The derelict school on Peckham Rye

[cookie]

I've heard that there are delays to the project as Southwark Council are insisting that the schools victorian facade is maintained, whereas the developers want to level the site and start from scratch. Can you throw any light on this Richard?

In my opinion it would be tragic to miss the 2009 opening date because of this issue, there are plenty of other victorian schools in the area, so I don't think we're talking about preserving a site of particular architectural interest here. Of course I should reserve judgement until I see what the developers are proposing to replace it with.

[MadWorld74]

I live round the corner and belive it to be the Friern Road Schools (if you look up to the gable at the front of the building you will see the name engraved along with the date 1886...or there abouts.) There is a much smaller school round the corner from it in Friern Road that is also boared up. Apparantly that was a primary school. There was a feature about it in the Dulwich Life free mag that gets delivered in the area.

[clare]

Is the temporary accommodation on another site going to be all the way over at Langbourne???

[julie maydell]

I attended Friern Road Girls Secondary Modern School between 1955 and 1960. I would be iterested in any one else who was there around that time. My name before marrying was Julia Price. I did wonder what had happened to the school as there seems to be no trace of it on any of the friend finder sites. Sorry to hear it is now derelict.

[intexasatthe moment]

Info on school to be built on this site at - http://www.harrisdulwichboys.org.uk/.

Temp accomodation at Langbourne - up near Kingsdale,towards Crystal Palace.

Lord Harris will have his way and squeeze 950 + students ( plus staff ) onto a site so small that starting and finishing times of the school day must be staggered and parents asked to sign agreements indicating that they will not drop off or pick up their children .

As for the building - whatever one's subjective view ,surely it's well understood that long narrow corridors of the type used here are anathema in schools.And what outside space is there for recreation /break time?

More secondary places for boys are badly needed in this part of the borough ,but not crammed into such a small site like this.

[AllforNun]

bad luck, you lost that argument.

now go move.

[martin_warwick]

I used to go to the school in WWII. I went here in 1939 at the outbreak of war and was there until 1945 when through its good offices I won a scholarship to Alleyn's School in Dulwich. The headmaster was a Mr James and I'll always be thankful to him as he often used to give me special coaching presumably to get me through the scholarship. I always did this with a friend Willioam Bell (Dinger) who also got to Alleyn's. Unfortunately Bell always had bad asthma and I now find he died some years ago.

It was wartime and we lived nearer Honour Oak in Kelvington Road and will always remember walking through Peckham Rye Park to school (about a mile) during air raids etc. accompanied by my mother. Our house survived the blitz but we had the windows and door blown in several times from bombs just opposite.

Sad to see the school empty and run down but it is very old and was built in a different age - it was fantastic for me! Incidentally there is another school much like that one in Ivydale Road (Peckham/Honour Oak) built at the same era and empty. Just before I went to Frien Road School I went to that for a very short time and also with my older brother.

[computedshorty]

I used to go to Heber Road School, when they reorganised we were transferred to what was to be Friern Road Secondarry School on Peckham Rye, I left in 1945 to work on bomb damage.

One thing I remember was that there were brick Air Raid Shelter Walls, with a small space between just a foot wide and about six feet seep, they were called by us the Squashing Machine and we were all at times forced in there by other boys who all crushed you to a pulp.

[steveo]

That's funny and also a little bit terrifying computedshorty

[computedshorty]

Having been transferred to Friern Road School, I now had to walk quite a long way, if I caught a bus it did not help much as it was all out of the way, as I would have to walk to Barry Road get the bus to Peckham Rye and walk from there, so I decided to walk.

I lived on Lordship Lane near the corner of Goodrich Road, so I could take the back streets, that meant right turn into Goodrich Road, nine more fist left and first right brought me to the school gates.

Alternatively I could go to the left via Crystal Palace Road, still nine turns but slightly different roads, or I could just turn left at Friern Road and right at Peckham Rye, but I had to walk far more that way.

This time all clothing was on ration and so we wore no school uniform, as now my coupon points were used on shoes as the leather sole soon wore out walking on the sandstone paving slabs, or cobbled and tarmac roads.

Dad had a solution for repairing my shoes, he cut up old cycle tyres into strips using the tread and glued them onto the sole with tube of Phillips quick drying glue, I was ashamed to go to school wearing these so only used them for when I got home.

It was not possible to get leather to repair your shoes, dad worked at Peak Frean?s and managed to buy bits of old broken machine leather drive belts, for a few pence, these were ideal but with nine of us that was eighteen shoes to repair every few weeks.

It was possible to buy Plimsoll's but they were not good on bombed sites, or wellingtons these soon wore away your socks that had to be darned with any wool that could be unravelled from worn out jerseys, and were very uncomfortable and soon worked there way to finish under your foot.

None of the family went to the barber, dad cut all our hair, we sat in the living room on a chair while he cut away sometimes one side would be shorter than the other so a bit more got cut off until level we looked like a lot of convicts, not surprising really as dad had been the Prison camp barber when he was a Prisoner of war 1914?1918.

Friern Road School times has not remained as a memory, as other things were happening, most of my school chums had been split to other schools Goodrich Road or Ady?s Road, or the more privileged to Alleyn's.

I soon became an Apprentice carpenter and had to attend the Brixton School of Building at Stockwell, later to called the South London Polytechnic.

[treehugger]

Your stories of times gone by in East Dulwich are really interesting, Computedshorty. Makes me realise just how lucky we are now, and how we complain about, in comparison, quite trivial things.

[mandy chapman]

I went to Friern lower school for girls, then I moved to Waverly which was formerly known as Honour Oak, the two schools amalgamated in the late 1970's. I was just looking up the school only to see the messages that there was a fire. I was not at the newly formed Waverly for long, I left in the third year of secondary which was the same year they amalgamated to move to Cornwall with my family.

[rwhiteslemonade]

I have just come across this forum whilst researching an entry at the front of an old book that I have. The book is titled The Works Of Nathanial Hawthorne A Wonderbook For Girls and Boys.In the inner cover is a stamp that says London County Council. There is another stamp that says Dulwich, The Friern,Pecckham, LCC School. It says Awarded to Fred W Idmer,( or it could be Fred Widmer ) It was awarded for Excellent Conduct and is dated November 1906. It states the name of the head teacher as W. S. Desborough.There is another little piece of writing that says standard 11 ( 2 as in Roman numerals )

[geneie]

Frederick Widmer born 1897 and baptised at St Giles Camberwell, son of Ami and Elizabeth Widmer would seem to be the right one! By 1911 he was living with mother and siblings in Hanover Park, Peckham.

[rwhiteslemonade]

Hello geneie,

Thanks for the information regarding Frederick Widmer. I was intending to sell the book on Ebay and it may be of interest to a descendant.