Tennyson Road School has been enlarged in order to accommodate 400
Scholars. Landseer Street Board School is held in the large room under
the Chapel and accommodates 200 boys. J. R. Ayris, Head Master. Ponton
Road Board School, Nine Elms, opened for girls 9th June, 1879, and for
boys August 18th, the same year, has accommodation for 350, Master,
Mr. Chase. Mistress, Miss Nutcher. On the South side of Battersea Park
Road, between Lockington Road and Havelock Terrace a large Board School
has been built to hold about 1,400 children. Christ Church Schools,
Falcon Grove, have passed for the present into the hands of the School
Board for London. It is in contemplation to erect four more Board
Schools in Battersea.]
The first building erected for the London School Board, situated in one
of the most densely crowded localities of the East-end, was opened in
July, 1873, and since that time no fewer than 152 large Schools have
been completed with a total accommodation for about 182,000 children,
and an average accommodation for 872 children each. In addition to
these, between 30 and 40 schools are now in course of erection, and
about 50 other schools have been determined upon, thus the Board is
most active in providing for the educational requirements of the
Metropolis. Mr. E. R. Robson, F.R.I.B.A., is the Architect of this
Board.
The Board School in Winstanley Road accommodates about 1130 children,
the site is the shape of a rhomboid, and the School has been skilfully
planned to make the most of it.
Gideon Road Board Schools, the boys and girls' departments are built
upon arches to form covered play-grounds underneath. As the site
contains sufficient area, the infants' department has been erected as a
separate building.
The Board Schools are elaborately fitted up. Books, slates, pencils,
etc., for the scholars are provided. The terms for tuition at the Board
Schools in Battersea are:--Bolingbroke Road, boys, girls, and infants
2d. each. Battersea Park, Mantua Street, Winstanley Road, Tennyson
Road, and Sleaford Street, boys and girls 3d. each, infants 2d. Gideon
Road and Holden Street on the Shaftesbury Park Estate, boys and girls
4d. each, infants 3d. each.
School Board Visitors in Battersea:--Mr. Armstrong, Mr. Dalton, Mr.
Myland, Mr. Fane, Mr. Chamings and Miss Sydney.
London Ratepayers' School Board Association Established 8th October,
1870.
London or Metropolitan School Board elected 29th Nov., 1870.
Regulations for School Boards issued 21st December, 1870. First
election of Metropolitan School Board (Lord Lawrence, Chairman).
Arrangements for erecting or adapting buildings for New School Board,
December, 1871.
London School Board Education Scheme proposed 23rd June, 1871.
The London School Board occupied their new buildings on Victoria
Embankment, 30th September, 1874.
Second Metropolitan School Board elected; religious party strongest.
Sir Charles Reed, M.P., Chairman, November, 1878.
Sir Charles Reed, Chairman of the School Board for London, died March
25, 1881. Was interred at Abney Park Cemetery, Wednesday, March 30,
1881.
Fourth Metropolitan School Board elected, 1879.
E. N. Buxton, Esq., Chairman of the London School Board.
LONDON SCHOOL BOARD, LAMBETH DIVISION.[1]
MISS HEN. MULLER,
T. E. HELLER, ESQ.,
CHAS. R. WHITE, ESQ.,
REV. G. M. MURPHY,
JAMES STIFF, ESQ.,
STANLEY KEMP-WELSH, ESQ.
[Footnote 1: The Division of Lambeth is thus defined: The Division of
Lambeth shall include the Parliamentary Borough of Lambeth, all the
parts of the Parishes of Lambeth and Camberwell outside the Boundary of
the said Borough and the Wandsworth District, as described in Schedule
B. and Part I. of the Metropolitan Local Management Act, 1855, (that
is to say) the Parishes of Clapham, Tooting Graveney, Streatham, St.
Mary, Battersea, (excluding Penge), Wandsworth, and Putney, (including)
Roehampton. There are 63 Board Schools in the whole of the Lambeth
Division for the present year (1879), and 45,000 children on the
rolls.]
The Elementary Education Act of 1870 aims at the compulsory supply of
school accommodation in those districts in which there is a deficiency.
The general survey under the Education Act of the School provision of
every Parish in England did not commence till the 1st of May, 1871.
By virtue of the Elementary Education Act, 1876, and of the Bye-Laws
of the School Board for London, the following will be, on and after
the 1st January next, the state of the law as regards children, their
parents and employers within the Metropolis.
I.--REGULATIONS AFFECTING PARENT AND CHILD. The term "parent" includes
guardian, and every person who is liable to maintain, or has the
actual custody of the child. The parent of every child between the
ages of 5 and 14 must cause such child to receive efficient elementary
instruction in reading, writing, and arithmetic.[1] A.--By the Bye-Laws
of the School Board, which continue in force, the parent of every
child between the ages of 5 and 13 must cause such child to attend an
efficient School during the whole time for which the School is open.
The following cases are excepted:--(_a_) where a child is receiving
efficient instruction in some other manner. (_b_) where a child is
not less than 10 years of age has received a certificate that he
has passed the 5th Standard of the Code of 1871: in which case he
is wholly exempt from attendance at School. (_c_) where a child of
not less than 10 years of age has obtained a certificate that he is
beneficially and necessarily at work: in which case he is exempt from
the obligation to attend School more than 10 hours a week. (_d_) where
the child cannot attend School through sickness or other unavoidable
cause. If a parent commits a breach of the Bye-Laws he may be summoned
before a magistrate, and fined 5s.; and the child may be ordered to
attend School. B.--By the Act of 1876, if either--(1) the parent of a
child above the age of five years who is prohibited from being taken
into full-time employment, habitually and without reasonable excuse,
neglects to provide efficient elementary instruction for his child;
or, (2) a child is found habitually wandering, or not under proper
control, or in the company of rogues, vagabonds, disorderly persons,
or reputed criminals; the parent may be summoned before a magistrate,
and the child may be ordered to attend School. If the attendance order
be not complied with, the parent, if in fault, may be fined 5s.; and
in cases of continued non-compliance, the fine may be repeated at
intervals not less than a fortnight. The child may also, under certain
circumstances, be sent to a certified day industrial School, there to
be detained during certain hours each day for a stated period; or to an
ordinary certified industrial School, there to be wholly detained for a
stated period, which, however, must not extend beyond the time when the
child will reach the age of 16 years. In either case, the parent may be
made to contribute to the maintenance, of the child. II.--REGULATIONS
AFFECTING EMPLOYER AND CHILD. The term "employer" includes a "parent"
who employs his child by way of trade or for the purposes of gain.
A.--No person may employ, in the year 1877, any child who is under the
age of nine years; or in subsequent years, any child who is under the
age of 10 years. B.--No person may employ a child within certain limits
of age, unless the child shall have obtained either a certificate of
proficiency that he has reached the fourth Standard of the Code of
1876; or a certificate that he has previously made 250 attendances at
least, in not more than two Schools, during each year for a certain
number of years, whether consecutive or not, as follows:--
Unless they shall have
obtained a Certificate.
Age of Children, Either of Or; of
who may not be Proficiency, previous due
employed. according to the Attendance
undermentioned for the
Standard. undermentioned
number of years.
In
1877 Children between 9 and Fourth Two
12, with the exception Standard of
of those who were 11 1876
before the 1st January,
1877
1878 Children between 10 and Ditto. Two
13, with the exception
of those who were 11
before the 1st January,
1877
1879 Children between 10 and Ditto. Three
14, with the exception
of those who were 11
before the 1st January,
1877
1880 Children between 10 and Ditto. Four
14
1881* Children between 10 and Ditto. Five
14
* and subsequent years
The penalty incurred by an employer who acts in contravention of the
above provisions is a sum not exceeding 40s. But no penalty will be
incurred by the employer (_a_) if the child was lawfully employed
on the 15th August, 1876. (_b_) If the child obtains efficient
instruction by attendance at School for full time or in some other
equally efficient manner. (_c_) If the employment be during a specified
time allowed by the School Board for purposes of husbandry, &c. and
if the child be over eight years of age and be so employed. (_d_)
If the child be employed and be attending School in accordance with
the provisions of the Factory Acts, or of the Bye-Laws of the School
Board. (_e_) If the employer be _bona fide_ deceived as to the age
of the child or as to his having obtained a certificate; or if some
agent, without the knowledge of the employer, shall have employed the
child--in which latter case the agent will be liable to the penalty.
Although the employer be exempt from penalty, when the child is
lawfully employed under the above regulations, the parent will still
be liable for any breach of the Bye-Laws, where the latter are more
stringent. III.--REGULATIONS AS TO THE PAYMENT OR REMISSION OF FEES.
If a parent is unable, from poverty, to pay the School fee of his
child, he may apply either to the Guardians of the Poor for the Parish
where he lives, or to the School Board. The Guardians, if satisfied
of the poverty of the parent, must pay the school fee, not exceeding
3d. a week, of the child, in any Public Elementary School which the
parent may select. If the parent select a Board School, the School
Board, on his application, may, if they think fit, remit the school
fee. The payment or remission of the school fee will not subject the
parent to any disability. IV.--FREE INSTRUCTION. Subject to conditions
to be made by an order of the Education Department, a child under 11
years of age who obtains a certificate that he has attended a Public
Elementary School 350 times a year, for two, three, four or five years
according to circumstances, and, also, that he has attained a Standard
(to be fixed by the Department) in Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic,
will be entitled to have his school fees paid for him by the Education
Department at a public Elementary School for three years more.
BY ORDER OF THE BOARD.
15_th November_, 1876.
[Footnote 1: All Elementary Schools in the receipt of Government Grants
are annually examined by H.M. Inspector of Schools, and a report of
their condition forwarded to the Education Department. Board Schools
are further visited and reported on by an Inspector specially employed
by the Board itself for that purpose.]
In 1879 there were 63 Board Schools in the whole of the Lambeth
Division and 45,000 children on the rolls.
In Battersea there are 68 taverns for the sale of spirits, etc., and
84 beer-houses, making a total of 152 public-houses. There are also 29
coffee-shops.
A COFFEE PALACE IN OLD BATTERSEA.--On Saturday afternoon, Dec. 13,
1879, a coffee palace, belonging to the Coffee Taverns Company,
Limited, was opened at Lombard Market, York-road, Battersea. This is
the 22nd tavern of the kind opened by the Company, and carried on,
in regard to the business, on the same principle as others. A well
furnished room is provided for public meetings and other gatherings.
LATCHMERE GROVE, which is almost encircled with Railway embankments,
was noted for its piggeries. The lane once known as "Pig Hill," leading
from Battersea Fields to Lavender Hill, is now a wide open road and
forms the west boundary of the Shaftesbury Park Estate.
Somewhere near the foot of "Pig Hill" were two places called in olden
time "_Plague Spots_" where many bodies of persons who had died of the
Plague were buried.
THE SHAFTESBURY PARK ESTATE[1] formerly the site of Poupart's Market
Ground, covers an area of 42 acres, contains about 1100 houses and
8000 inhabitants. The houses are built on the most improved sanitary
principles, they are prettily and artistically constructed, having
small gardens back and front; on either side of the streets are rows of
lime and plane trees which in the course of a few years will give the
"Work peoples' Town," a beautiful and pleasant aspect. The Houses are
built in four classes, containing 5, 6, 7, and 8 rooms respectively,
(the latter including a bath room), and the weekly rental (at first
was) 6/6, 7/6, and 8/-, and the best class £26 and £30 per year, which
sums, except the best class, includes rates and taxes, but if the
tenant is buying the house under the repayment table, the rates, taxes,
and ground rent have to be paid by him in addition to the purchase
money.[2] The purchasing prices of the houses are £170, £210, £260,
£310, and £360; and they are leased for a term of 99 years subject
to annual ground rent of £3 10s., £4 4s., and £4 10s. according to
the class of house. Each dwelling is thoroughly ventilated by means
of improved ventilating valves, which are fixed to every room and
connected with air shafts in all the external walls and the same are
applied beneath the floors, the houses have concrete foundations and
are considered dry and healthy. [3]It is intended to convert the
premises used as the Estate Agency Office into a Club house, equal in
accommodation to any at the West End, with Library, reading, smoking,
and billiard rooms; a small hall to hold about 350 is being built which
among other things is intended to be let to benefit clubs and such like
societies. It is suggested that the present temporary hall be converted
into Swimming and Washing Baths. Brassey Square a space about one and
a quarter acres, the Estate Company are going to make into a garden
like that on the Thames Embankment, in which seats are to be placed
and it is intended to have a band to play there in summer months.
Beside Co-operative Stores, there is a Social Review connected with the
Estate, and a Newspaper has been started called "The South Western
Advertiser."[4] The London Board School on the estate is situated
in Holden Street. Between houses Nos. 21-23 in the Grayshott Road a
stone may be seen bearing the following inscription "Healthy homes the
first condition of Social progress." This stone was laid by the Right
Honourable the Earl of Shaftesbury, K.G., for the Artizans, Labourers
and General Dwellings Company, Limited, on the 3rd of August, 1872. R.
Austin, Architect.
[Footnote 1: The Artizans Labourers and General Dwellings Company
(Limited). Capital £1,000,000 in 100,000 shares of £10 each (paid up
capital, £583,000). Chief Office: 34, Great George Street, Westminster,
S.W. Office hours:--10 till 5 Saturdays 10 till 1. Estate Offices 221
Eversleigh Road, Shaftesbury Park, S.W. 35, A Street, Queen's Park. W.
DIRECTORS.--The Hon. Evelyn Ashley, M.P., Chairman, H. R. Droop,
Esq., R. E. Farrant, Esq., John Kempster, Esq., Rev. H. V. Le Bas,
F. D. Mocatta, Esq., Samuel Morley, Esq. M.P., Ernest Noel, Esq.
M.P., John Peace, Esq., W. H. Stone, Esq. Bankers.--The London and
Westminster Bank, Lothbury, E.C. Solicitors.--Messrs. Ashurst, Morris,
Crisp and Co., 6, Old Jewry, E.C., Manager J. V. Sigvald Muller, Esq.
Secretary.--Samuel E. Platt.
The Company was established for the erection of improved dwellings
near to the great centres of industry to carry out the objects of
the Company in London, large estates have been secured near Clapham
Junction and the Harrow Road, that near Clapham Junction called
Shaftesbury Park.]
[Footnote 2: The present weekly rental, which includes rates and
taxes, except in the case of the first-class Houses is as follows:--An
ordinary fourth class House 7/6 third class 8/6 second class 10/- first
class 10/- and 11/-. The shops, lower houses, those with larger gardens
than ordinary, and some other exceptional houses are subject to special
arrangements both as to Rental and purchase.]
[Footnote 3: The scheme thus proposed has been abandoned. The temporary
Hall has been taken down and seven houses with shops erected on the
site, also a Temperance Hall. The Shaftesbury Club and Institute,
Eversleigh House, Lavender Hill, was opened on Saturday, Feb. 2nd,
1878, at 3 o'clock p.m. Previously a movement had been in progress to
establish a Club and Institute for the benefit of those large classes
of working men who live upon the Shaftesbury Park Estate, and in the
crowded neighbourhoods in the immediate vicinity. Nothing of the
kind was in existence, and, as a consequence, there was no efficient
corrective to the growing evils of intemperance and wasted time
among these classes of the people. The movement met with a great and
increasing support from the working men themselves, and the Provisional
Committee appointed has been busily engaged in the work of organising
the Club. The objects of the Club and Institute are thus stated in the
Draft Rules:--
"To afford to its members the means of social intercourse, mutual
helpfulness, mental and moral improvement, industrial welfare, and
rational recreation. The Club shall not identify itself with any
political, social, or theological party. As funds permit, there
shall be provided:--Library and Reading Rooms, supplied with Books,
Periodicals, and Newspapers; Educational Classes; Conversation,
Refreshment, and Smoking Rooms, in which various games may be played;
Billiard and Bagatelle Rooms; Popular Lectures and Entertainments;
Rooms for the Meetings of Benefit and Friendly Societies." Subscription
1s. a month 2s. 6d. a quarter, 10s. a year. Arthur George Thorne, Hon.
Secretary. Mr. W. Swindlehurst was the Secretary to the Estate Company.
The purchase of the Freehold Land (it is said) cost the Estate Company
£28,000. Recently the house rents on the Estate have been raised.
The entrance to Shaftesbury Hall is in Ashbury Road.]
[Footnote 4: The following Newspapers, which are published weekly,
contain (Battersea) Local Intelligence and District Board News. "The
South London Press," 2d. "Battersea and Wandsworth District Times,"
1d. "Mid-Surrey Gazette," 1d. "The Clapham Observer," 1d. "The South
Western Star," 1d.]
No Beer-shop, Inn or Tavern is erected on the Estate but it must not
be inferred from this, that all the inhabitants are Total Abstainers.
However the ostensible and important objects of the Estate Company
are to help the Working Classes to become owners of the House they
occupy; to raise their position in the social scale; and to spread a
moral influence over their class, tending to foster habits of Industry,
Sobriety and Frugality. Obedience to moral and physical laws, the right
and proper use of material appliances for sanitary purposes, have a
tendency to prolong human life and to make life more enjoyable, and the
Supreme Governor of the Universe hath so ordained that it should be
so. According to the metropolitan average, the deaths should have been
194, but they only numbered 100. In 1877 the births on the Shaftesbury
Park Estate were 284. Connected with the Estate is a Volunteer Rifle
Corps known as the "26th Surrey." Mr. Samuel E. Platt, Secretary to
the Estate Company; Mr. J. V. Muller, Manager. Office, 221, Eversleigh
Road. The Missionary who visits in this district is Mr. Vost, who holds
meetings in the Temperance Hall, Elsley Road.
Eastward of the Shaftesbury Park Estate is situated Beaufoy's Chemical
Works. Entrance, Lavender Hill. Mr. Matthew Cannon, Manager.
This site was formerly a brickfield. When Mr. Henry Beaufoy purchased
the land comprising some 17 acres he named it "Pays Bas," signifying
in French a _low country_. Recently 7 acres have been let on Lease of
99 years for building purposes, it is proposed to erect thereon 230
houses. In this locality and that of Latchmere it is said the bricks
were made for the construction of Chelsea Hospital.
THE METROPOLITAN ARTIZANS AND LABOURERS DWELLINGS ASSOCIATION have just
erected three blocks of houses in the Battersea Park Road, designed by
Charles Barry, Esq., President of the British Institute of Architects.
Accommodation in A Block for 98 families with 3 and 4 rooms each.
There are two B Blocks, 45 families in a block, having accommodation
for 90 families with one or two rooms each for labourers. The whole
of the front window-frames facing the main road are glazed with Plate
Glass. Between the pathway and the Blocks is erected an iron palisade
and some evergreens have been planted within the enclosure. There are
underground Laundries at the north end of the Blocks with all necessary
appliances. The B Blocks have three tiers of balconies supported by
iron columns communicating with the dwellings on the upper storeys.
The roofs are tiled by the Broomhall Tile Company. The Builders, are
Messrs. Downs & Co., Southwark. Major-General Scott, Secretary, office,
9, Victoria Road, Westminster Abbey. It is intended to erect more
Blocks on the land adjoining. Chairman, John Walter, Esq.
The buildings are intended as models of the dwellings for Artizans and
Labourers, to replace the habitations condemned in various parts of the
Metropolis under the Act of 1875. They are built in flats as nearly
fire-proof as may be. Each tenement in the Artizans dwellings and each
block of four rooms for those of the labourers are entirely separated
from others by an open space, each tenement has a constant supply of
fresh water, the use of a wash-house and a coal bunker, a dust shoot,
and generally great care has been taken to insure to the tenants all
the advantages of the best known sanitary appliances. Within the outer
door which opens on to a general staircase, are all the conveniences
except the wash-houses which are detached from the building. These
tenements contain in most cases, three rooms, viz.: kitchen, bed-room,
and sitting-room. The labourers blocks are so divided that they can
be let singly, or in twos, threes, or fours. The dwellings were
formally opened on Saturday Afternoon, June 23rd, 1877, by the Earl
of Beaconsfield. The ceremony was graced by a select company, among
whom were in addition to the Prime Minister, the Earl and Countess of
Rosslyn, the Countess of Scarborough, the Earl and Countess Stanhope,
the Lord Chancellor and Lady Cairns, Lady E. Drummond, the Marquis of
Bristol, the Earl of Ilchester, the Earl of Verulam, the Bishop of
Winchester, the Right Hon. R. A. Cross, M.P., Mrs. and Miss Walter, Mr.
W. H. Smith, M.P., Mr. Roebuck, M.P., Mr. Montague Corrie, Mr. Algernon
Turner, Major-General H. Y. D. Scott, Manager of the Association, and
numerous Members of Parliament. Her Majesty who takes a deep interest
in this movement for the improvement of the dwellings of her people,
commanded Earl Beaconsfield to express Her wish that Her name may be
associated with this institution and that in future these buildings
will be called the Victoria Dwellings for Artizans.
On the North side of Battersea Park Road is the site for Messrs. Spiers
and Pond's New Steam Laundry, contiguous to which (Propert's) Blacking
Manufactory is now built. Mr George Ashby Lean, Architect; Mr. Waters,
Builder, The Common, Ealing.
Up the centre of the meadow a new road is to be made 50 feet wide.
About forty years ago this ground yielded as fine a crop of wheat as
any in England. At that time certain Notice Boards were erected with
the words "_Any person found plucking an ear of Corn will be fined one
shilling._" An old parishioner, who is still living, told the writer
that he had been fined three shillings because he had picked up three
ears of corn which another man had thrown away.
BATTERSEA (LATCHMERE, formerly called Lechmore) ALLOTMENTS cover an
area of 16¼ acres, and are let to the industrial poor of the parish
to encourage habits of industry, the land was applied to the present
purpose in the year 1835. Originally there were 74 allotments now there
are 156. The Allotments let at 3/- a plot, each allotment being divided
into 10 plots. Application must be made to the Churchwardens, William
Evill and Joseph William Hiscox, Esqrs.