La historia de la Escuela de Artediez

The School at Pacífico Street

The tenth section located at number 25 of the former Pacífico Street had to face problems arising from the inadequacy of its facilities right from the beginning. Its location is recorded in annual reports made public at the end of each course; and for the 1919-20 course, the director, Vicente García Cabrera said: “We must state with natural satisfaction that the tenth section, the one with the worst conditions for its small capacity and low hygienic conditions, has had renovations executed by the owner that have significantly improved their capacity and conditions, in hygiene, appearance and decency ”

Deficiency of the premises was a feature of several of the Madrid sections. As underlined in 1923 by the director of the School of Madrid in his speech of submission of the annual report, “in sections installed in rented premises, we have not yet managed to start the plan proposed years ago and approved by the superiority to be replacing these sections, all of which without exception installed in expensive and small premises inadequate for their destined purpose, for other property of the State, newly built, with the necessary conditions of spaciousness and decency where we could host the many students that we are now forced to reject or poorly install by the absolute lack of space. ”

The growing interest in the teachings taught at the section opened at Pacific Street led, in November 1926, the Ministry of Education to purchase the building that already occupied and to carry out a series of renovations to do it more suited to its educational purposes. Thus, in the corresponding report of the course 1926-27 it is explained that “finally, in the tenth section located at Pacific Street, acquired by the State last year, some works of adaptation and renovation have begun, which will allow to over double the number of available positions during the next year and to improve considerably the hygiene and decorum of the building, giving this section all the importance that its location in an already crowded neighbourhood with predominantly working population requires.” However these improvement works were not as fast as the situation required and the following year the school management found that “part of the work planned for expansion and improvement has been executed, not all we would have liked, but enough to double the capacity in the classrooms for Artistic and Linear Drawing, and to improve in all of them the light conditions, ventilation and hygiene. Currently they are carrying out the works to replace the ladder, paltry and dark, with one more open and airy and better prepared. Next year, if we receive the requested allocation, we will also finish the arrangement of this section, which has to be, by its location in a densely populated and highly industrial area, one of the most popular and important. ”

Such reforms allowed, thereafter, counting on a suitable building for teaching. It consisted of two floors and a tower at the corner formed today by the avenues Menendez Pelayo and the Ciudad de Barcelona, and although it was much more spacious than previous premises, its dimension was much smaller than the current building. The works housed inside a large yard providing good lighting to all classrooms.