I spent my entire school life living in North Kensington and went to two schools. One was in Latimer Road, and the other in Du Cane Road, strictly speaking in Hammersmith. However, a number of pupils in the grammar school lived in various parts of North Kensington so I have described life at St Clement Danes Grammar School as it was part of my North Pole Road up-bringing.
Thomas Jones Primary School
I started my school life at Thomas Jones Primary School. The school was built in 1879 by the London School Board in what was then a densely populated and impoverished area. Its original name was Latimer Road Board School and it was one of approximately 400 schools built to provide education for working class children between 8 and 13 following Forster’s Education Act of 1870. It was an imposing, three-storey building hidden behind a high brick wall.
By 1947, when my mother walked me to school on my first day, it had been renamed Thomas Jones Primary School. I stepped through the gate marked BOYS and had my first view of the school itself. It seemed HUGE. Inside, I was overawed by the echoing stairwells, the high ceilings of the classrooms and the sound of children’s plimsolls squeaking on the parquet floors.
After that first day, I walked to school on my own, rain or shine. It was a long walk down Latimer Road, but there was very little traffic compared with today with no major roads to cross other than Oxford Gardens and Walmer Road. I only ever had one mishap: I ran across the entrance to the laundry works and got knocked down by a delivery truck. I got up, brushed myself down and continued walking to school.
Thomas Jones and Oxford Gardens seemed to be the primary schools for our part of North Kensington. The Head Mistress was Mrs Southcombe, and the only teacher I can remember was Mrs Warboys. The interior of the school was light and airy with plenty of windows and, I think, painted a light green or light blue.
We were in mixed classes of up to 30 or so in each class. A large brass bell, stored on top of the hall piano, was rung by a teacher at the end of each class time and at lunch time. Boys and girls shared a playground where I remember the chalked-out hopscotch squares. We played a variety of games: ‘jacks’, slide puzzles, a game played with ‘chippers’ – bottle tops which we slid against the wall, the nearest to the wall being the winner, and marbles, usually glass, but occasionally a steel ball bearing (much coveted).
In the first year we used slates to learn to write, later using steel nibbed dip pens and paper. The teachers wrote with chalk on blackboards perched on easels, I remember the chalk dust dancing in the sun shining through the windows.
I was so good at reading that I soon read all the school’s stock of books. Extra books were brought in from the local library for me to read. With hindsight, it shows the school as quite enlightened. I can clearly remember reading Jason and the Argonauts.
I was chosen to sit at the front of the class to help other pupils with their reading problems. My early excellence in English Literature came back to haunt me at my next school where I failed English Literature O Level.
One year, probably 1948 or 1949, I remember being given a ‘food parcel’ to take home. I think it was a gift from Australia, or maybe New Zealand or Canada. The parcels were handed out to each pupil as we left the building at home time. It was like an early Christmas. My Mum was surprised when I struggled in with a cardboard box and a paper bag. There were two tins of meat stew and red and green apples in the bag. There may have been more things, I simply can’t remember.
Later I became a milk monitor, which meant collecting milk crates from the playground and carrying them into school and distributing the 1/3 pint glass bottles to all the classrooms. The boys who were milk monitors all loved milk and a perk of the job was being allowed to keep the milk that was rejected by some pupils. We stored the extra bottles in our desks to drink later.
In winter the milk froze and pushed the caps off the bottles, so they had to be handled with care to avoid spills as the milk thawed. It never tasted quite the same after thawing. It was a great job, but horribly cold in winter, especially after a frost when the metal crates stuck to your fingers.
A messier job, which I didn’t do, was ink monitor. The ink monitor filled the ceramic ink wells in the desk tops with an enamel jug of blue/black ink. We wrote with steel nibbed, wooden handled pens. Later we were taught calligraphy using Osmiroid dip pens with italic nibs. I enjoyed the precision of that exercise – selecting the right nib and the right angle and producing straight lines of neat writing – an opportunity to discipline my usual scrawl, a skill I can still see in a Physics exercise book that survives from my secondary school.
We were also taught how to use a jig saw to cut out animal shapes in plywood. My Dad had to buy me a jig saw and spare blades.
In 1953 we learned about the coronation of Queen Elizabeth and drew pictures of the coronation coach and horses. We were introduced to another use for ‘chippers’. They were sorted into different colours and nailed to a large piece of wood to make messages and pictures which were hung across the street on Coronation day. We all received a Coronation mug and a booklet in which I wrote my name and address in extremely poor hand writing.
In 1954 a competition was set for pupils to design and build a miniature house using our own choice of materials. My friend Roger had a building kit of house plans, small scale bricks, windows, roofs and a weak mortar. I had collaborated with him in building balsa wood and doped paper aeroplanes, most notably a rubber band driven Chipmunk and a jet powered Sabre which we set light to before its launching. He agreed that I could use his kit to make my model house and I built a two-storey house. I struggled into school carrying my precious house, opened the cardboard box and found only a pile of bricks. I had misjudged the weight of the final house and the strength of the mortar.
One year I won a prize for Best Boy, a hard-back book of colour plates with interleaved tissue paper to protect the plates. I kept that book for many years but it has now disappeared. I do, however, still have the prize given to me in 1954 for First Boy in Class, signed by R.J. Southcombe, Head Mistress – The Modern Encyclopaedia for Children, much read judging by its broken binding.
I took my 11-plus in 1954 with all candidates for that year sitting at individual desks in the hall. Everyone was nervous as this was our first formal test. I passed the exam along with three other boys and one girl. I remember the names of those who passed: Alan Jewell, known as Jim, Alan Twydell, Ken Puxley and Barbara Mills. The whole school was assembled to hear the results and we were each told to stand so that the other pupils could stare – or was it glare? – at us. The boys all went to St Clement Danes Grammar School for Boys and Barbara went to Burlington Grammar School for Girls.
St Clement Danes Grammar School
St Clement Danes Grammar School was in Du Cane Road, close to North Pole Road, but just outside the North Kensington boundary. Burlington Girls School was opposite the junction of North Pole Road and Scrubs Lane. Much later the schools combined to form Burlington-Danes Mixed Grammar School. The playing fields were adjacent to each other and also next to Upper Latymer School playing fields. Thus we had a huge green area backing on to Wormwood Scrubs between Scrubs Lane and Hammersmith Hospitals.
I joined St Clement Danes in Form 2A in autumn 1954 and went through the progression of 3A, 4A, 5P, Upper 5P.
In 2A and 3A I found myself milk monitor again, no doubt due to my previous experience at Thomas Jones. It was good to see the same rules applied – the milk monitors had first dibs of left-over milk.
New pupils at St Clement Danes were known as ’Weeds’ and kept that status for the whole of their first year. Weeds were subject to certain ritual activities by the older pupils, mainly the Second Years and it was tough for a few weeks – unless you fought back. Rituals included walking through an avenue of older boys to the chant of “Weed, Weed, Weed” on the first day in the playground known as The Cage (see below), having your cap stolen and hidden, being tripped up in the playground, having balls pinched, chess sets knocked over etc. Sometimes, if you were brave enough, a threatening response including two words, ‘…. off’, meant you were likely to be left alone, though it could also mean a punch in the nose. This was much more of a risk if you were picked on by the upper form boys, but they got bored with Weed baiting quite quickly.
Our uniform was a bright green blazer and grey trousers, available from DH Evans in Oxford Street – the only approved supplier of blazer, badge, trousers, cap, tie, football shirt and socks. The school badge was a gold anchor on a blue ground, the school motto was Loyaute M’Oblige (Loyalty Binds Me), and the tie was diagonal stripes of blue, green and gold. I was placed in Temple house which had a navy blue bar as part of the badge. The other houses were: Dane (yellow), Clement (red), Clare (orange), Burleigh (maroon), Essex (purple), Exeter (light blue) and Lincoln (green). The houses were named after individuals associated with St Clement Danes’ Church in London and the Inns of Court.
In typical schoolboy tradition, basic uniform style was tweaked to be made more fashionable. In my time the cap came with a choice of short or long peak: short peak was the choice for the first year, but I soon learned that a long peak was fashionable for older boys, with the peak deliberate broken and bent down at the front. The prefects used to monitor boys walking to school and were quick to spot pupils without hats or with broken peaks – detention for repeat offenders.
The standard white shirt could be made more fashionable by buying one with a cutaway collar. My Dad wouldn’t buy these for me as he didn’t approve of this ‘new’ style. Boys could adapt a standard shirt by bending the collar points under and smoothing them with a hot iron. By the end of the day the collar was grubby from continuous fingering to make sure it kept its shape. The cutaway style led to the adoption of the Windsor knot, a double loop tie knot forming an equilateral triangle fitting closely to the cutaway collar. Much later, as I adopted Mod styles, I went back to the more traditional knot and about this time the Windsor became derided as a “cad’s knot” because it was favoured by that well-known cad the Duke of Windsor.
Trousers had a standard 18 inch width with turn-ups. Any attempt to reduce this to 16 or 14 inches wide and to have trousers without turn-ups was vigorously policed by prefects. It didn’t matter that most boys outside school hours wore drain-pipes or mod style trousers – in school the rule had to be enforced. Another trouser variation was the wearing of a colour-striped elastic belt with a snake fastening which was reluctantly accepted because the rules didn’t specify a belt colour.
I usually walked to school, until the fifth form when I started riding my bike. I’d leave North Pole Road at eight o’clock, then along Scrubs Lane and up Du Cane Road. From the bottom of Du Cane road I walked past the playing field of Latymer Upper and then Burlington. A hedge behind iron railings lined the pavement up to the school gates. The school itself was a long two-story building. Pupils usually walked around the back, past the bicycle sheds to enter the main building, the front door being reserved for important visitors only.
On the ground floor were the Hall, Dining Room, kitchens, the Headmaster’s office and a number of form and class-rooms as well as the gym. A long corridor ran the length of the building in front of the form rooms. This long straight echoing throughway would have been perfect for boys to run along before sliding to a halt in a loud squeaking of shoes, but unfortunately, in the centre of the corridor was the Headmaster’s office precinct which we were not permitted to cross either running or walking.
Also on the ground floor were the metal and wood workshops, run by the aptly named Mr Cleaver. Upstairs were more class-rooms and the library and science labs. Third and Fourth year form rooms were outside the main school building in large wooden cabins.
We were allocated to forms based on our expected career paths: science, commercial, languages etc, and we had our own form room and form master each year. We went through school life in the same form group with some minor alterations as people changed subjects between terms, but with a different room and form master each year. Within the form, we gathered into small groups: those who liked sport and worked hard in class, those who liked chess and probably worked even harder, those who preferred a smoke in the bike sheds and a few lost souls who seemed to do nothing much.
The teachers mostly seemed quite young and were enthusiastic but strict. They were supposed to wear an academic robe, but usually carried it in a bundle under their arm between classes, throwing it onto a cupboard for the duration of a lesson. One English master known as ‘Chopper’ carried a slipper for occasional light punishment, more to inflict indignity rather than pain. He was a good aim with a piece of chalk if he noticed concentration slipping. Most had a nickname – Plum, Crippin, Tadge, Frankenstein, Chopper, Cherry, Stalin etc.
Mr Barnes, known as Wally after the Arsenal footballer Wally Barnes, taught French. He had an easy and open teaching style and left me with a feel for the structure of languages which has been useful to me throughout my life. He also taught me enough conversational French for me to shine when a group of mates and I went on a day trip to Calais. Mr Cook taught maths, a more mature man, he knew a lot of shortcuts in algebra, again I found these useful later in life. Mr Cleaver ruled the workshops, Mr Kumatsu taught Physics and led the fencing class. Mr Allen taught Engineering Drawing and also sports, Mr Fogwill taught Geography and he was our form master in Form 4A. The other names have slipped my memory.
I enjoyed all the lessons, except religious instruction during which I caught up on my homework. I remember French, Maths and Chemistry especially as being well taught and filled with revelations – completely new topics.
Form 4A in 1957 outside the main entrance to the school
Back row
: Hewson, Hill, Barratt, Hudson, Rice, Jackson, Ray, Collett, Clark, Trood, Seabridge, Reeves.
Middle row:
Rudge, Bowen, Clarke, McGregor, Denton, Piper, Regis, King, Trowell, Yates, Ibbott, Napper
Front row:
Henry, Wilkins, Pritchard, Bonehill, Mr Fogwill (form master), Durban, Jewell, Hounsome, Key, Nunn
We were kept busy with school work but found time for other activities. We made bombs from mercury fulminate, which, wrapped into a brown paper parcel, made a satisfying bang when thrown at the walls. We managed to acquire copious amounts of mercury to play with which we stored in our desks. Health and safety had not been invented then.
There were school sanctioned activities such as the Debating Society, the Fencing Club and the school orchestra. The orchestra gave periodic recitals which we were forced to enjoy. One of the lads in our form, Regis played the piano in the orchestra. He was auditioned by the Bel Airs group who played at the Youth Club in the Sutton Dwellings, but his style was too jazzy for them. The school magazine ‘The Dane’ was produced by a group of boys using the library. It was printed as a small booklet and looked very professional, perhaps a local printer was involved.
The cadet group drilled in the playground after school and were able to strip and re-assemble old Lee-Enfield rifles, Sten guns and Bren guns. They used blanks to test them and were allowed to live-fire them on an indoor range near White City. Rounds were handed out and signed for and were counted back in, including the spent shell cases, to ensure that no live rounds found their way into the outside world.
Sport helped us to keep busy throughout the year. The playground was enclosed in a 3 metre high chain link fence known as The Cage. The height was not so much to keep the kids in, but to reduce the number of escaping balls. This was actually very helpful since we could play without the need to chase after the ball when it missed the goal. The Cage had handball courts marked out with painted lines and provided with nets. We played tennis at playtimes, using bare hands to hit a tennis ball. This was self-taught, mainly using the knowledge boys acquired from their older sisters.
We played cricket in the summer using portable stumps on a wooden base, hinged to fall back if hit by the ball. Football was played all year round, often using a tennis ball which was good for improving ball skills. The goal was marked out by jackets piled up against the fence. There was a craze for full size balls made of bright orange plastic. I remember going to Hammersmith to buy one from a sports shop owned by Wally Barnes. The balls punctured easily, especially when hit with force against the fence, but they could be repaired with a tool heated up on the gas cooker and pressed onto the hole, a faintly pleasant smell of melting plastic accompanied this repair (Quick someone – invent Health and Safety). When the hole was sealed the ball was pumped up again using a high-pressure bicycle pump. Hit hard and cleanly with the foot it made a pleasing “Booiiiiing” noise. A select group of more intellectual pupils played chess in a quiet corner using pocket chess boards.
In winter, The Cage was ideal for making slides on the frosty and icy surface – our form of winter sports. The corners were good for trapping the poor suffering Weeds and peppering them with snowballs.
The playing fields were used for games between form teams, house teams and other schools. The school preferred whites to be worn for cricket, but not everybody could afford them so a white shirt with grey trousers was an accepted alternative. As well as marked-out and manicured pitches there were nets and cradles for cricket practice.
For football we wore green and gold shirts with a slip-on tabard in House colours. Boots were big clunky leather with nailed-in studs, and the ball was also leather. Both boots and ball became heavy and caked in mud in wet weather. Cleaning the boots was a horrible job, a toothbrush was needed to get the soles clean. They had to be coated with ‘Dubbin’ to stop them drying out and cracking. The smell of Dubbin in winter and linseed oil in summer was constantly with us.
The annual sports day was held before school broke up for the summer holidays. Competitions were held between House teams. A running track was prepared on the grass and other field activities were laid out in the middle. I was good at the 100 yards and 220 yards, but not the longer races. A small group of boys whose parents could afford spiked shoes won most of the races, the rest of us puffed along in plimsolls. The cross country, which was mandatory, started and finished at the school but included a long section on Wormwood Scrubs reached by the lane running beside the prison.
The annual swimming gala was held at Godolphin Road open air baths in Shepherd’s Bush, near to Lime Grove studios. Because I had a ‘poorly’ chest I was excused swimming, so I went as a spectator, enjoying the sunshine.
On 19 October 1958 we visited St Clement Danes church for its re-consecration. The church had been badly damaged in May 1941 during the last air raid of the Blitz. Following an appeal for money by the Royal Air Force the church was completely rebuilt. We went by coach to the City of London and the trip was combined with a visit to the Guild Hall.
School dinners were excellent, cooked on site and served by a cheery crowd of dinner ladies. We found that if we went to The Cage to play football as soon as the dinner bell went, and didn’t go to the dining room until we judged that most pupils were finishing, we could help ourselves to all the left-over food. Puddings included stodgy jam sponge, spotted dick, fruit crumble – all with lots of custard, or such delights as rice, semolina and tapioca. Two helpings of these was our standard. We didn’t give a thought to the dinner ladies who may well have wanted the left-overs for their own lunch
In December there was an end of year concert in the hall. The school orchestra provided most of the music and there were games, singing (Ten Green Bottles, Clementine and other traditional tunes) and attempts by the staff to act out funny sketches.
I enjoyed my time at St Clement Danes – we had good access to scientific and engineering subjects and I in 1959 I gained 6 O Levels: Maths, Chemistry, Engineering Drawing, Woodwork, French and English, failing at English Literature and, regrettably, not even being good enough to enter the Physics exam, failing the mock O level. My friends at home were amazed and I became a local celebrity for such prowess, as O level results were announced in the local paper. It was clear that my family would not be able to afford for me to do A levels and go to University, instead I was going to have to find a job.
Alan Seabridge, 2020
North Kensington Histories 
Hello Alan, I greatly enjoyed your recollections of schooldays. I went to Oxford Gardens School and lived in Oxford Gardens so not much of a commute for me each day! I started in 1961 and remember being both ink monitor for a time (extremely messy, as you say) and milk monitor. Curiously, my parents always implied they wanted me to leave school after O levels, but then seemed to change their minds so I stayed for A levels and then university. I’d be fascinated to hear what you did after school. Did you stay in the area?
Tom
Hi Tom, thanks for your comments, glad you enjoyed the journey back. I seem to remember you guys at Oxford Gardens had a smart uniform – blue blazer?? I left the area in 1964 After school I worked at University College London, then went to work at Glasgow University. During that time I got qualifications in electronic s engineering and in 1969 started at British Aircraft Corporation, as it was then as a systems engineer, in Lancashire. I stayed there until 2006, retiring as Chief Flight Systems Engineer. I have written a number of books on aircraft systems published by John Wiley and I am still used by Cranfield University as an external engineer, (on Google if you ever feel the need for a book on aircraft engineering!). I guess that science or engineering was always going to be my career and thanks to some enlightened employers, that is what I achieved – and I would do it all over again. Regards, Allan
Hi Allan, so glad to hear you enjoyed your career – I’m definitely going to look up your books! One of my slight regrets is that I never really managed to live anywhere far from North Kensington – I live in Acton just a mile or so away and once or twice a week I still cycle along Du Cane Road, into North Pole Road and up Oxford Gardens. All very different from half a century ago.
Best wishes, Tom
Thanks you for that detailed and fascinating account of your schooldays. In many ways it mirrors my experiences at St. Mary’s East Row and, later, the Sacred Heart at Hammersmith where uniformity of uniform and being seen to be a good catholic girl whilst also achieving academic success were paramount. The emotional and psychological harm the nuns imposed on their pupils at the Sacred Heart was not considered at all. Prayer was stated to be the cure for all things.
Hi, i remember Mrs Southcombe as head and i was also a milk monitor, i lived opposite the vol in latimer rd and joined thomas jones school in 1953, loved the area and the school, very sad to leave both.
Such a lovely read , thank you for sharing your memories. I went to Thomas Jones primary as a child and have such fond memories of my time there. I left in 1969 and went to hammersmith county girls school .
When I went to the school, about 1942/3 it was called Latimer Road School. I lived about 400yards from the school in Oldham Road. I remember being in the infants part, where we had an afternoon sleep on camping beds set up in the infants playground. In the junior school we did our lessons and had 1/3 pints of milk daily and spoonful of a syrup and that spoon seemed to be used for the whole school, and I seem to remember having an vaccination too. At age 11 I went to North Kensington School in 1950 to the technical side as opposed to the clerical side. I left school at age 15 to start work. ( I wasted most of my time at North Ken. If only I knew then what I know now, I would have paid more attention to the hard working teachers).
I Have a school report from July 1949 position 6 in class signed by Mr G.Palmer and counter signed by Head Mistress L. Southcombe
Hello James, I don’t remember having a nap at school, you were obviously better lokked after than us later pupils. I don’t recall getting a spoonful of syrup either. Thanks for the prompt about Mrs Southcombe, her initial was indeed ‘L’, a very loopy ‘L’ which I misread on the book as ‘R’ one out of ten for handwriting, Mrs Southcombe. I also can’t recall the change from Infants to Juniors, even though I have tried hard to remember.
I’m sure the Blog would like to have a copy of the report as a real artefact from the school, why not send a Jpeg to them. Question for Sue: is there a repository for real artefacts, I’m sure my kids will throw my book in the bin when I go.
Hi Allan,
Regarding an archive for depositing items of interest, there are only the local council archives, Kensington and Chelsea Local Studies at the Central Library and Hammersmith and Fulham at Shepherds Bush. Of course both are shut at the moment and I can’t vouch for what they will accept.
For a short time there was an archive in North Kensington, thé Community Archive but obtaining funding proved too difficult so the archive was moved to the Borough to be looked after by them.
Sue
Alan, I am absolutely delighted to this read this incredibly detailed account of your life in North Kensington, especially as it so closely mirrors my own, including our both going to the same two schools at exactly the same time, and even passing the 11-plus together !!
My family lived at 67 Bramley Road, close to Latimer Road Station, so I had a shorter walk round to Thomas Jones Junior School, but a much longer walk to our grammar school in Du Cane Road…
Co-incidentally, I also managed to pass six 0-levels on leaving St Clement Danes, and like yourself there was no question of being able to afford staying on for further education.
Fortunately I had an excellent interview with the Careers Officer in our final year who gave me what turned out to be really excellent advice to study to become an Accountant/Company Secretary. Consequently I became ‘articled’ to a West End Chartered Accountant/Auditor, and was soon taking the No 15 bus every day from Ladbroke Grove to Oxford Circus, thus starting out on a career sustaining the next 50 years employment.
These days we spend half our lives living in a property we have in Eastbourne, Sussex the other half of the year in The Algarve in Portugal, but I did recently tour round North Kensington reviving old memories, and was shocked to see that our old Grammar School premises had completely vanished, our old Junior School barely recognizable, and the house we used to live in Bramley Road replaced by a vast housing estate.
Thank you again for your excellent article, its so good to read something written almost exactly as I remember it, especially as many of these places just don’t exist any more.
Best Wishes, Ken
Hey Ken, after all these years. It is great to hear you. I have searched for you face in school photos to no avail. I have had a few chats on Facebook with Jim Jewell, but I have never come across Alan Twydell. Good to see that the grammar school system worked for some of us. It was a shock about the school – I had en e-mail from a lady who was Head of Art in the school in the 1990s and she was shocked when it was destroyed. I live in Lancashire. I worked for 8 years at University College London in Gower Street. If we ever get a permit to leave our tiers (Tier 3 here) I will try to take a look around to make a change from Google Maps. See reply to Tom Quinn above for my life after school.
Do you remember the food parcel from Aus????
All the best Ken, Regards Allan
Good to hear from you too Allan, can’t imagine why you didn’t come across my face in old school photo’s, I believe I have one of my Form 5P pics (with teacher Ralph Pooley), back at home in UK – I will try to upload it when we get back…. but I do remember most faces/names of those in your pic of Form 4A, I particularly remember Mick Keys as being a very nice guy.
I have not been one for social media in general but I did come across John Ryell from my class fairly recently, he had been very unfortunate in that having secured a very good trainee Assessor position in the Insurance industry in The City, based on predicted GCE results while at our school, in the event when results were published later he fell short and they terminated his employment after just three months. He had found it difficult to recover..
So you are right its good to know the system worked for some of us, it would be interesting to know just how many !
It was some years before I came to realise the huge financial sacrifices my parents made to get me (and my younger brother and sister) through the Grammar School system, to give us a better start in life, what with all the associated costs of relatively expensive school uniforms, sports equipment etc etc, bearing in mind our humble beginnings and coming from what is now widely referred to as a slum area at that time.
I hope we can keep in touch Allan, maybe when all this dreadful Covid 19 business is over hopefully sometime next year, we might possibly be able to arrange to meet up together with any old faces from back in the day, perhaps somewhere in the North Kensington area, it would be great to share and compare memories from our school days.
Sorry to say I do not remember the food parcel from Aus.
Take care, stay safe, best regards, Ken
Hi.
Did you have a brother named Tony
Regards. Peter Norrington.
Hello Peter,
This is Tony Puxley, responding to your message to my brother Ken.
I remember you (and a younger brother) who lived just round the corner from us in Bramley Road (first house past Fahey`s paper/sweet shop on the corner, in Blechynden Street (?))
For some reason I have a strange -sounding memory of being in your front room with someone lighting a coal fire and using opened newspapers to create a draught to get the fire started !
I hope you have fared well..
Best regards
I passed my dreaded 11 plus and went from Bevington Road School to St Clement Danes, Dane House. I, too was in 2A, 3A, 4A, Vp and UVp. I remember the restrictions on shirts and trousers and in addition, the colour of socks which had to be grey or black. At the time, luminous socks were all the teenage rage but not allowed. I seem to remember an older boy by the name of Buckle who wore them and we all admired his rebellious spirit. Fashion in tie knots had moved on and the challenge was to make the smallest knot possible. Some of the lads cut out the lining of the tie in order to achieve this. Other teachers’ names and nicknames: “Drac” (he taught Latin and German) I forget his surname; Mr “Jim” Purser taught French (and one of my favourite teachers, maybe because I passed French GCE O level) Mr Harvey (Biology, although our stream did not have Bio); Mr “Polly” Port; Mr Hill (sadly, a WW1 RA officer who would lapse into shellshock during a lesson and we had to get Ms Rose (the school secretary) to take care of him; Mr Nichols who became asst Head; Mr Mason for woodwork, great teacher; Mr “Jock” Grimes, he of the puddle jumper trousers; Mr Cleaver’s nickname was “Meatball”, but I do not know why; Chopper and Chipper Thompson, the latter being the CO of the CCF detachment of which I was a member and when it was disbanded, I moved on to Fulham High Street’s ACF unit, P Battery 254 RA. Happy days in the ACF. We also waited until the last minute to go into lunch so we could have second helpings of everything. Having mentioned Ms Rose, does anyone remember having to return the attendance register to its box outside her office? BTW, I always wondered why no teacher thought of getting hold of binoculars and spotting the boys who were smoking in the cage. As an ex-smoker, I still wonder how they did not smell smoke on our clothes and hair. Maybe it was just policy not to open that can of worms for if you ever had to deliver anything to the staff common room, upon knocking and the door opening you were overwhelmed by the smoke coming out of that room.
Thanks, Michael – some good memories. I think Drac was Mr Cook. my wife found some interesting facts on the SCDG website on nick names. I have to say I don’t remember Ms Rose or the attendance register.
Hello Alan, I often wondered what happened to you after 1964, Interesting biography of you, I remember you dating the girl with the bouffant hair style, I think you both met in Rosa’s Cafe by the Pav Pub…I remember Thomas Jones and the Australian tinned meat products, it was roughly 10 cans of cooked beef. I took up being a Carpenter & Joiner self employed. retired a couple of years ago. I have 4 children, 11 grandchildren, 5 great grandchildren, now live in Twickenham.
Hi Ken – nice to hear from you. I am writing a rather lengthy follow-on to these and I have mentioned you in that. I recall that you were a really talented artist. I remember you living in Bracewell Road, next door to the ginger girls?? Janet and Wendy Evans, remember them? I went into the aerospace industry eventually and retired in 2006.remind me again about the girl with the bouffanrt hairstyle. It is interesting that you remember the Australian tinned meat – nobody else does. Best regards, keep well. Allan
Remember the days at the Alexander Youth Club at the Suttons Alan, when we started a music dive upstairs in the loft area, the pop groups used to rehearse/play for us,Gabby on base guitar, Mick Tolley on lead guitar. what about that Indian Motor cycle bike that we bought for £20 it was parked outside Bobs hse in highlever rd. I don’t think we managed to finally pay the last payment on it. The girl you was dating I think she had what’s called a “Beehive” style hairdo, did you settle down with her?……Hope you’re keeping well in your Bunker
BW Ken
Weeds was still used for my first years, 1970-71. A.Barnes retired 1972.
Hello Alan,
I was at Danes from 1955 to 1972/73 and left with A levels to become a Charteded Accountant
A wonderful story of St Clement Danes covering every aspect of school life.I went to Danes in 1955 after my parents and I had been interviewed by McGill Clouston.
I see Jim Jewel every so often together with Bill Groombridge , Tony Smith, and Dave Denton. We all wentbon tomplay football for the Old Danes.
Was sad to see that Don Palmer recently died, he did so much to enchance the school’s football reputation.
The one thing we all seem to say is that the quality of the school education was excellent.
I have been once to the new SCD at Chorleywood and I am very impressed with their set up
Michael – surely you and I started in Form 2a together at Danes in September 1956, not 1955. I bailed out after five years in 1961 – but did you really go on until1973? Or perhaps it was 1963? Sorry to be so pedantic, but a career in press and PR has resulted in me being a bit obsessive about the right dates etc.
Personally I found McGill Clouston, the Gob, a strange and equally pedantic man. He once hauled my old mum up to the school for a towsing because I had declined the chocolate pudding at lunch! And I found the necessity to hoist up our trousers for a colour of sock inspection bizarre and preposterous. Or the obligation to wear a cap within a mile of the school, or whatever it was, or suffer a detention if caught without, crackers. There were many such daft and petty trivialities like those to deal with which, sadly, I was unable to respect or overcome. As for that man Nichols……
Never mind, sixty years later perhaps reflection allows a more generous view. Perhaps.
Best regards to yourself Mike, and to anybody else reading this who may remember me.
Michael Cope – Hi Michael. like Geoff below I was going to query your 17 year dedication to school! I have been trying to get hold of Jim Jewell but he no longer responds to messages. I have only returned today from a visit to the area to recall where I once lived many years ago. it all seems familiar, yet so much smaller. I did enjoy being at SCDGS, I don’t remember being aware of too many rules, as geoff was, usually we took advantage of rules as a targets to be broken. regards
mike – a bit late catching up, good to hear your views. I have only last week heard from Bill Groombridge. He tells me bad news about Jim Jewell – dementia has hit him very hard. I am trying to sort out some names with BIll – he was in the year ahead of me. I started in 1954 and left in 1959 from Upper Vp. I have group ohotos from Form II in 1954 and 4a in 1957. I would like 3a in 55, Vp in 58 and U Vp in 59. Do you have any school pics? Foina from SCD archives is looking for names of Upper Vs in 57 – any ideas. I can post the photo. I have recently heard from Ken Puxley,also an accountant, Bob Rudge, civil servant and Bill, tax inspector – I in contrast was an engineer in the aerospace industry. regards, allan
mike – a bit late catching up, good to hear your views. I have only last week heard from Bill Groombridge. He tells me bad news about Jim Jewell – dementia has hit him very hard. I am trying to sort out some names with BIll – he was in the year ahead of me. I started in 1954 and left in 1959 from Upper Vp. I have group ohotos from Form II in 1954 and 4a in 1957. I would like 3a in 55, Vp in 58 and U Vp in 59. Do you have any school pics? Foina from SCD archives is looking for names of Upper Vs in 57 – any ideas. I can post the photo. I have recently heard from Ken Puxley,also an accountant, Bob Rudge, civil servant and Bill, tax inspector – I in contrast was an engineer in the aerospace industry. regards, allan
Kenny Rumsey – Hi Ken thanks for the comments. I had forgotten that the youth club was called the Alexander and I definitely remember the music dive, we painted room entirely black and installed UV lights – it seemed to go well the kids, but Barran was horrified – he paid for the paint. I do remember the group called the Bel Airs. Gabby Connolly was the bass guitarist – he joined the Detours shortly before Roger Daltry joined and they became the Who, but not with Gabby. The drummer was Ray Cleary and the lead guitarist was named Ray Tully, at least in my memory – he had a white Telecaster for a while. the rhythm guitarist was another Ray, I think he moved from Barry Bullen’s group, and the singer was Tony someone. I found some of this in books by Pete Townsend and Roger Daltry and other music biographies. The Indian motor bike, a Brave or a Scout??, I can’t imagine why we bought that, I’m not sure that we ever got it started, but I do recall pushing it to NP Road from somewhere up west. We spent weeks messing around with it. I had a Lambretta at the time. Ahh the girls with beehive hairdos, I think I knew a few of them – Rosa’s cafe was good for meeting young ladies. Do you remember us getting mixed up in a Moseley march in Latimer Road, we bumped into a large crowd of blackshirts whilst out strolling one evening and we had to scarper up Highlever road chased by the police. you jumped into a garden and escaped whilst I got picked up and carted off to the police station in a van with a large dog for a good talking to. I kept well clear of political rallies after that. It’s nice to hear from you, your comments get my memories working. I am coming to London to have a look around our stamping ground next week.
All the best mate. Regards, Allan
Hi Alan, The Moseley March was in fact part of The Notting Hill race riots, a fracas started over in wormwood scrubs fun fair, where some local lads started fighting with the fairground kids, the police were called and we followed the crowd all down Latimer Rd. we heard the police siren and darted off round highlever rd.. where it happened…I am on FB and belong to various groups “born in W10” “born in W11” I search the internet and local archives for photos and memorabilia of our area and post them. if you click on any of those groups type my name ken rumsey you will see all of my posts/photos… on the FB page top right corner there is a magnifying glass,click my name in that and all my posts will show from 2011…
Best Wishes Ken
l remember Thomas Jones school and how it was so overwhelming when i went there first i have been winning prizes for the codebreaker puzzes in the national newspaper since leaving there all those years ago
Felicity – when were you there, and what experiences did you have, what do you remember, do you remember any names of teachers or pupils? Since I wrote that article things keep comng back to me and I have since ‘met’ from their responses people that I have not talked to since 1959 – unfortunately we have not been able to meet face to face. maybe your memories will add to mine. Did you stay in the area, if so for how long? regards, allan
I only can wish I had paid more attention to the lessons in class
The tins of meat were Tom Piper stewing steak! De liceous, particularly during rationong.
Other masters at Danes – Jack Harvey and Doc Bather, both economics; Harry Beales, art; Drack Halliday, Ralph Pooley, history; “Gummy” Amelot, Bio Bill Powers, Tadge Cook, english ; Percy Taylor, Mr Flett, lithographs; Mr Spurgeon.
Also Mike Cope modestly has not said that he was head boy!
Sorry can’t remember exact dates at present.I remember the Jones girls Irene,Erica,Dimps! And the caretaker and family
thanks Felicity – I can only remember the following girls Gilian Allen, Catherine Durant, Barbara Hewison, Barbara MIlls, Pauline Rimmel. From the final year – probably when I began to notice girls. I am just trying to get some more information about what it was like at that school in the 1950s. I was 4 when I started. Allan
Was Barbara Mills from the garage near the baths?
Hello Allan–Looking at the photo of us I am the small one first on the top left. Reading through this has brought back many memories-one of which was chatting to Mr.Nicholls who was head of geography. I was a special constable in uniform at an incident by the school but it took him only about ten seconds to remember me. Don Macgreggor worked as a police constable starting on the beat in Lambeth, then on the boats at Barnes and when McNea came down from the Clyde and promptly closed some of the boat stations he transferred to the House of Lords.–He was the first officer on the killing of Airey Neave there. Arthur Regis now lives in Germany and has made music his life and living and has backed many of the top artists including Tom Jones and others. Kevin Bartholomew became a Captain in the army and was there in the Iraq war. I could not quite beleive it to begin with because Bart was never one for discipline. You mentioned Mr.Cook(Tadge) he taught us english. Mr.Hyde(Bogeye)taught us statistics and was our form master–I am still bemused how I got a school prize for service and attainment under his watch.-I have it today complete with Mr.Clouston’s signature.
After he retired the new head disappeared off with Miss Rose the school secretary. You mentioned Drac-that was Mr.Halliday who taught Latin-thank goodness I only had anything to do with him when he was an officer in the cadet corps and I was assistant armourer!
So many memories and yet we never thought that we would still be around at the age of 80–If you have time I am on facebook and whatsapp—Best Wishes-Roland Hewson
Hi Roland, I have seen your post and left a message on FaceBook, allan
Hello Alan,
I was at SCDGS from 1953 to 1960. Won a State Scholarship for physics and maths, then failed my first year of a physics degree! Got a psychology degree some years later.
I’m still in touch with Alan Russell and Ken Bromfield. Alan lives in California and Ken lives in Fulham.
Also in contact with me, Bill Groombridge, and I still keep in touch with a few ODs, including Ken Bromfield.
Hi Bill, nice to hear from you again. Re your query about Barbara Mills living near the garage . I don’t know. my main memory of her is that she was the only girl of that year at Thomas Jones to pass her 11 plus, along with me, Jim Jewell, Ken Puxley and Alan Twydell. She went to Burlingto. I have been briefly in touch with Ken Puxley and Roland Hewson but nothing recently.
Hello Leon, good to see some new comments. I don’t recall any of the names you mention – I guess you were in the year after me, so I probably only recall you as weeds in the cruel rituals of the time. It would be good to hear of your experiences at school, and after. I guess you know of the Old Dane’s information at the site St Clement Danes. I have had some discussions with the archivist there, there are some group photos.
Thanks Alan,
Some other names I remember from SCDGS are Ray (Dan) Faiers, Ron Lee, and Malcolm Thurlbeck. Ray and Ron worked for Rank Xerox (UK) as I did for a while. Sadly, Ray developed MS. I met up with Malcolm a few years later in a pub – we just happened to be in the same pub in Acton for Friday drinks with work colleagues. We had a boozy couple of hours in the West End the following day. Haven’t seen him since.
I really enjoyed my time at SCDGS, although I was always getting into trouble for talking in class. ‘Chopper’ Thompson used to whack me with a slipper.
See this bio on my blog for details of my life after school:
http://g1hsm.blogspot.com/2023/09/leons-bio.html
Leon – thanks for the update. I screwed up the dates, you were a year ahead of me, Bill Groombridge’s year?? -so I would have been the weed being battered. An interesting biog, we may almost have crossed paths. I spent my time in aerospace in the defence world, (I am still with the company heritage group) and retired as Chief Flight Systems Engineer. I have come across Racal and spent time in Germany. I believe that I got a good grounding at SCDGS, and I still believe that Grammar Schools were a good thing. I still don’t recognise any names, yet we were only a year apart. I do remember Chopper, though managed to avoid much of his punishments. I only occasionally get to London for the odd holiday weekend and I have never met a single person from the school since leaving in 1959, only recently a few finding ourselves on this site. It was a surprise see a newcomment after so long, the site has been inactive for a a couple of years. Regards, Allan
Hello Allan,
Just stumbled across your blog. I was at SCDGS 1955-62. I started in form 2A (I think) and ended up in the 6th form (L6S and U6S), and then stayed on in 7S. I did an engineering apprenticeship (thick sandwich) in the Midlands, and university in Southampton. Then emigrated with my new wife to Canada, where we’ve been for the last 56 years.
I loved your descriptions of the school. I remember that once we were in the 6th form, we were able to wear black blazers instead of the spinach-green ones.; and as exalted people, we could leave the school grounds during the day; that meant that we could go across the road to the lorry-drivers’ caff, and order a mug of tea and a cheese cob – how grown-up we thought we were. Yes, I remember how the ground-floor corridor was split in two by invisible barriers; the only way across was to go upstairs at one end, across the upper corridor, and down the other side; the teachers and (I think) the prefects were allowed to use the lower route.
I used to get to school by trolley-bus (628 & 630) up Wood Lane from Hammersmith Broadway, and then walk along Du Cane Road, straightening my tie, and putting on my cap as I walked.
I was good at athletics. One spring the school team was in a competition at the old White City Stadium – we felt very grand as we entered the centre-field by way of the athletes’ tunnel). And I swam with the Dolphins swim club in Lime Grove just off Shepherds Bush.
And I remember the porter/custodian who lived in the house by the bike-sheds: “Git owt, or I’ll froew you owt!”, he would say if he found us in one of the ‘huts’ instead of in the ‘cage’.
Drac was my form-master when we were in one of the huts; we played him up no end; we collected hundreds of ‘daddy-long-legs’ from the sports field, and released them in his Latin class; and one winter’s day, a plimsoll found its way into the coal-burning stove in Drac’s classroom; poor man, he should never have been a teacher; I failed Latin O-Level twice (but at least that kept me away from Oxbridge!).
Despite all the debates about the merits of the 11+, I did well out of the Grammar School system.
Here are a couple of books about life in North Ken:
– Johnson, Alan (2013). This Boy
– Wheal, Donald James. (2005). World’s End: A memoir of a Blitz childhood.
Hi Michael, I’m glad you found it interesting. I am surprised that you found it after all this time. I gather from your journey to school that you may not have lived in North Ken, so I wonder how you found the blog. As you will see from reading other comments, quite a few old boys have responded, some I knew well, other I did not know at all. I have to say that I don’t recall your name, but there was never much communication across the years. I didn’t get to the 6th form, but by one means and another I managed to get a string of appropriate qualifications and two degrees that got me to Chied Engineer in a major Briritsh aircraft company. I retired in 2006, but still put in weekly service at their Heritage Centre. I have read Alan Johnson’s book and there are many other blogs and some books out there – if you lived in North Kensington – and I am still in contact with a couple of people from my year, 1954 to 1959, who also responded to the blog. Good to hear from you, if you want to say more or ask questions please do. Regards, Allan