By Ian McInnes
The words ‘Dulwich’ and ‘Schools’ are synonymous, yet whenever Dulwich appears in press articles or on TV, it tends to be the local Foundation Schools, Dulwich College, Alleyns and JAGS, that are mentioned. Locals know we have excellent state schools in terms of academic performance, their children use them, but perhaps not everyone realises that we also have some of the best examples architecturally. Primary schools like Bessemer Grange and Dulwich Wood (formerly Langbourne School) were trend setters in the 1940s and 50s, as Kingsdale and Charter are in more recent times, and the Charter School East Dulwich will be. And, we should also not forget the Victorian Board Schools, East and West Dulwich have an excellent selection of them, in good condition and, more importantly, all in their original use.
'Forster's Act', the pioneering Elementary Education Act of 1870 was the first to establish a national, secular, non-charitable provision for the education of children aged 5-13. The Act required partially state-funded elementary schools to be established in areas where existing provision was inadequate. These were to be managed by elected school boards, and maintained out of the local rates. The two driving forces were the need for a literate and numerate workforce to ensure that Britain remained at the forefront of manufacture and commerce (where have we heard that recently?), and a genuine desire amongst many politicians to 'educate our masters' - the 1867 Reform Act had extended the franchise to the male urban working classes and they needed to be able to read and write.
The Act empowered school boards to educate children between the ages of 5 and 13 but exempted any child aged over 10 who had reached certain standards. The Act meant that attendance at school became compulsory and, although, the schools initially charged fees, poor parents could be exempted.
The School Board of London was the first to be founded in 1870. It was the most influential and one of the first truly democratic elected bodies in Britain, containing both women and members of all social classes. Its members included five MPs, eleven clergymen, the scientist Thomas Huxley, suffragist/educationalist Emily Davies, Dr Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, Benjamin Lucraft -, a working-class cabinetmaker, and city solicitor and local resident, Henry Gover (1835-95) - who lived at ‘Lyncombe’ No 1 Crescent Wood Road)
The Board's politics were ambitious and progressive, passing a by-law compelling parents to send children to school as early as 1871 - this was not compulsory nationally until 1880. However, while the stated intention was to keep children in school till aged 13, the reality was that many left by the age of 10 to earn money to help keep their families. It wasn’t until 1900 that 13 became the school leaving age.
Urban planning was not something the Victorians gave a great deal of thought to initially, and the piecemeal development of East Dulwich during the 1870s demonstrates this - it was left entirely to market forces. As a result, construction of schools usually came later than the housing and the buildings tended to have to fit onto the sites that were left - hence the frequent need to build them three floors high. Where a demand was identified, the Board would put up temporary corrugated iron huts to generate initial interest before building the actual school itself.
The schools themselves were designed to be architecturally imposing, to demonstrate that education was a noble purpose. By Victorian standards they were well built, light and airy, and the Board’s architects, E R Robson (from 1871-82) and T J Bailey (from 1882 onwards), created a distinctive and highly influential board school aesthetic. Their preference for the ‘Queen Anne style’ was then seen as forward looking, and was a reaction against the mid-Victorian Gothic Revival generally used for educational buildings up until that point - compare the 1860s buildings at Dulwich Hamlet with the later 1890s ones.
The schools did not escape contemporary criticism - both on the gr