On this page you'll find all there is to know about the history of Sloane, its buildings, its environs, the people who influenced its development, and some of the things that came into existence because of them.
SLOANE SCHOOL was formed out of the ashes of the South Western Polytechnic Day School for Boys, opened in Manresa Road, Chelsea, in 1895, on the site of the South Western Polytechnic Institute for adult education. This had been founded in 1891, in a building that had been designed by J.M. Brydon, with the principal aim of providing education for the poorer inhabitants of London above the age of fifteen. In 1898 'Institute' was dropped from the name and by 1908-9 the South-Western Polytechnic consisted of a Day College for Men, Day College for Women, School of Art, schools for boys and girls, and evening classes in a range of subjects. The first boy to enrol at the Day School was A.J. Stroughton.
c1900 South-Western Polytechnic at Manresa Road, Chelsea
The emphasis at the Institute had been on instruction in handicraft, trade and business. As was common in colleges of this period, the South-Western additionally provided a Day School for Boys and Girls, between the ages of 13 and 15, at which practical education and training was provided; concentrating on workshops, manufacturing, building trades and commerce for male students, whilst the girls received instruction in domestic subjects, such as cookery, laundry and needlework. All students also received physical training in the old Institute's gymnasiums, and there was also a successful cycling club, The Manresa Cycling Club. The Pre-Raphaelite artist Holman Hunt, also had a studio in the same road.
c1895 South-Western Polytechnic Day School for Boys with E H Pritchard far right second row down
In 1922 the South-Western Polytechnic evolved into Chelsea Polytechnic and, as the front page of their 1929 magazine, below, shows, they also adopted the Cadogan family crest. The magazine cover next to it is from the 1908 copy of TheRecord, the magazine of the South-Western Polytechnic. Click on the link below the covers and you'll be able to read what The Record had to offer.
The London County Council intended moving the Polytechnic to Hortensia Road, on the site formerly occupied by Harry Veitch's Royal Exotic Nurseries, Hortensia Road having been created in 1903 and named after 'hortensia', a lesser-known name for the hydrangea, a flower that had been one of the nursery mainstays. Originally known as Knight's Exotic Nursery when founded in 1808 by Joseph Knight and John Perry, it was located between Fulham Road and Kings Road, Gunter Grove, and what was to become Hortensia Road.
The Royal Exotic Nursery on a map of Chelsea 1872 on the site of Sloane School
It was sold to John Veitch in 1853 and became a business that was developed into a highly fashionable Victorian garden centre, with floorwalkers wearing frock coats and top hats.
Sir Harry Veitch (1840-1924)
Knight's Exotic Nursery in the Kings Road on which site Sloane was built
1873-4 Plant catalogue for James Veitch & Son's Nursery
The Polytechnic Day Schools for Boys and Girls had become oversubscribed and, with the 1902 Education Act having made secondary education compulsory, plans were made, in 1906, to build a secondary school for use by 510 girls on the site in Hortensia Road, acquired by the LCC a year earlier from Harry Veitch who had no heir to the Chelsea site. (Harry was to be knighted in 1912 following his dedication to establishing the Chelsea Flower Show). However, it wasn't until November, 1908 that the school was opened and occupied only by the girls from the South Western Polytechnic, having been built to the Edwardian Baroque design of T.J.Bailey, the LCC Education Committee's chief architect. The four storey building we know as Sloane, but which was originally known as The County Secondary School and was renamed the Carlyle School for Girls in 1914, became the first purpose-built secondary school in London. The onset of war in 1914 led to the building being used as a hospital as part of the changes that saw St Mark's College next door become the Second London General Hospital to care for the wounded from the Western Front. and it wasn't until 1919 that it became Sloane Secondary School for Boys, in the building that still stands today, when Carlyle moved to the premises next door. At this time, the school had creeper on the outside walls, and the yard had pot-holes. The north playground extended only to the end of the yard wall in Hortensia Road, with the area beyond that, as far as the Fulham Road, being waste ground.
An old postcard showing Sloane under its original title though it was also known as County Secondary School
School Captains
Charlie Smith was made the first School Captain of the South-Western Polytechnic Day School for Boys, in 1895, and Paul O'Shea, below, became Sloane's last School Captain in 1969-70. A full list (with one or two omissions) of the 'chosen ones', appears after Paul's photo.
The end of the Second World War saw a mood of change sweep over the school and by 1949 Headmaster Guy Boas agreed to a request from the sixth form that the prefects should be allowed to elect the School Captain. Boas retained the right to veto the elction of a totally unsuitable School Captain and, narrowly, the 1949 vote went in favour of Don Wheal, despite Don's own friend, Bernard Cousins, being Guy's preference. The post-war boys of Sloane had not been keen on the Head Boy terminology of the public schools. Don Wheal's book White City says they saw it as being "reminiscent of a senior servant in a colonial household."
School Captains1895-6 C. Smith1896-7 C. Smith1897-1922 Unknown1923-4 W.J. Llewellyn-Jones 1924-5 C.C.D. Thurston1925-6 L.L.J. Drew1926-7 J.C. Walker1927-8 L.T. Gibson1928-9 F. Cramp1929-30 F.A.W Lodde1930-1 C.S.G. Kealey1931-2 R. MacPherson1932-3 J.K. Bryning1933-4 J.K. Bryning1934-5 A.R.W. Smith1935-6 F.G. Love1936-7 J.J. Walters1937-8 R. Oblitas1938-42 Unknown1941-2 F.D. Long1942-3 D.E. Kohn 1943-4 I. Campbell1944-5 D.J. Thorburn1945-6 Unknown1946-7 R. G. Ball1947-8 R. Brown1948-9 F.W.J. Allsopp1949-50 D.J. Wheal1950-1 D.J. Wheal1951-2 P.S. Kelso1952 part W.A. Dearlove1952-3 A.J. Clift1953-4 A.J. Clift1954 Spring J.A. East1954 Summer I.M. Fraser 1954-5 V.L. Bimstone1955 July H.H. Guild1955-6 G.M.Mason1956-7 A.J. Barrett1957-8 R.A. Bainbridge1958-9 F. Churamowicz1959-60 L.N. Demetriou1960-1 D.J. Harris1961 Summer B.C. Page1961-2 D.R. Wade1962-Apr '63 H.M. Jones1963 May-Jul D.N. Roddis1963-4 A.W. Wainwright1964-5 B.J. Povey1965-6 M.A. Pateman1966-7 I.L. Thomson1967-8 P.L. Smith1968-9 N. Allam1969-70 P. O'Shea
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Origin Of The School's Name
The Council named the school after Sir Hans Sloane ( Born in Killyleagh, County Down, Ireland, 16/04/1660, of Scottish parents who had colonised Ulster under James I - Died, Chelsea, London, 11/01/1753 ), the Irish-born antiquarian, collector, scientist and physician, who succeeded Sir Isaac Newton as President of the Royal Society and who also became President of the Royal College of Physicians as well as the Royal Physician to George II. Having taken a medical degree at the University of Orange, he set up in practice in Bloomsbury Square and became remarkably eminent in his profession. As well as having Queen Anne among his patients he was also Royal physician to George II. He was a pioneer of inoculation, an opponent of narcotics, and anticipated the Health Scheme by treating the poor for nothing and the rich for a minimum fee.
His generosity was legendary and, on being put in charge of Christ's Hospital, he gave his entire salary to the foundation and also purchsed the site of the Apothecaries' Garden in Chelsea for the Apothecaries' Society, having studied botany at the Garden as a young man. On his death he bequeathed his collection of 50,000 books, and 20,000 manuscripts, prints, drawings, flora, fauna, medals, coins, seals, cameos and other curiosities to the nation, on condition that parliament should pay to his executors £20,000. These, along with George II's royal library etc., later formed the nucleus of the British Museum, opened in 1759, and a significant proportion of which was later to become the foundation for the Natural History Museum. He also discovered cocoa while in Jamaica, which the locals drank mixed with water and which Sloane found so nauseating he mixed it with milk instead. Originally manufactured and sold by apothecaries as a medicine, after his return to England, by the 19th century Cadbury Brothers were selling Sloane's Drinking Chocolate in tins.
Sloane was also accredited with being the creator of modern day Chelsea and some of his early property development can still be seen at numbers 1-18 Cheyne Walk, named after William Cheyne, from whom he had bought the Manor of Chelsea in 1712, four years before he was created a Baronet, one of the first doctors to be invested with a hereditary title. The fact that he owned virtually all the district can also be seen in the placenames that remain today - Sloane Square, Sloane Street, Hans Crescent etc.
The school adopted the Cheyne connection when calling its old boys ' Cheyneans ' as Cheyne Walk was also seen as a 'link' between the old and new sites. It was felt that ' Sloanian ' sounded ' too ugly '. They were probably right. In 1926 the school magazine was renamed The Cheynean by Mr Ronald Potter Jones, replacing what had been known, at different times, as The Removian and The Victory. Ronald Potter Jones was a school governor between 1926-1958 and a great school benefactor, who in 1926 donated the Bechstein Grand Pianoforte that was in use for many years and, who will be remembered by the very 'old boys' as the man who gave a diving display at school galas up until the age of 80! He was well-qualified as he had been runner-up in the National Amateur Diving Championship and then Chairman of the Amateur Diving Association.
Statue of Sir Hans Sloane at the revamped Duke of York's Regiment HQ, King's Road, Chelsea. This was the site where Sloane Sport's Day was held on occasion, as in 1935. The location is a temporary one with the statue being moved to Sloane Square before the end of 2010. It is based on the John Michael Rysbrack original which had stood in Chelsea Physic Garden until its deterioration led to it being rehoused in the British Museum. Sculpted by Simon Smith from two blocks of Portland limestone, it stands two metres tall and weighs almost two tonnes. The sculptor had wanted it to show Sir Hans Sloane as a "kind man with a sharp intellect and an enquiring mind. An approachable man of principle and logic, whose morals and philanthropy are still of benefit to us today."
Photograph supplied by Peter Tipping
The original statue of Sir Hans Sloane as it stood in Chelsea Physic Garden c1910
In 1737, four years before retiring, Sloane added to his estate by purchasing Sir Thomas More's old home, Beaufort House, which faced the Thames at Cheyne Walk and had been built by Henry VIII. This space is now occupied by the homes on Cheyne Walk that stretch from the corner of Oakley Street to Manor Street. More, of course, was the humanist scholar ( see Utopia 1516 ) beheaded by Henry VIII for his refusal to recognise him as head of the English Church. Sloane's body now rests with that of his wife Elisabeth (nee Langley) in Chelsea Old Churchyard (All Saints) and his estate was bequeathed to his daughters, Sarah Stanley and Lady Elizabeth Cadogan, on his death, and became the property of the Cadogan family in its entirity when Sarah's share reverted to Lord Cadogan and his heirs in the 19th century. The Cadogan connection to Sloane Grammar School lived on through the school badge whose design was taken from the Cadogan Family Coat of Arms. See 'The School Shield'below.
Sir Hans Sloane's tomb in part of Chelsea Old Church of the 18th century. He was interred here on 18th January, 1753, with his wife, Elisabeth (nee Langley), who had died in 1724. The inscription reads -
"In memory of Sir Hans Sloane, Bart, President of the Royal Society and College of Physicians, who in the year of our Lord 1753, the ninety-second of his age, without the least pain of body, and with a conscious serenity of mind ended a virtuous and beneficent life. This monument was erected by his two daughters, Elizabeth Cadogan and Sarah Stanley."
Sir Hans Sloane's tomb today
Visitors to the church today will find the tomb within the churchyard, and visible from Cheyne Walk. In 1941, bombing severely damaged the church, parts of which had stood since the 12th century, and it was another nine years before it was re-opened for worship. The clock that can be seen on the main tower was made and presented by Sir Hans Sloane's gardener, a Quaker and amateur mechanic. The church was restored in its entirity on the original foundations and looks substantially as it did before the Blitz. Inside, the only chained books in any London church can be found. These were gifts from Sir Hans Sloane and include the Vinegar Bible (1717), two volumes of Foxe's Book of Martyrs (1684), a Prayer Book (1723) and Homilies (1683)
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Killyleagh Castle, County Down, Ireland, showing the Memorial Stone to Sir Hans Sloane on the green. A 'Sir Hans Sloane Square' has also been created, complete with a copy of the Chelsea Physic Garden statue.
If you can put up with the hesitant commentary, the following video link will take you to one produced in Ireland about Sir Hans Sloane's local connection to Killyleagh -
Pimlico Comprehensive, the school that Sloane became a part of when it closed in 1970, has, since September 2008, been known as PimlicoAcademy, sponsored by the charity 'Future'. Many of you moved on to the Comprehensive, but none of you that I've spoken to seem to have a good word to say for it! Problems with the glass and concrete school structure, despite it being an award winning design, have existed from day one. Designed by John Bancroft of the GLC's architecture department, it was described by one critic as being like a
'battleship', and as a " 100-odd metre long, turreted, metallic grey thing lying in its own sunken rectangle."
Things have changed. As an Academy, with its Visual and Performing Arts, and History specialisms, interest from children wishing to attend has increased dramatically. This may, of course, have something to do with the lack of competition and the way it now presents itself but, whatever your views about Academies and, having had children attend our local Academy, mine have been negative, it deserves a chance. Starting in 2008, the Academy building underwent a complete rebuild, which was completed in September 2010, and is now an all-ability, non-fee paying school for 11-19 year-olds (sounds a bit like a Comprehensive to me). Facilities are also shared by Westminster Adult Education Centre and the local library, and the final result looks something like this -
If you'd like to take a look at what Sloane has evolved into, click on this link for the Academy's web site -
The name is an anglicised form of the Gaelic O'Sluaghain and first appeared in the British Isles around the 5th century. It has many different spellings, but all of them have a meaning relating to 'army', 'leader of a military expedition', 'soldier' or 'warrior'. 'Sloane', as opposed to 'Sloan' (without the 'e'), usually indicates Presbyterian descent.
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The School 'Houses'
The More ( Red ) and Beaufort ( Green ) names will be familiar to Sloane boys as two of the four ' Houses ' that we were all assigned to when we joined; the others being Turner ( Gold ) and Danvers ( Blue ). These Houses first came into existence in 1946, but, from the first recording I've seen of them, in the December 1926 copy of The Cheynean, Houses seemed to have been named after the Senior Housemasters who presided over them. In 1926, they were Balchin, after Mr G.H. Balchin, Bride, after Mr A.J. Bride, Grime, after Mr A. Grime, Howell, after Mr S.H. Howell and Weiner, which was in the charge of Mr J.B. Brown in 1926 (and then named after him), but the likelihood is that it was Mr Weiner's House up until then. over the years other House names used were Linklater's, Plymen's, Arthurs, Emmanuel's, Allen's, Drake's, Hood's and Scott's. Two other Houses were brought into use before the outbreak of the Second World War, Cadogan and Faulkner, and they were revived again, but only for three years, after that war. Competition among Houses was always fierce but the House points system, that rewarded achievement, wasn't introduced until 1932.
Turner, was named after the artist, Joseph Mallord William Turner, (1775 -1851), who rented lodgings at 118 and 119 Cheyne Walk in 1846, and spent his last days there as a recluse, using the name Admiral Booth to avoid recognition, Booth being the surname of his landlady. He died there on 19th December 1851.
Danvers, refers to Sir John Danvers (1588 -1655)the 17th century traveller who developed a sophisticated taste for gardening and architecture which could be seen in his house, Danvers House, in what is now Paulton's Square, that adjoined More's Beaufort House. Danvers was MP for Oxford University and later, Malmesbury, and one of the Parliamentarians who became known as ' Regicides ' after signing the death warrant of Charles I which, rumour had it, he had been coerced into doing through pressure of debt and which he later regretted on his death bed in 1655. He survived all three of his wives. Danvers House was pulled down in 1696 to make space for Danvers Street which still exists today.
Beaufort, was named after the first Duke of Beaufort, Henry Somerset, who resided at 'The Great House', fromerly owned by Sir Thomas More, in what is now Beaufort Street, from 1682 - 1699. He was MP for Worcester in 1654, but became involved in a royalist plot in 1659, and in 1660 he acted as one of the twelve commissioners from the House of Commons who attended Charles II in exile at Breda, Netherlands.
More, named after Sir Thomas More (1478 - 1535), who lived in the 'village' of Chelsea. In 1520 he built 'The Great House' on the site of the present Beaufort Street, and lived there until 17th April, 1534, when Henry VIII, who had been a frequent visitor to his house, had him committed to the Tower of London before his beheading, a year later.
Cadogan, named after the second Baron Cadogan, Charles (1691 - 1776), who married the daughter of Sir Hans Sloane and brought into the Cadogan family the valuable Chelsea estates. He had made the Army his career, serving with Marlborough and in Scotland. He was a General when he died and also a Fellow of the Royal Society.
Faulkner, named after Thomas Faulkner (1777 - 1855), the historian of Chelsea, who produced the Historical and Topographical description of Chelsea and its Environs, in 1810. He also studied the Royal Hospital and produced works on the history of Fulham, Kensington and Hammersmith. He lived in Paradise Row (now Royal Hospital Road).
The Cheynean of April, 1949, appears to be the last time the Cadoganand FaulknerHouses are mentioned. They seem to have been introduced before the Second World War and were revived again in 1946, but only until 1949, at which time they were dispensed with for ever. No record of why this happened can be found in any copy of The Cheynean, but it may have been as a result of a reduction in the number of pupils taken into the School. The 1944 Education Act made secondary education free for all pupils and saw the introduction of the 11+ Exam. Those unable to pass the 11+ usually ended up in a Secondary Modern school along with the majority of education funding, and this, combined with the 'free places' offered by independent schools, for which they in turn received direct grants from the Ministry of Education, would have led to a decline in the number of pupils eligible to attend Sloane and would also have lessened the need for for a six House system.
The Beaufort Street House of Thomas More, then Henry Somerset First Duke of Beaufort and other Beaufort's. The house was pulled down by Sir Hans Sloane in 1740
Sir John Danvers House now roughly where the centre of Danvers Street Chelsea is
JMW Turner's House Cheyne Walk
The School Tie, Cap and Scarf
School ties, in the school colours, were first introduced in 1927. It wasn't made compulsory to have one and they originally cost 2/6d (12.5p) for a silk one and 1/6d (7.5p) for a knitted one. Over the years ties of a slightly different design were issued for Prefects and to represent the House you belonged to; these particular ties first had a school badge in the House colour on a plain blue background, and later incorporated a thin diagonal stripe in the House colour.
Guy Boas made it compulsory to wear caps to and from school but excused anyone over 6ft tall from having to do so! Black velvet caps were in existence when the school first opened but seem to have been issued to Prefects. The standard cap was dark blue cap with the school badge just above the peak.
Scarves appear to have been made available in the 1960's, when it became fashionable to wear one.
The April, 1939 issue of The Cheynean has an advert for Rego Clothiers Ltd, 13-14, Fulham Broadway, SW6, and says they are the 'Official Suppliers to Sloane School', of the uniform.
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The Headmaster at the Polytechnic, Edward Hugh Pritchard, became the first Headmaster of Sloane, and in total, was in office from 1895 until his death on November 15th,1928. He was also Mayor of Fulham from 1924-25 and was succeeded as Head by Mr Guy Boas in 1929 who remained until his retirement in1961, dying five years later. His time as Head included the period of the Second World War between 1939 and 1945, the early part of which the school was evacuated to Addlestone in Surrey and a time when it was known as The Sloane School and still had a number of private, fee-paying pupils.The school partly re-opened in London in 1944 when it was known as West London Emergency School and when it shared the building with Wandsworth, Clement Danes and Westminster City schools, who all wore their own uniforms. The author, Donald James Wheal (see the Famous and Infamous page), attended the school during this time and tells us in his book World's End, "Sloane boys wore a black jacket. Some even had a badge." Attendance was voluntary during the 'little Blitz' of 1944, but never fell below 95% full. Standards were low at the time, as master's awaited their 'second retirement' at the war's end. Guy Boas, bored in Addlestone, returned to London as head of the Ermergency School and took over control from the Reverend John Kingsford. It wasn't until 9th July, 1945 that the whole school was reunited in London. Whilst unoccupied by the school, the building had become the home of the Auxilliary Fire Service as well as the West London Emergency Grammar School for Boys. Shortly after Mr Boas's retirement, Dr Ralph H Henry took over as Head, staying until 1966 when he left to become Headmaster of a comprehensive in Swanley, Kent. Mr Bailey was the last Head of the school until its closure in 1970, when the school joined with Buckingham Gate, Carlyle and Ebury to become the Pimlico Comprehensive School, Westminster, officially opened by Harold Wilson in 1971. The award winning, though ugly to the eye, glass and concrete school is now undergoing demolition to be rebuilt and re-opened, in 2010, as an Academy. The old Sloane School was briefly occupied by Fulham's Harwood Primary School in 1970 and then, for the next ten years, was known as the Chelsea Secondary School, formed after the amalgamation of Chelsea Central and Kingsley in 1968. It wasn't until 1990 that the premises came under the Kensington and Chelsea College banner, when that organisation was formed having been previously known as the Chelsea and Westminster Adult Education Centre.
The school building was 100 years old in 2008, although it didn't actually start life as a boys' school until after the First World War, during which it served as a hospital. Many memories are, no doubt, ingrained in its walls, along with the odd name and ribald comment2011 saw the completion of the building of luxury apartments adjacent to the Fulham Road facing side of the school, and a new Kensington and Chelsea College building situated in Sloane's old South playground that was once all that separated us from Carlyle Girls School next door. Hopefully, one or two of Sloane's old boys will have done well enough for themselves to be able to afford one of the luxury Chelsea Apartments, named Milliner House. Thankfully, its Grade II listing means that the facade of the Sloane building should forever remain in position between the apartments and the new college. Grade II listed buildings can be altered, extended, or even demolished, but only with Local Authority consent, so it may be that the building is considered historically or architecturally interesting enough for its fabric to remain untouched. Some consideration may have been given to it having been the first purpose built Secondary school in London, and it is certainly one of only 3% of all ages of listed buildings that was built in the 20th century.
This is how the building looked in 1908 -
This is how the building looked between 1908 and 2010 -
Here are some views of the building, college and apartments today, with the school still visible between the college and apartments -
And here, hopefully preserved for posterity, is evidence that the building was once occupied by Sloane boys and that they loved the school enough to inscribe their name with pride and be forever associated with its history -
No doubt many of you will wonder what happened to all those chairs with one broken leg, cupboards that never closed properly and desks with our names engraved in them. This may (or may not) be the answer -
Police breakthrough in hunt for furniture removed from Sloane School!
After more than 40 years, UCOS, the 'cold case' arm of the police force, have received a tip-off as to the whereabouts of the school furniture that went missing after Sloane closed in 1970. It would appear to have been kept in storage by our Government, but has now been sent to China as our contribution to their development and emergence as a world power -
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Sadly, Sloane Grammar School for Boys only lasted 51 years, from 1919 - 1970. In the event that the School becomes unrecognisable as the building we once knew, here, for posterity, is how it was originally described -
' Red and yellow brick with Portland Stone dressings, tiled roof. PLAN: rectangular plan facing East. Central hall with classrooms off corridors on three sides. Projecting stair towers on west side. EXTERIOR: main east-facing elevation with eight-bay front set between projecting corners. Pair of entrances with arched overlights beneath open segmental pediments. Tall, double-height arch-headed sash windows, set with blocked stone surrounds. Upper level to centre lit by three large arched (or thermal) windows with projecting keystones and voussoirs (wedge-shaped blocks forming the curved part of an arch of which the central one is the 'keystone'), set beneath three gables. Projecting corners, that to North with four tiers of windows, those to first, second and third floors are 6/6-pane sashes (8/8-pane to centre) with arches of rubbed red brick; that to South is blind, with an aedicular (framed) tablet inscribed LCC SLOANE SCHOOL, above which is a round window within a stone frame with voussoirs and foliate decoration. Giant pilasters (slightly projecting columns built into or projecting from a wall) run the entire height of each corner projection, which terminate in shaped gables (triangular portions of a wall between the edges of a sloping roof) with finials (ornament at the apex of a gable). Side elevations are faced in yellow brick, with six windows to ground floor; raised parapet to centre at attic level. Projecting canted (angled) bay to west side of flanks with four tiers of windows; at fourth floor levels are belvederes (structure sited to take advantage of a view), with rows of four windows divided by engaged Doric columns. West, rear elevation of six bays largely faced in yellow brick, with projecting hemispherical (half of a sphere)stair towers faced in red brick rising the entire height of the building, capped with a copper-sheathed dome. INTERIOR: large double-height assembly hall with gallery on three sides, carried on large scrolled consoles. Classrooms with internal glazing on three sides off corridors. Brown-glazed tiled bricks up to dado height throughout; similar glazed bricks line the two stairs. Widespread panelled doors, some within glazed arched openings.'
Over time, others have seen the building in a more poetic light, and RPJ, probably School governor, Ronald Potter Jones, had this to say about it in a poem he composed for the December, 1927 edition of The Cheynean, and which he suggested should be placed on the new wall in Fulham Road-
Pause, stranger, and permit your eyes
To scan, with rapturous surprise,
This mighty mass of brick and stone,
For here you see the famous SLOANE.
From every continent and nation
Keen Ministers of Education
Are sent along to pay a call
Upon us, from the County Hall.
And Mr. Pritchard entertains
Distinguished Turks and Japs and Danes,
Expounding, every time they come,
The whole of the Curriculum;
And subsequently shows them round,
Convincing them that they have found,
Beneath his own benignant rule,
The Model Secondary School.
Six years after this, in 1932, in the Editorial in the July edition of The Cheynean, a correspondent suggested that a similar wall should be built by the L.C.C. along the Hortensia Road side of the School grounds, "where there were now wooden palings and mosquito netting" - "giving the passer-by the impression of an aviary." The School, however, took a different view and saw the palings as 'a link with the past', and the 'mosquito netting', or wire fencing as we knew it, remained in place until the the site was redeveloped in 2008. The building itself became Grade II listed on May 7th, 2002.
Schoolkeepers
Mention should also be made of those Schoolkeepers who did their best to maintain the fabric of the school and to keep under control those school boys who did their best to remove it. The first of these was Mr Chappell, who was there from the start in 1919 until his retirement in 1941. Mr Woodrow, working at Carlyle, took over duties at Sloane as well in 1944. No record is to hand as to how long this arrangement lasted, but, when the school closed in 1970, it was still Mr Whittle, whose Schoolkeeper's Cottage stood in the corner of the playground nearest to Carlyle, who was in charge, and it's nice to know that a link is still maintained by Steve Norris (website member), who is back in contact with Mr Whittle's son, Andrew 'Chop' Whittle. The strange thing is, the 1970 school photo shows a schoolkeeper standing at either end. They look similar but it's definitely not ehe same man.
The School Shield
It used to hang in the school hall and shows the lion of the Cadogan family and the boars heads of Sir Hans Sloane, both of which were incorporated into the Cadogan crest which the school was given permission to use as its badge. It now hangs in Mick Jarvis's (see this site) study at home in Texas. The school was due to open in 1914but World War 1 intervened. Mick has a note (see confirmation below) from Headmaster Bailey saying he could take it when the school closed as he would have been School Captain had the school gone on for another year. He took him at his word and scaled the stage surround to retrieve it on the last day. The sticker on the back of the shield, dated 1915, attributes the art project to 18 year old Rosamund Golding who was part of Class 877 at a place unknown.
Mick Jarvis managed to unearth the note, from Mr Bailey, that says he would have been School Captain and that he could have the School Shield as a memento. I reproduce the note below and can confirm it says, "Dear Mike. I am glad to let you have the Sloane badge. If the School had stayed open this year, you would have been its Captain and I hope the badge will be a lasting souvenir not only of the past but also of what might have been. Yours sincerely, C F Bailey".
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Headmasters of the School
Edward Hugh Pritchard B A . Headmaster of Sloane from its inception to November 15th, 1928:-
Mr Pritchard had trained at the St Mark's College, next door to what was to become Sloane School, and was originally Headmaster of the South West Polytechnic, carrying on in that position when the school was renamed Sloane by the London County Council in 1908. He had opened the School in the building of the Chelsea Polytechnic with three boys, to whom, it was said, he had given a holiday on the first day with instructions to go out and find three more. He remained in office until his sudden death, from pneumonia, in 1928, by which time school pupil numbers had risen to 600. Two of his final years as Headmaster, 1924-25, were also spent as Mayor of Fulham and his influence in that position led to Hortensia Mansions, the residential buildings opposite the School, being built well back from the road with a wide intervening courtyard, to prevent the School being overlooked.
During his thirty plus years in charge of Sloane he obviously made a great impression, along with the school and its boys, as the following obituaries, kindly sent in by his great and great, great grand-daughters, Gill and Katie Larkin, will attest to. The first is from the Fulham Chronicle of November 23rd, 1928, the week following his death, and was spoken by the Reverend P.S.G. Propert, the Rural Dean of Fulham, at his funeral:-
" Time will not allow me to even mention the many interests which occupied the whole of his time. With him service in the highest sense rose almost into a supreme passion. Beginning as a pupil teacher he rapidly rose,step by step,to be headmaster of a great secondary school. Once it was my privilege to address the boys of the Sloane School, and to visit every classroom. It was here that one saw an influence which now lives and radiates in the life and character of these boys,many of whom hold positions of the highest responsibility in the country today. His work as a Borough Councillor is better known to many of you than even to me - but I am sure that all will agree with me when I say that the aim and purpose of his life and work was for the betterment of the whole community. No one performed a greater service to the borough. In his death the whole borough has sustained an irreparable loss,and yet no true life is ever taken from us,no true soul passes into Paradise without some compensating blessing falling upon us. So to-day,although we mourn his departure from us,we know that he has helped each one of us to do our duty better. This gathering is a tribute to the nobility of his character. Our presence here is not only to show his relatives our sympathy in their bereavement, but we are here to remember a good man and to thank God for his example - his life was a real sacrifice for the borough, and it was in giving it away he found that higher life,which to us who had the privilege of knowing him will be a source of constant inspiration. May the souls of the righteous rest in peace, and may light perpetual shine upon him."
Conspicuous among the magnificent floral tributes,over 70 in number, was a remarkable token, in the design of the Borough of Fulham Coat of Arms,from the Mayor, Mayoress, Aldermen and Councillors, and an equally handsome memento, representing the school badge, from the staff and scholars of Sloane School. Also - From the Old Cheyneans, " In loving memory of their dear head master." From Messrs. Clark, Son and Carnt. Members of the Governing Body of Sloane School, " In affectionate memory." Mr and Mrs C.B. Jones, Doris and Leslie, "With deepest sympathy." From Lieut.-Col. and Mrs. Vaughan-Morgan, "With condolence and deep regret." From the officers and staff of the Fulham Borough Council, " With sincerest sympathy and in the deepest respect." From the officers and members of the East Fulham Conservative and Unionist Association, " With deepest sympathy." From the Cambridge University Old Cheyneans Society, "With sympathy."
This second piece,by a correspondent of The Gazette,of the same date,November 23rd,1928, relates the day of the funeral. It included parts of the oration shown above but I only reprint additional information here:-
"He rapidly rose,step by step,to the highest place in the educational world,to be Principal of a great secondary school. I once addressed the boys at the Sloane School,and I saw who was the dominating influence in that place." Mr Pritchard was the embodiment of kindliness and the negation of all mean-ness or spite in his dealings with the boys at Sloane School. "It is no exaggeration to say that these last qualities might be wrung from angels - let alone schoolmasters! - by the actions of an unruly boy. But Mr. Pritchard ever dealt mildly with the unruly. We do not think that he ever wished to catch a boy doing wrong;and yet,as another writer has said, "he was a good disciplinarian." He had a cough,of the professional variety,and by this one could always foretell his coming;so that when he rounded the corner of the corridor,or entered the classroom,among normal boys all was peace and quietness,an uncanny stillness into which he never enquired. "Mr. Pritchard was ever ready to excuse and we feel that he winked at the pranks of many a boy long after another headmaster would have had recourse to expulsion. And where he did suggest that a boy had better be withdrawn from the school, we believed that it was only because he had the good of the whole school so much at heart. How pleased he was to announce a boy's successes, not only, as parents know well, at the annual school gatherings, but also on countless mornings, after prayers, having, with the morning's post, knowledge of the very latest achievement just to hand. Generally it seemed that Mr. Pritchard never liked to lose a boy unless he passed out of school to the University. Perhaps he felt that, without this crowning achievement, the unroofed building of the mind was too open to the rough weather of adult life; or perhaps it was the humanitarian feeling that a boy who had not University education had not his fair chance in life. There is the fact - little foible enough - Mr. Pritchard seldom liked boys to leave. Otherwise, Mr. Pritchard was an ideal among headmasters; always thinking of the well-being of his school; where boys were concerned, firm in decision, always ready to advise and to praise, and,above all, kindly and loveable, a very humane headmaster, a benevolent, earnest and well-intentioned man."
In it's own obituary, The Cheynean said,
" We shall particularly remember him for detail, his genial good humour, his understanding of the boy's point of view. He had the happiness of possessing the confidence of the parents, the loyalty of his staff, and the affection of his boys. His was indeed a happy career."
The Cheynean also records that the E H Pritchard Memorial Fund raised £155-0s-6d, of which £100 was invested with the Greater London Council to fund the E H Pritchard Memorial Prizes.
At his funeral, when Mr. Seymour Dicker, the school music master, had played the last rousing verse of the hymn, "O God,our help in ages past," the coffin was slowly carried to the waiting motor hearse outside and a procession formed behind. Hundreds of reverent mourners stood with bared heads while the hearse slowly turned into Fulham Palace Road and went at a walking pace to the Fulham Old Cemetery, where the late Alderman Pritchard was laid to rest in the family vault.
E.H. Pritchard as Mayor of Fulham 1924-25
E H Pritchard by Bassano. November 22nd 1926
* * * * * * * *
Guy Herman Sidney Boas MA. FRSL.(1896- March 26th, 1966). Headmaster of Sloane from 1929 - 1961.
Born in Bickley, Kent to well-educated 'society' parents. He became even more well-known in the literary field than his father, F S Boas, had been. He had been educated at Summer Fields, an expensive Preparatory School near Oxford, Radley Public School and Christ Church Oxford before serving as a lieutenant with the Oxfordshire Yeomanry (Hussars) in the First World War, having landed in France on July 21st, 1917. After the war he was living at 15, Ladbroke Square, London, W11, when he received his 1914-18 British War Medal. The medal, shown below, sold at auction on May 2nd, 2010, for £121.00.
British War Medal 1914-18
Prior to joining Sloane, in 1929 after the death of E H Pritchard, he had taught English for eight years at St Paul's public day-school despite having misgivings as to whether it was a subject that was really ideal for school study, a point he made in lines he wrote for Punch-
I dreamed last night that Shakespeare's ghost
Sat for a Civil Service post.
The English papers of the year
Contained a question on King Lear,
Which Shakespeare answered very badly
Because he hadn't studied Bradley.
St Paul's was a good choice as he said he "had no desire to be marooned in a country boarding-school, far from London theatres and concert halls, and my friends".
When he left St Paul's - where he became known to some pupils as 'Bunny' - to become Head at Sloane, the Bursar told him that he was "making a grave mistake" and that he was "going to dwell in the tents of the Amalekites." On arriving at Sloane he had asked a boy for directions to the Headmaster's room only to be told, " There isn't one. He's dead."
He is probably most famously and widely remembered, for his contributions to the school plays, especially those of Shakespeare, fifteen of which he directed, using Sloane boys, to wide acclaim, and having had experience of both 'public' and state schools, he was equally appreciative of both. The school underwent many changes during his tenure, particularly as a result of the 1944 Education Act, which saw an end to fee-paying entry to the school. Eligibility for entry became based on the 11+ exam alone, when before parents, who could afford to pay the entry fee of between 12 and 15 guineas but weren't able to meet the ever-increasing cost of Public School education, were still able to give their boys a decent education. Many of those who chose to do this knew their offspring had limited intelligence and would have had little chance of passing the 11+ entry exam. Guy's view was that the 11+ was only " devised by kind-hearted but muddle-headed theorists in order to abolish the supposed injustice of entry to Grammar Schools being possible by fee-paying".
Among the many other innovations he brought to the school were the School Library, the 11 acre Roehampton Playing Fields and Pavilion, which he decided the school should use after it had previously used Stamford Bridge, which he called "that vast arena" and found unsuitably large, and the Duke of York's Ground in Chelsea. He also introduced the Sixth Form Symposium and the Reading and Recitation prizes. He was also responsible for moving the school Swimming Gala from the claustrophobic interior of Fulham Baths to the open-air baths at Chiswick, where, as he put it, "everyone could breathe", not least because although he, his wife and the Governors were given pride of place at the gala, they were positioned underneath the main diving board and as a consequence were drenched most years. He was also the headmaster who insisted that boys wear their school caps on the way to school and when going home.
As befits a man of learning who loved the English language, he was closely and actively involved in the affairs of the English Association all his professional life and in 1936 suggested the launch of English, a journal aimed at readers within colleges and universities, and one which is still in publication.
He was a prolific literary text book editor and also wrote himself. One of the many books he wrote was the History of the GarrickClub, of which he was also a member and Librarian. Author Harry Turner (see the Famous and Infamous page) joined the Garrick Club himself fifty years later, and recalls, in his book Growing Up In Fulham, that Guy Boas 'spoke like an 18th-century aristocrat. He uttered phrases like, "keep 'orf' the grass" and "how frightfully boring".
Mr Boas's autobiographical A Teacher's Story, 1963, (dedicated to his wife, who never missed a school function in over thirty years and known to the boys as 'Pussy') includes chapters on his time spent at Sloane before, during and after the Second World War, and his other writings included a number of articles and poems for Punch, though, as the following possibly indicates, his poetry work would not set the poetry world on fire -
ATHER very often wonders
When it lightens why it thunders,
And he wonders, when it brightens,
When it thunders, why it lightens.
He was an energetic Headmaster, who easily adapted to the ever-changing needs of the education system, and was happy to voice his opinions about them, as he did when he appeared on the BBC's Tonight programme. He was devoted to his pupils and their education and considered his time at Sloane to have been "delightful" and never regretted moving there. In A Teacher's Story, he writes,
"Personally, I have a poor opinion of a teacher who is not proud of his profession and who wishes he was something else".
His interests, naturally, included theatre, Gilbert and Sullivan and philately, and the many stage people among his friends had always found him to be 'stimulating company' and many others considered him to be an esteemed wit who relished the oddities and contrarities of human nature. Although he had always been blessed with good health, he suffered a heart-attack in 1956 which made him realise he had perhaps been trying to do too much. The Shakespeare productions came to an end for a number of years but he did return to the School and announced his retirement in 1961, not because of his deteriorating health, but because he had reached the Council's retirement age.
In his book White City Don Wheal recounts his personal thoughts about Guy -
"By the end of my first year in the sixth form Guy Boas had pretty much retired to his study to write, it was said, a book on Churchill. I wouldn't want to malign Guy Boas. He was in so many ways, and for most of the years I knew him, the best headmaster I came across. He took a ramshackle post-war World's End secondary school and lifted it up by its bootstraps. But he had that bit of the bully about him, and a sense of Divine Right hovered about his decisions. Perhaps I was fortunate that by the time I was appointed School Captain the last five years had, in all probability, taken their toll on him."
Don's evidence for Guy's 'bullying' came from the time when Don was determined to get into either Oxford or Cambridge and, with persuasive help from History master Leslie Berkeley, Boas eventually supported the application -
"Guy Boas came through reluctantly. I don't think it was personal, although it's true we'd never got on well. Standing in his room, I watched him as he stood behind his desk, one hand in the pocket of his pinstripe trousers, the other fiddling with his watch chain. His head was turned towards the window, his whitening Hitler moustache glittering tobacco-gold in the sunlight. 'Do you have any idea of the standard of entry Oxford and Cambridge demand?' This was the bully in him coming to the fore - of course he already knew I didn't.
'I imagine it's very high, sir.'
He made his characteristic throwaway movement with the right hand. 'You don't just walk in, you know,' he said irritably. I knew he felt I had 'just walked in' to too many things already. 'You must know that the school can't afford a bad failure.'
I was furious. 'The I'll have to do my best not to fail, sir.'
He glared at me and turned back to the window. 'History,' he said, pulling out a bandanna-like handkerchief and flicking it under his nose. 'I'll think about it.'
I think he considered anyone reading English should be given preference over all other applicants."
Guy Boas died at home, at 73, Murray Road, Wimbledon, and the School was represented at his funeral by Mr Bailey, Mr Berkeley, Mr Gilliland, the School Captain, Vice-Captain, and the four House Captains.
Guy Boas in his first year as Head, 1929
Guy Boas by Elsa Ayres 1955
* * * * * * * *
Reverend Henry Kingsford (1878 - November 25th, 1947).
Headmaster of the West London Emergency School in the Sloane Building during the Second World War:-
The Reverend Kingsford served on the Staff at Sloane from 1922 to 1946, and during the War he acted as Headmaster of the West London Emergency School until Guy Boas returned from evacuation to Addlestone in 1944. The Cheynean of December, 1947 says he did so with 'unruffled equanimity'. He was also Priest-in-Charge of St. Olave's and St. John's, Southwark and was regarded with deep respect and affection by all who knew him, despite his outward appearance of severity and his reserved nature. He was a kind and sympathetic man, with a keen sense of humour and a moral and physical courage, who possessed an independent outlook that made him unafraid of criticism and gave him the will to do what he thought to be 'right'. In the words of The Cheynean, he left behind 'the memory of a cultured, Christian gentleman, a distinguished personality, and a charcter of absolute integrity'.
* * * * * * * *
Dr Ralph Henry. Headmaster of Sloane from 1962 - 1966:-
Dr Henry had, in fact, been a Japanese prisoner of war, which may go some way to explaining why the boys found him distant and a disciplinarian who used the cane frequently to get his message across.He left the school to become Headmaster of a Comprehensive school in Swanley, Kent and was himself a firm believer in the Comprehensive school system. He did much to broaden the House System at Sloane and widened the range of subjects taught. He gained pleasure from seeing 'A' Level results improve considerably during his time and also the increase in the size of the Sixth Form. The following piece was the final one he wrote for The Cheynean of 1966, the year he left the school:-
In his recollections of the past for the 1970 copy of The Cheynean, Mr Bailey says only this of his predecessor,
" He was extremely zealous for the intellectual life of the school" and that, from a man who had worked closely with him, probably says it all.
* * * * * * * *
C F Bailey at Sloane from 1938 -1970. Headmaster 1966 -1970:-
Born in Wallingford, Oxfordshire in June 1909, lived most of his life in Fulham and died in February, 1987 in Richmond-upon-Thames. The C. F. stood for Cuthbert Frederick but to the boys he was known as Biff, Bill, Scratcher or, if you were in the Scouts, as 'Skip'. He had only intended to stay perhaps five years after joining from St Mark's Demonstration School which had stood next door to Sloane in the grounds of what we knew as St Mark's College. However, he grew to love the school and the boys grew to love him. After war service with the RAF, during which he flew Spitfires and swore he broke the sound barrier, he became master in charge of the lower school and for several years shared, with Mr Griffin, first year games on Wednesday mornings. Mr Linklater's departure saw him become Deputy Head and he was often called into service to run the school during the periods when Mr Boas was unwell. He continued as Deputy Head under Dr Henry and took full control when that Head left in 1966. He wrote, acted in and produced many post-war school plays and was always closely connected with the 15th Chelsea (Sloane School) Scout Troop. A compassionate man, who always seemed to know what made the schoolboy 'tick' and made allowances because of it. Always to be found firm but fair, his approach won him over to the boys who very rarely treated him with anything other than respect and acknowledged that flying Spitfires in war and surving a motorcycle accident that left him with a pronounced limp, added to his entitlement of it. The accident prompted him to write the following letter to the school from his hospital bed in Ward D2 of Fulham Hospital. The letter was reprinted in The Cheynean of 1959 and he returned to the School in 1960:-
Dear Sloane,
Last period in an afternoon in early May, I took 5a for a lesson on "Lepanto" by G.K.Chesterton and enjoyed it: I had no idea it would be the last lesson I would take for months, but that evening, my life was to be unceremoniously pushed on to another track and the diversion was to be a long one. It happened like this. "Animal III" and I were going about our lawful business in a law-abiding well-under-30 m.p.h. manner, when a large ferocious car, an ill-favoured undiscerning car, leapt out of a side road and, without stopping to look at what it was doing savaged me and "Animal III". ("Animal III", by the way, was the name of one of the best motor-cycles in the world; I should say the best, because every lover of motor-cycles and cars knows that the one he owns is the best on the road. Nobody else believes it, but it is an enjoyable heresy.) Well, as I said, this car savaged us, and "Animal III" and I retired from public life for a season, he to a hospital for motor-cycles, and I to Fulham Hospital, to have our fabrics seen to and ultimately restored to the state they were in when I took 5a for "Lepanto". At first, I did not really believe it. Accidents always happen to other people and here was one which had the temerity to happen to me. I wondered why. Could it be that play "Macbeth"? They say there's a hoodoo on it, that it's an unlucky play, and I'd been dabbling with it for a year teaching it to a Fifth Year English Set. Were those old ladies on the heath near Forres extending their malevolence on me? And why me? I didn't understand it, but there it was, it had happened and I could think it to my heart's content. Or I could read or sleep or listen to the lilt of Ireland, for nineteen out of every twenty nurses at Fulham Hospital come from places like Dublin or Galway or Sligo or Connemara, and call you "pet" or "love" or "Darlin'." That part's not so bad, is it?
To end quite seriously, I have been very much heartened by the visits, the messages and the goodwill, often in tangible form, that I have received all through the weeks in hospital from the Headmaster and Mrs. Boas, the Staff, the boys, Mr. and Mrs. Whittle, and Miss Horth. Thank you all very much for being so kind and generous and more helpful in healing than perhaps you know.
Yours sincerely,
C.F. Bailey
In his final piece for The Cheynean, in 1970, he wrote,
"Good nature is almost universal among the boys, and I have never encountered hostility. They all respond well when they are on their own and, though their qualities vary, they are all responsive to leadership, none to being pushed. If you try to shake and hector the Sloane boy, he goes dumb on you; with courtesy you can lead most of them anywhere within reason. They are amenable to fair play and sincerity, they are nearly all generous and honest, so that for the dishonest boy and the thief they are rather easy meat. They have boundless energy but do not spend it all on work. They invariably rise to the occasion when necessary, and while I have sometimes blushed for individuals, I have never felt ashamed of the school."
He felt a warm affection for the school and all those connected with it and went on to say,
"For all they have given me in friendship, in experience, in joy, I thank them. As long as I live the bond between me and Sloane will last, an intangible knot of time remembered."
The School's closure, in 1970, prompted him to write this closing speech which he presented at the final reunion of the school Old Cheyneans:-
* * * * * * * *
Roehampton
Far, far away in Surrey, on the summit of a hill,
Remote from work and worry, we play football at our will,
Our grounds are at Roehampton, where the view is simply fine -
There's nowhere else quite like it, 'tween the Congo and the Rhine.
Roehampton is SO bracing! and invigorating, too,
Are the breezes which blow o'er it and refresh both me and you.
On one side there's the Common; on the other side, a road
So long and steep that 'buses old can scarce take up their load.
On weekdays, when we're working, we think of it and dream:
We begin to count the hours, and to fear the rain will teem
Down heavily on Saturday, frustrate our earnest aim
To make the weekly pilgrimage, delighting in a game.
But once we're at Roehampton, we can throw all cares aside,
And revel in the toughest games, to work no longer tied.
From dawn until the sunset, from morning until night,
A good game there awaits us, a keen and manly fight.
So here's to thee, Roehampton, and the Common by thy side:
Here's to the old red 'buses and to those who on them ride
To play a game of football, and drive black care away
In the healthy air of Surrey, every sunny Saturday!
G.V.W.
The poem above, found in an early copy of The Cheynean, illustrates the importance of the Roehampton playing fields to the welfare of the boys of Sloane. Whether you were sports-minded or not, games day, or a match on a Saturday, was something to look forward to as a break from the educational wheel in Chelsea. For me, personally, the two mile journey from home in Fulham to the school sports ground on the corner of Dover House Road and Coppice Drive, was always something to look forward to. I'm sure it was less so for those who found sport difficult, but the surroundings of Dover House Road must still have made a welcome change.
For the majority, the first leg of the journey to the ground ended at Putney Bridge, where a decision had to be made. Should I take the number 30 or the 85? Usually, the decision was made for you, when you jumped on whatever came along first. Occasionally it was determined by the weather. The 30 took a slightly longer route but deposited you across the road from the main entrance in Dover House Road so, on a wet day, was the best bet. On a brighter day, the walk from the 85 bus stop near the Earl Spencer public house, across Roehampton High Street, and left up Longwood Drive, was a pleasant alternative.
Such decisions were not to be taken lightly by an 11 year-old boy, but were not to be taken at all by those gentlemen of the late 18th century who chose to make Roehampton their summer residence. Whilst London was still within easy reach, the moderate-sized houses in beautiful grounds, in an elevated position with views over the Thames Valley, were considered the perfect retreat, where a pleasant country life could be lived, entertaining people of a similar class, away from the hustle, bustle and grime of London.
One such gentleman was General Sir Joseph Yorke, the first, and last, Lord Dover, who gave his name to the house he had built in 1764, which, in turn, gave its name to the road in which the school playing fields stand. The building of villas in the area had begun, north of Putney Heath, in the 1750's, and by the end of the century hardly a square inch of Roehampton wasn't occupied by a villa and its grounds, as it became second home to the aristocracy, who included among them a number of Prime Ministers, Lord Hawkesbury, Earl of Liverpool, being one who came to live at Dover House. Life in the country was summed up by Lady Bessborough, who live at Parksted (now called Manresa House), situated in area much later to be occupied by the Alton East Estate. She wrote, in 1798,
"We are still at Roehampton, and leading much the same life - that is reading, drawing, riding, a little musick, and a great deal of piquet (a card game)."
Her husband went shooting every day at Wimbledon and, while it's not known how long these summer sojourns in the country lasted, they seem not to have been overly taxing.
Dover House in the early 19th century
Dover House stood in Putney Park Lane, which also served as access to Putney Park House and Granard House, and was located at the Upper Richmond Road end of the present day Dover House Road. The house was enlarged and re-modelled for Beilby Thompson (1742 - 1799), a landowner and politician and its last known resident was the American financier, John Pierpoint Morgan, who lived in the house, and its 140 acres, until his death in 1913. A year later, World War I saw the house being used as an auxilliary hospital, after which, with the area falling out of favour with the nobility, the house and grounds were purchased by the London County Council in 1919. The magnificent house was demolished in 1921, as work commenced on the Roehampton Estate, now the Dover House Estate. As Putney Park House and grounds were also purchased by the L.C.C., the area being built on stretched from Upper Richmond Road to Putney Heath. The land north of Crestway, which traverses Dover House Road about a third of the way up from the Heath, became a 'cottage estate', inspired by the Arts and Craft influenced Garden City movement, between 1920-27, with 1,212 houses, accommodating around 4,400 people. Land to the south of Crestway was leased for private development, and the tennis courts and playing field which now form part of the old school sports ground, were built as part of that. Development of the area now known as Westmead Conservation Area was not completed until the 1950's. All that remains today, as a reminder of the past, is the 18th century entrance lodge to Dover House and an enormous beech tree in the grounds of Little Dover House, Westmead (the turning before Coppice Drive), which appears to date from the arboretum of the original Dover House, where it stood on the lawn directly in front of the garden elevation.
Work begins on the Dover House Estate c1921
In 1929, Guy Boas decided to purchase the eleven acres of playing fields and tennis courts for the school, ensuring they had sole use. Guy had always considered the Stamford Bridge grounds of Chelsea FC to be a 'vast arena' that was 'too large' for the school's needs. He went so far as to call the Stamford Bridge surroundings (with apologies from me to delicate Chelsea supporters everywhere) 'grim'.
The pavilion had been built, along with the cottage (Caretaker's house), for the LCC in 1938, and was officially opened by Chairman of Governors, Mr E. Hall, on July 1st, 1939, after a School versus Parents cricket match. At the same time Mr Ronald Potter Jones donated the cricket scoring hut, which was still there when the school closed in 1970 but was nowhere to be found on recent visits in 2009. It was another 10 years, in October 1949, before the Old Cheyneans Association were to present the school with the clock which still sits above the pavilion today. The Chairman of the Association, Mr C.H. Bowyer, officially handed over the clock at half-time during a football match between past and present scholars. He said the Association had purchased the clock as a mark of their esteem for the school and their gratitude to the Headmaster, Mr Boas, for all he had done to further the interests of the Old Boys' Association. In his address, Mr Bowyer went on to say that he could
"remember the days when there was no building in which the players could change and a cart track ran through the middle of the ground. What a contrast that made with the present admirably equipped pavilion and excellently kept playing-field amid its beautiful surroundings, the whole constituting one of the finest sports grounds in London."
The hands of the clock were removed in 2008 after complaints from locals that the time wasn't being adjusted to allow for British Summer Time. The hands are in safe keeping until such time as Health and Safety regulations allow the time to be altered without the need for scaffolding to be erected first!
The Roehampton Pavilion showing clock (with hands!) & the cricket score hut
Although football, tennis and cricket had been played at the ground since the LCC first laid out the playing field, with a small changing room, in 1925, and these had included Old Cheynean football matches since 1927, it wasn't until 1931 that it was first used for the School Sports Day, the 21st such occasion, of which the previous twenty had been held at Stamford Bridge. For reasons unknown, Sports Day was occasionally, though rarely, held, as in 1935, at the Duke of York's Regimental Headquarters in the King's Road, with preliminary events taking place at St Mark's College athletics track, next door to the school.
In my time at the school, 1963 - 1970, the Sports Ground was maintained by Mr and Mrs Slocombe, who lived in the Groundsman's house provided for them, that has been a private dwelling since being sold in the Spring of 1997, having been deemed surplus to educational requirements in 1994, but which still sits in the corner of the grounds accessed via Longwood Drive. The Slocombes had been there since 1958, when their predecessors, Bertram, 'Bert', P Howard and Mrs Ellen L Howard, who had been there throught the years of the Second World War, retired; Mr. Howard being presented with a watch, and Mrs Howard, a travelling case, and the Headmaster saying that Mr. Howard had always worked "wholeheartedly and on the most friendly and harmonious terms with Staff and boys" whilst being "loyally assisted" by Mrs Howard. The Slocombes retired in 1975. It is not known when the Howards first started but the Register of Electors shows them there in 1946. I am indebted to Mr Derek Hayler for that information. He found this website and contacted me because he was the last resident groundsman at the playing fields when the GLC/ILEA was abolished, in April 1990, and they were transferred to Wandsworth Borough Council. All staff at Roehampton were made redundant in 1994 when the work was contracted out. Derek had been appointed in February 1984, but before him, Arthur Harrison had served from late 1975 until his death in 1983. In July, 1987, during Derek's time as Groundsman, the 'Great Fire of Roehampton', as it came to be known locally, occurred, gutting the roof of the girls' section of the changing rooms and causing smoke damage elsewhere. Derek also remembers Mr and Mrs Slocombe as he had unsuccessfully applied for Mr Slocombe's job when he retired in 1975. Mr Slocombe had been responsible for keeping the grass short and for marking out the football and cricket pitches, and the athletics track on Sports Day, as well as the general tidiness and appearance of the goround and changing rooms. A fine job he did too. Mrs Slocombe took charge of the pavilion, selling drinks, sweets and chocolate to boys such as me, in her own cheerful, friendly way, and woe betide any of us who stepped out of line! The Slocombe family still had links to the ground up until 2010, as Alan Slocombe, the son of Mr and Mrs, was part of the set-up charged with looking after the grounds for the local council.
Our old Sports Ground sits in a Preservation Area today and is used by many local sports teams, playing everything from football, to cricket and lacrosse, so its future looks reasonably safe and looks likely to outlive most of us. However, in 2010, the grounds were bought by Roehampton Ubiversity who will have a 99 year lease in return for refurbishment of the pavilion and continued local community access to the site for 25% of the time, which is different to the 100% access they've always had and for which the site was originally built to allow. In reality, the council has privatised Roehampton Fields and, where once the community had sole ownership, it now has a 25% share. Due to the grounds being in a preservation area and the likelihood that local residents would strongly oppose any building on the site, nothing much is going change as regards site use for the forseeable future, and any building work carried out will be restricted to single storey.
A return to the ground is advised if you want to experience the same sense of belonging, and the same feeling of comfort, that I did back in the 60's, and still do everytime I visit.
Latest Update on Roehampton Playing Fields
Agreement was reached in January 2011 for the grounds to be tranferred over to Roehampton University. My thanks to StefanBremner-Morris, who has provided me with additional information that says the university will have a 99 year lease in return for refurbishment of the pavilion and continued local community access to the site for 25% of the time, which is different to the 100% access they've always had and for which the site was originally built to allow. In reality, the council has privatised Roehampton Fields and, where once the community had sole ownership, it now has a 25% share. Due to the grounds being in a preservation area and the likelihood that local residents would strongly oppose any building on the site, nothing much is going change as regards site use for the forseeable future, and any building work carried out will be restricted to single storey.
It looks like the old place will outlive most of us but, just in case, click on these links for an aerial view of the grounds, the terms of the lease to Roehampton University, and a basic plan of the grounds. Use the controls to the left of the page you see to zoom in and out and to change the type of view -
When Guy Boas arrived in 1929 the school had no library; by 1931 that had been rectified. Two classrooms were thrown together, and oak panelling and bookcases, funded by parents and friends of the school, were added.
The official opening, by novellist Sir Hugh Walpole, came on November 25th, 1931, at which, The Cheynean tells us, he gave a 'triumphant' 45 minute address to 500 parents, without the use of notes.
Accompanying the opening there was an exhibition, included in which, assembled by Mr Nightingale, was "an outstanding collection of graphs that showed in a spectacular manner the economic problems of our times."
Further funds were raised in March, 1932, when another exhibition was held in the library. This time exhibits included loaned original drawings and paintings by the likes of Corot, Augustus John, Laura Knight, and Fougasse. School governor, Mr Ronald Potter Jones, loaned the only piece of sculpture produced by H.S. Tuke R.A., and other artefacts included the Duke of Wellington's nightcap, Edward VII's snuff box and Queen Victoria's autograph. £62 was raised for the Library Fund on this occasion.
On a later occasion, an initiative by the School Librarian helped fill the library shelves. He obtained books from a local bookseller on a 'sale or return' basis, displayed them at an Open Evening, and encouraged parents to buy them, sign them, then donate them to the school.
In 1934, the Junior Library was started, and D. Arden became its first Librarian.
Librarians came and went, but one of them, Vernon Burgess, who was in overall charge of the library for about four years, has provided some of his memories -
" Graham Dean, Michael Pateman and myself, were sitting in the dining room one day, in the 3rd year, when Jock MacLachlan, aho supervised the dinner room ( for which I think they may have got cheaper or even free meals) asked if anyone wanted to help him with the library. We volunteered.
The stock had not been sorted for years, and armed with a copy of Dewey (a library classification system), Jock proceeded to classify old and new books for the library. We processed these, with Graham, who had the ability to write very fast, and clear spine letters for the books. These we pasted on the spine, having purchased them from a stationers down near Old Church Street. We used that white flour paste glue, that really stank when it went off.
Withdrawing titles no longer required also featured, and such books had to be 'signed-off' - we scrawled the word redundant on the back of the title page and wrote the author and title in a foolscap, carbonated Redundancy Book for submission to LCC. The books, I think, then had to be kept until signed off. After all, we mat have been getting rid of a Shakespeare Folio. We pasted in a label of identification, and filed it. Gradually, we got round the whole library. The library was open in the lunch hour from 1.30pm, and again after school. The magazines I remember taking were Punch, The Economist, New Scientist and Paris Match, also The Times. I am sure we took others, but those titles stick in the memory.
One summer, I think when we were in the 5th year, the library was re-linoed with a green linoleum, and all the books had to be removed and stored in the library workshop, which was next door to the Headmaster's study. We spent a whole day during the holidays moving them back to be ready for the next term.
The school badge, engraved on a mirror, was part of the library, and I believe waws bought by old boy and author, John Creasey. There was a complete set of Sir Walter Scott's Waverley novels, plus a copy of Winnie Ille Pooh (i.e. Winnie the Pooh in Latin for those dedicated to the subject). I can't really remember any other titles now. The school fire escape was out of the library, and proved a very quick way of getting to the dining room for privileged persons, as well as a nice sun-bathing patio during hot summer months. We even found some money for some smart wooden library chairs."
The library fire escape
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On the Square:
Sloane's Masonic Connection
The Hall Stone Jewel
It's not widely known that Sloane had a Masonic connection. At the desire of 'The Old Students Club' of the South-Western Polytechnic Day School for Boys, the South-Western Polytechnic Masonic Lodge was consecrated by Sir Edmund Letchworth on October 2nd, 1913, at the Clarendon Restaurant, Hammersmith, becoming Lodge No. 3680.
It was a Fifth Generation Lodge, sponsored by Putney Lodge, and descended from the Lion and Lamb Lodge, with its Mother Lodge being Chelsea. It became known as a Hall Stone Jewel Lodge, so named because in 1919, after a special meeting at the Royal Albert Hall to celebrate peace after the Great War, it was suggested a memorial to honour the many Masonic brethren who lost their lives should be erected using contributions from Lodges at home and overseas. The cost would be one million pounds, so the Masonic Million Memorial Fund was launched to build and furnish the new 'Masonic Peace Memorial' in Great Queen Street, London, now known as Freemasons' Hall. Contributions were to be recognised by the presentation of a commemorative jewel, to be called the Hall Stone Jewel, which was designed in the form of a cross, symbolising sacrifice, with a winged figure representing peace, at its centre, supporting a temple. Other Masonic allusion is also contained in the form of the Square and Compasses, and the Pillars, Porch and Steps (see picture above). To qualify, each Lodge had to contribute an average of 10 guineas per member to be awarded a silver medal, with any individual contributing 10 guineas or more being given his own An average of 100 guineas resulted in a gold jewel being awarded. A gold medal with coloured enamels was presented to Provinces or Districts where each Lodge had contributed an average of 500 guineas.
In 1921, two years after the first boys moved into the Sloane School building, the Headmaster, E. H. Pritchard, was installed as Master of the Lodge. Lodges in schools were quite common and were formed to meet the socialising needs of the ever growing legion of male teachers who were now moving into London, into what had once been considered a lady's profession. Eventually, a Schools Lodge Association was formed. Regular meetings of the South-Western Polytechnic Lodge were held at The Clarendon Restaurant until June 1979, when the Lodge moved to the Sessions House, Clerkenwell. Due to declining membership the Lodge decided to surrender its warrant and, on April 10th, 1999, it was erased from the Grand Lodge list of active Lodges. Lodge ephemera, which includes a masonic hymn book (18 March 1950), items histories of the first 21 years of the Lodge (1934), and the first 50 years (1963), along with samples for invitation cards for Lodge meetings from the 1920s and 1930s, are all now housed in the Library and Museum of Freemasonry, Freemasons' Hall, Covent Garden, London, under ID No. A7206, Call No. GBR 1991 ELM/984. Subscription Books for the Lodge are also held there under Item ID No. 7198, Call No. GBR 1991 ELM/979. Entrance to the museum and library is free from Monday to Friday.
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The Old Cheyneans
The School seems always to have had an Old Boys organisation that catered for those old boys who still felt a strong attachment to the school and to those other pupils they had shared a good part of their lives with.
Before the First World War, when the school was still known as the Southwestern Polytechnic School for Boys, such organisations had existed under the names the Old Students Club and the Old Boys Club. After the war, it wasn't until 1921, with the school, now known as Sloane and housed in its Hortensia Road home, that The Old Cheyneans, as they were renamed, started again. Membership was open to Southwestern Polytechnic Old Boys as well as Sloane old boys, with fees being 2/6d (12.5p) per annum or £1 guinea (£1-1s-0d or £1.05p) for life. By 1931 full honorary membership was offered for the first year after leaving school and by 1933 the Old Cheyneans were meeting every Wednesday evening from 7pm-10.30pm to play bridge, table tennis, chess, badminton, bagatelle and shove ha'penny.
In 1933, an advert in The Cheynean talks of Old Cheynean Club ties, striped blazers, silk squares, woollen mufflers etc, being available from Jack Hobbs Ltd, 59, Fleet Street, WC2, where prices were 'very moderate'.
In 1925, the first Old Cheyneans Annual Supper was held at The Clarendon Hotel, Hammersmith, an event that later was also to be held at Chelsea Cloisters in Sloane Avenue.
1927 saw the Old Cheyneans given use of the Roehampton sports ground for the first time, but only for football. By 1933 the Service Clubs Sports Ground at Barnes Bridge was also being used for this purpose, whilst cricket was played at Putney Vale, after the Old Cheyneans Cricket Club was inaugurated a year earlier, in 1932. In 1956 the Cricket Club amalgamated with Mill Hill Park Cricket Club at Thames Ditton after the losing the ground they had in Richmond. 1959 saw the termination of the lease they had on the ground at Thames Ditton and they moved onto Richmond Athletic Ground, fielding four teams. In 1963 they moved their headquarters back to Thames Ditton when they were based at The Old Cranleighans ground.
It wasn't until after the Second World War, in 1949, that a third word was added to Old Cheyneans, and they became known evermore as the Old Cheyneans Association.
A check of the Internet reveals that the Cheyneans appear to have stopped playing in the London Old Boys' Soccer League after the 1966-67 season, when they finished 7th out of 11 teams. Their highest finishing position seems to have been the year they won the Old Boys' Premier League title in 1956-57. They did win the Old Boys' Senior Cup in 1952-53 and 1957-58 and were runners-up in 1929-30 and 1934-35. Old Cheyneans III were winners of the Junior Cup in 1959-60 and runners-up in seasons 1953-54, 1958-59 and 1960-61. The only success for The Cheyneans reserves came in the Intermediate (Kim Matthews) Cup Final of 1962-63, a competition in which they were also runners-up in 1936-37.
Classmate Brian Haynes, who played football for the Old Boys, has sent me photographic evidence of success for either the 2nd or 3rd XI in the 1958-9 football season, when they were Division Three West Champions of the Old Boys' League, as well as being runners-up in the Old Boys' Minors Cup. He also sent me evidence that he paid his dues, at least for the first year anyway, as the copy of the cheque below is the first one Brian ever wrote to someone else after being employed by Barclays in his first job after leaving school. It was for the princely sum of 2/6d. (For any potential identity thieves among you it should be pointed out that Brian doesn't still have the same bank details!) -
Selection Cards
Among Brian Haynes' memorabilia he found some of the Old Cheynean 'Selection' cards, which were used to notify members of detail about games they had been chosen to play in. Humour was never very far away where Brian and his old team mates were concerned so here's a selction of the cards with Brian's added humour highlighted -
Brian Haynes has also provided some Old Cheynean match reports from 1958-1962, taken from the West London Observer and the Fulham Chronicle, along with some pages from a copy of their Newsletter of 1964. Click on these links to view them and relive memories about some of the Old Boys mentioned -
Towards the end of the 1960s Old Boy numbers were beginning to dwindle and, after Sloane closed in 1970, there was no new blood at all to allow the Old Cheyneans to continue to play in the London Old Boys League, and they were compelled to join the Southern Olympian League instead. As numbers continued to fall, they became unable to field more than two teams, and even that became a struggle. They were left with no other option other than to amalgamate with Shene Old Grammarians, and sports trophies and other memorabilia from the Cheynean days were auctioned off. Their whereabouts are not known, so if anyone has any idea in whose hands they might be now, please let me know. Brian Haynes did hold on to his Old Boys League and Southern Olympian League handbooks, and they're shown below -
Brian Haynes alsosent me a recollection he has from his days with The Old Cheyneans. For a number of years, the Old Boys' First and Second Eleven football teams played against each other in an annual challenge match. The trophy, which the winner held for a year, was a toliet seat (minus the pan) painted in the Old Boys' colours. The Third and Fourth Elevens played a similar game for which the winner received an enamel 'potty', also painted in the OB's colours.
St Mark's College
There was never any real connection between Sloane and the College of St Mark and St John next door but it always felt as if there should have been. We always knew it simply as St Mark's. In truth any connection we had was limited to the sports we played against each other from time to time, the use of its running track for preliminary events prior to our own Sports Day once or twice, and the occasional venture into the College grounds by some unskilled Sloane boy whose ball had found its way there at break.
On an educational level, St Mark's Elementary School, as it became known during the Second World War, provided the boys for Sloane and the girls for Carlyle once they had passed their 11+ exam.
The College was set up, with the help of a parliamentary grant, in 1840-41, as The National Society for the Education of the Poor in the Principle of the Established Church. We can only be grateful that this mouthful was condensed to St Mark's by the time we attended the school that bordered it.
The grant provided for the purchase of Stanley House, or Grove, whose entrance was on the Kings Road and which had been built by Sir Arthur Gorge's father, Sir William Gorge, named 'Brickills', and left to Arthur on his father's death along with large portions of the Sir Thomas More estate. It subsequently passed to his wife, Lady Elizabeth Gorges, on the death of Sir Arthur on October 10th, 1625. She then leased it to their daughter, Elizabeth, the wife of Sir Robert Stanley until Elizabeth bought the property which, at the time stood in seven acres. The Stanley family retained possession of the house until 1691 when William Stanley, the last in the line, died. The size of the house can be ascertained from the entry in the return for the Hearth Tax (1662) which gives the name of Sir Charles Stanley for 11 hearths. The house was rebuilt after William's death and remained empty for some years until, in 1701, its first new occupant was Thomas White. Thereafter other residents are shown as Joseph Collins, Thomas Arundell, Admiral Sir Charles Wager, John Jackson, Mrs Francis Southwell, the Countess of Strathmore, Mr. Lochee, Richard Warren M.D., Mr. Leonard Morse, and William Hamilton, who bought the house in 1815 and who, at various times of his ownership, rented it to a Mrs Gregor, the Marquis of Queenberry, and a Colonel Grant. William Hamilton was, in fact, the husband of the infamous Lady Hamilton of Lord Nelson fame. He accompanied Lord Elgin to Greece as his Secretary and superintended the transportation of the marbles from the Parthenon in Athens. On his return he built a large hall with picture gallery on the east side of Stanley House and inserted some casts of the Elgin marbles, which are still in their place in the walls.
In 1840, William Hamilton sold the house and grounds to the National Society for £9,000 and a training school for teachers was built to the designs of Mr. Blore out of stock-bricks in a Romanesque style. Stanley House became home to the students, as well as the Principal's residence, until the Edward Blore designed block at its west end was opened. Built around a quadrangle in a Mixed Byzantine and Italianate style, this block remained until being replaced in the 1920s by a larger building which was itself later extended further west.
An early photo of St Mark's College staff
The school was renamed St Mark's College in 1843, when the chapel was consecrated, its first Principal being the Reverend Derwent Coleridge, son of poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge. He earned it such a high reputation that it was visited by Politician Lord Macaulay, author Charles Kingsley and the French Statesman François Guizot. Coleridge remained Principal until 1864 and, on March 12th, 1861 Leo Tolstoy also visited and essays prepared for him by pupils at the College can now be seen in the Tolstoy Museum, Moscow. In 1870 there were 104 students admitted, aged 18-21. They were mostly former pupil teachers, who paid nothing but a £10 entrance fee for 2 years residence. By 1890 their number had increased to 115. Accommodation was increased after amalgamation with St John's, Battersea in 1923 and, again, in the 1960s when numbers rose from 230 to 700.
St Mark's College Principals House and North Wing
The only time the College was closed was during World War II and it remained in Chelsea until the College of St Mark and St John moved to Plymouth, Devon in 1973. In 1975 the GLC compulsorily purchased the site as it was thought to be needed for the West Cross Route dual carriageway section of the A3220. It was only after spirited local resistance and government intervention that the GLC sold what was known as the Marjon site to Chelsea College, in 1980. They had not been the highest bidder and Kings College London took over Chelsea College soon after the purchase. They renovated many buildings as a campus but provoked further controversy in 1989 by proposing to sell the whole site for development. In 2002 that happened and Northacre and European Land jointly developed the site with 275 apartments and 14 houses, renaming it Kings Chelsea. Renovation cost £10 milion.
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