News that Randal Cremer School (RC) is to close next year
(2024) has been received with much sadness by those of us who had a good time
in those iconic Victorian buildings.
Hackney Council are closing two schools and merging four others. Although the Borough (or parts of it at
least) is a popular location for young single people and couples it seems that
they go elsewhere when they want to have children. School funding is almost entirely dependent
on numbers so the options open to a cash poor local authority are limited. Randal Cremer is currently classed as a ‘good’
school by OFSTED so it seems a particular shame that it should be lost to the
people of Hackney.
At least seven members of our extended family were pupils at
RC, from the 1930s through to the 1960s. We all went on to different schools and places
of education, but RC was our first experience of formal teaching. I left the school to finish my primary
education in Tottenham when we moved out of the Marquis of Lansdowne. It was only then I realised that RC was
actually quite a good school – at least compared to what was on offer further
north. It helped that we were ‘known’ at
RC. As the youngest I would hear
teachers speak of the time spent at the school by older members of the
family. They had quite a lot to say
about Fred as I recall!
When it first opened the school was known as Shap Street. The street itself (which ran to the east of the school buildings) no longer exists.
Until the passing of the Education Schools Act 1870 provision
for the education of children was pretty haphazard. In any given location there might be a number
of Sunday schools, ragged schools or ‘national schools’. The reforming zeal of the Victorians turned
its attention to education when it was realised that a modern workforce needed
to be literate. The 1870 Act created
School Boards for the whole of England and Wales. In London the task of creating schools for
thousands of children was a huge one.
The School Board for London (also known as the London School Board - LSB)
wasted no time. By 1874 it had opened 65
schools (with nearly 62,000 pupils) with work underway on another 35 schools (26,736
pupils) with yet another 34 schools in the pipeline. Shap Street School was one of the ‘35’. (1) Built to a contract price of £7,980, plans for
its extension were being prepared before the school opened. Houses and businesses were demolished to make space for the school but the general view seems to have been that they were no great loss to the area. The adjacent railway between Broad Street and Dalston had been opened in 1865.
The scale of the work undertaken by the LSB would be intimidating
to any modern local authority. It was an
elected body with women able to vote and stand for positions on the same terms
as men. The LSB covered the area of what
we now think of as inner London. By the
1880s it was providing school places for 350,00 children. (2)
LSB schools were constructed to a high standard and followed
the distinctive designs of the architect to the Board: Edward Robert
Robson. Many of the buildings are still
standing and some are still used as schools.
For modern property investors they are tempting sites for redevelopment
into ‘luxury apartments’ (the concept of the ‘flat’ seems to have been
consigned to history).
There was one element of the construction that caused
concern at Shap Street and other LSB schools.
Sanitation. Whether this was an
issue of design or, more likely, of the execution of the design by
sub-contractors, is not 100% clear. The
problem cropped up at meetings of the LSB on a regular basis and in 1904 the
Shoreditch Vestry took legal action against the LSB to ensure that ‘trough’
flushing was replaced by ‘closet’ flushing at Shap Street.
I recall the toilets in the playground being far from perfect.
There is no doubt that Sharp Street was well built. It was extended in the Edwardian period to
create an industrial school. That extension
was at the back and was built on arches to maintain the playground space. I remember the upper space being used as the
school canteen which, during my time, served revolting food that had been
cooked elsewhere and delivered in metal coffins. I remain traumatised by being force fed pease
pudding, or rather a slurry like imitation of the dish, in that extension. I digress – others may have had a positive
experience of catering at the school.
The extension at the back of the school with the lower arched areas now filled in. Behind this building were houses which have now been demolished to create an additional playground (Pic Dec 2023)
Shap Street was in a very poor area. Further along the road there was a permanent
soup kitchen and the local ‘mission school’ (which held Sunday/RE classes in
the school buildings) regularly advertised for funds to take local children to
Epping Forest so that they could see the countryside (3).
The school buildings were divided into three sections for
Infants, Boys and Girls. The signs for each
were built into the brickwork and can still be seen. Each section operated independently of each
other, although there was some co-operation, for example when classrooms were
out of use for fittings to be completed.
During a recent visit to the London Municipal Archives I could not
resist the temptation of reading some of the entries in the Log Book for the
first year of operation of the Boys School.
It made compulsive reading and provides a rich resource for anybody
wishing to learn about the early days of elementary education. The first headteacher was Mr Thomas
Webling(?) His entry for 20 August 1875
includes:
“Open
school. Admitted 217 boys…divided them
into three sections”
The division was based on rough examinations. Many of the pupils had little experience of
education or school. He was assisted by
2 other staff and 2 pupil teachers. He
commented:
“This is
totally inadequate to the number and classification……” (4)
Pupil teachers were trained at the school and this was to
take up much of his time. A week later (27
Aug 1875) some additional staff were appointed and more pupils were
enrolled. They were visited by senior
members of the LSB in the same week. The
Headmaster obviously intended to list the names of the visitors as he left a
gap in the text that remains blank.
Throughout the entries in the early months it is clear that setting up a
school was not an easy task. Things were
made more difficult by the fact that so many schools were opening and that
there was a huge shortage of teachers and no culture of regular school
attendance.
Pupil numbers continued to increase but at the beginning of
the second term there were seven teachers.
The pupil teachers struggled to keep order and had themselves to follow
an intensive course of study. One of the pupil teachers really struggled and is
the subject of many comments in the Log Book.
He received considerable additional support over a long period – but his
colleagues wanted him to succeed. A
crisis arose in November 1875 when a member of staff contracted scarlet fever
and was put on sick leave. Unfortunately
he shared his lodgings with other teachers who also had to be kept away from
the school. Throughout the early period
the large ‘halls’ were used as classrooms.
Complaints were received in March 1876 about the use of
blackboard pointers by pupil teachers to maintain discipline. A number of children sustained bruises in the
distinctive shape of the pointed end of these devices. Nobody questioned the need for corporal
punishment but its use was carefully monitored by the headmaster and school
managers. In an unusual case in 1884 the attention of the LSB was drawn to a former
pupil who had been admitted to St Leonards Hospital suffering from ‘an unsound
mind’ caused by either over work or excessive use of corporal punishment. There was no evidence that the boy had been 'struck on the head' but a pupil teacher was dismissed for administering corporal
punishment contrary to the regulations of the Board. (5)
The 1870 Act did not make attendance at school
compulsory. It took several years for
this oversight to be corrected and in the meantime the LSB tackled the problem
directly by introducing a Bye-Law in London to make parents send their children
to school. The LSB developed a policy
that schools would not use corporal punishment for truancy as it was the responsibility
of parents to get their offspring through the school gates. This approach did not last long and had
unintended consequences. On 20th
July 1876 the Head records that a mother brought her son to see him requesting
that he be punished for failing to attend school. It was explained to her that ensuring
attendance was a family matter. The next
day the boy was again brought him to school and the Headmaster was shown the
effects of punishment administered at home.
His back …”was covered in bruises from top to bottom, a ghastly sight” (6) Corporal remained an option at the school
until the 1970s and in the 1960s I recall a teacher who had his own version of
a cat o’ nine tails.
In the mid 1880s a new Head, Mr J.S. Gilbert, was
appointed. He was a successful and
popular head and was able to develop the school into an institution fit for the
twentieth century. In 1906 he started an
Old Boys Association which was very active in the years leading up to the Great
War. In the same year he died tragically,
together with his two sons, in a bathing accident on the Thames at Medmenham. He had been Head for 22 years and was
celebrating his Silver Wedding anniversary at the time of his death. A special memorial service was held at St
Mary’s Church Haggerston. (7).
The school changed its name to Randal Cremer in memory of
the local MP who died in 1908. Sir
William Randal Cremer was a Liberal MP who was an active trades unionist and peace
campaigner. He won the Nobel Prize for
Peace in 1903. In 1902 he attended the coronation
celebrations held at the school. The
occasion saw 550 people sit down (in two ‘companies’) in the playground for
tea. (8)
Hopefully somebody will write (or maybe somebody already
has) a proper history of a fine school. There is plenty of material available.
The collective efforts of generations of teachers, other staff and
pupils is surely worth remembering.
History must extend beyond our own limited memories because the latter
will quickly fade. I am grateful to the
staff I remember: Miss Humphries, Miss
Giuseppe, Miss Morris, Miss Ambler(?) Mrs Shaw and Mr Ashmore. I am
sure that others can add many more names to the list. The
disruption and uncertainty caused by closure will mean that this is a difficult
time for staff, parents and pupils. I
wish them well.
All corrections and comments welcome.
Philip Trendall
December 2023
(1)
Building
News 09 October 1874, P447
(2)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_School_Board citing The Morning Post 4 Nov 1885, p5
(3)
See for example the Hackney and Kingsland Gazette
18 Jun 1883, p3
(4)
Log Book Shap Street School. (1875).
London School Board/London County Council (LCC/EO/DIV04), London Municipal
Archives, London.
(5)
Hackney and Kingsland Gazette, 26 May 1884, p3
(6)
Log Book, op cit, 20 Jul 1876.
(7)
Lloyds Weekly Newspaper 05 Aug 1906 p1 and Gen Reg Office, Death 1906
Sep Henley 03A 557 (“drowned in attempting to rescue his son”)
(8)
Hackney and Kingsland Gazette 12 Jul
1902 p3
.JPG)
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