Sunday 10 April 2011

More on Walworth School/ Mina Road

First, as I've mentioned before, there’s a website about some research about the history of three London schools (1945-65) of which Walworth or Mina Road is one. It gives you an email to contact if you want to know more or have stuff to tell us; or you can email walworthresearch@me.com.

Also, if you look down the right hand side of this screen, some way down there’s a long list of ‘labels’. These are links to other postings on my blog. Try clicking on Walworth and Mina Road.

Now, here’s a question for those of you who remember the main old building, used as the upper school -- the one nearest the Old Kent Road.

Here’s a picture of it from 1905, from the brochure for the opening of the other building (the only one that’s still there).


At that date this building was what would now be called a primary school -- infants, boys and girls (with a wall to separate them in the playground). The new building was called a Higher Grade or HIgher Elementary school, and was what we’d call a secondary school for children of 11, 12 and 13: Mina Road Higher Grade School.

We want to know more about the older building, demolished in the early 1960s. It looks as if it has only two real storeys, ground and first, with perhaps a hall on each floor (those big windows). The second floor looks much lower, with dormer windows. So what went on up there?

And how many classrooms do you remember on each floor? and who taught in each, if you can really stretch your memory? We think the middle hall became the library -- is that right?

Here to help you is a much later shot of the same building, taken from the Mina Road side. Here it looks like three main storeys, not two, with five classrooms on each floor, but it would be nice to be sure.

photo

There may, of course, have been major alterations since 1905.



3 comments:

Unknown said...

I remember the two-storey lower school as having a main hall on the ground floor and another above it on the first, or top, floor. As you went in on the ground floor, there was a stage on the right and three classrooms off the Mina Road side, one to the left. There were five classrooms around the hall on the first floor, three onto the Mina Road side, one over the stage, and one to the left. The ground floor hall was ued for Lower School morning assemblies, the staff up on the stage. The first floor hall was where we had music lessons. There was a piano. I can't remember its being used for much more. Wasn't there nother building to the left, with a large art room where Miss Farrow (?) taught art?
Roy Boardman (at Walworth 1948 - 1953)

Pete Medway said...

Testing -- I posted a response to Roy but it didn't appear -- just want to see if this one does.

Pete Medway said...

OK, appears my reply to Roy got lost. Here's what I wrote: That's a good start for us, Roy. But was the first floor the top? The picture taken from Mina Road seems to show three storeys. I recall a building, one storey I think, at the far end of the playground (ie nearest Walworth Road), with an art room and perhaps a housecraft room. Perhaps others can help us here.