepens research opportunities, and supports the community, and enriches its the cultural and educational experience.

Photographs courtesy of Dorset Museum & Art Gallery ©

Skelly & Couch is committed to conducting our business in an environmentally responsible manner. We are committed to complying with and seek to exceed the requirements of relevant legislation associated with activities within our practice. We continually look for ways to improve our environmental performance and attained ISO 14001 certification for environmental management systems in June 2014. All employees are kept informed of our methods and encouraged to look for ecologically sustainable solutions where applicable.

Current examples include:

• Use of bicycles to and from work-place, and meetings where practical (Skelly & Couch won the Transport for London – Workplace Cycle Challenge 2008 in the category of small organisation)
• Recycling of packaging materials, and other office waste
• Efficient use of water and energy including using a “green” electricity supplier
• Purchase of recycled or fair-trade products where possible
• Use of electronic means of distributing project documentation

Skelly & Couch encourage similar standards from the suppliers, contractors, consultants and clients with whom we work.

Skelly & Couch Ltd is committed to the principle of equal opportunity in employment. We seek to ensure that no applicant, employee or member of the partnership receives unfavourable treatment on the grounds of gender, marital status, race, colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin, religion, disability, sexuality or age. We apply employment policies which are fair and equitable and which ensure that entry into, and progression within Skelly & Couch Ltd is determined solely by application of job criteria, and personal ability and competence.

As an employer we fully accept the statutory requirements of the Sex Discrimination Act 1975, The Disability Discrimination Act 1995, the Race Relations Act 1976 and The Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006. As far as possible, we will observe the Commission for Racial Equality's Code of Practice for Employment, as approved by Parliament in 1983. We will continually engage in reviewing and improving our monitoring processes.