es 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 grounds of the expense to rate-payers, and for potentially radicalising the urban poor through secular education. Supporters like Charles Booth were unapologetic, believing in the power of universal education to transform society. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle called Board Schools ‘'Beacons of the future! Capsules with hundreds of bright little seeds in each, out of which will spring the wiser, better England of the future'. The unpopularity of the Board with ratepayers, however, led to its abolition in 1902 and responsibility for educating London's children was transferred to the London County Council.
Bellenden Road School in Peckham (listed Grade II) was the first to open in the area in 1877. The first school to actually be built in East Dulwich was Heber Road Primary School in 1882. Designed by E R Robson, it is typical of his later work, and appears to be largely unaltered externally. The halls are located in the centre of the complex and an unusual tower marks the staircase at the west end. The twin facades to the north and south have flower motifs and plaques on every gable. The buildings were sympathetically re-roofed by Southwark Council about ten years ago.
Adys Road School was designed by T J Bailey when he was chief assistant to E R Robson - it is now the St Johns & St Clements C of E Primary School. Goodrich Primary School, T J Bailey's first school designed on his own, followed in 1886-87 and was published in the ‘Builder’ magazine the following year. There is a two storey (Boys and Girls) block with classroom façade facing to the north and hall façade facing south to the playground. The one storey (Infant) block to the south with has delicate bas reliefs on its gable ends. The roof which has been replaced, unfortunately without some of its original detail, and there is a later "bridging" block between the two main blocks which is less successful.
Goose Green Primary School (listed Grade II), originally called Grove Vale School opened in 1900. It sits on the site of a former plant nursery which was still in 