TOTTENHAM COUNTY SCHOOL
Description of the building
The stone-laying ceremony
"On Saturday afternoon Alderman Col. Bowles, M.A.. J.P., the Chairman of the Middlesex Education Committee, who was accompanied by Mrs. Bowles, laid the foundation stone of the new Tottenham County School for Boys and Girls. The building stands on the site of the old house known as " The Cedars," and has a frontage on to the Green. It will be adjacent to the Municipal Buildings and Public Baths, thus making a complete frontage of public buildings. The general planning of the building is on two floors. with four frontages round an internal courtyard, and all the rooms are so arranged that they get through ventilation. The front elevation has been designed to harmonize with that of the Municipal Buildings, and in Monk's Park stone, relieved by red brick panels. The back and side elevations are in stock brick with red dressings. The roofs will be covered with rustic slating in varied colours, and the central will fleche be covered with copper. which, as it oxidises, will give a very pretty green effect. All the essential parts of the building are of fireproof construction; the beams, floors, and staircases, etc., being constructed in ferro-concrete. The heating is to be on the low pressure system with two boilers in the basement coupled, so that one or both may be worked as necessary, and having regard to the large amount of ventilation of all the rooms the boilers and heating surfaces are therefore on a much more ample scale than is usual. The following accommodation has been provided for, viz.: Places for 405 students in sixteen classrooms, art room, botany room and greenhouse, domestic subjects room, library, dining room, kitchen. physics laboratory, chemical laboratory, preparation room. (dark room, assembly hall, principal's room, staff rooms. changing room, cloak rooms, lavatories, and cycle stores. The contract for the new buildings, exclusive of furniture and site, is £16,577 and the work ie being carried out from plans prepared by Mr. H. G. Crothall, Architect to the Middlesex Education Committee. Alderman F. Jenkins presided at the opening supported by the Revs. Denton Jones (Vicar), A. W. Tatman, Dr. Chappell. Mr. J. Cohen, County Councillors Malone and Dobson and others. Prayer having been offered by the Vicar, followed by the rendering of a hymn, The Chairman. in his introductory remarks said the existing Tottenham County School was opened in 1901. being the first secondary wheel established by the County Council under the powers given to them by the technical Instruction Acts, and the first mixed secondary school in the County, and they had been running something like eleven years in a most inadequate and incommodious building. But at the time they started nothing else was possible. The need of the school was known to everybody, and it had one continued run of success, and it was very satisfactory to look back upon the happy union that existed between the County Council and the District Council in regard to its management. At the present time they had three secondary schools in the parish under the County and District Councils, namely, the Grammar School, which was a very old foundation which had recently been rebuilt and put on a sound footing: the High School for Girls, of which they had a fairly long lease at a small rental and the County School. In those three schools they had nearly 800 pupils enjoying the great benefits of secondary education. He was pleased they had waited as long as they had done to get the present site, because they had been able to get the advantage of all the most recent innovations, and the wheal would be found to be the best in Tottenham, as it had always hitherto been the best secondary school in Middlesex. The Governors had every confidence that the school in its new buildings will maintain the high traditions gained in the old building at the Polytechnic. With regard to the Grammar School, he might point out that practically the whole of its endowment is set free for local scholarships, the whole cost of maintenance of the school being met out of the County Rate. Co-educational or mixed schools had been attacked in some parts of the County, but the Governors of this school stood by them. It had gone beyond the experimental stage with them. and he hoped with it much of the angry criticism that had been levelled against them in certain quarters. Unless the District Council had co-operated with the County Council as they had done in regard to these several schools they would have been in a very poor position in Tottenham to-day for secondary education. The District Council had found under their powers to levy a 1d. rate, one half the capital cost of the new buildings of the Grammar School, and of the new buildings for this County School, as well as one-half of the cost of the purchase of the excellent playing field of twelve acres at White Hart Lane. Under the regulation of the Board of Education a number of free places had to provided at these schools and they now had 190 of such places which were a very serious strain on the school and would have been quite impossible if they had to depend on fees and grants only. The elementary children who came to the County Schools were, generally speaking, found to be most excellently taught, and it was noteworthy that they had some of the best scholarships gained by those scholars. One of them at the present time was lecturer in mathematics at London University. So it showed that their education was not a cramming system, but afforded a general knowledge, and at the proper time they focussed the work suit the boy or girl. The vacation of the Polytechnic buildings by the secondary school will, it is hoped, provide room for a school will, it is hoped, provide room for a Day Trade School for either boys or girls, and there will that be a fairly complete scheme of education for the district, enabling any hoy or girl to proceed with the education best fitted to prepare them for their future work in life. The Governors fely that the trust they have placed in the head master and the staff has been rightly placed, and they were deeply indebted to them for the work that has been done in the school. Col. Bowles was then presented, by the Chairman, with a silver trowel and proceeded to lay the foundation stone, after which he said he could well remember eleven years ago when Mr. Jenkins first urged on the County Council the idea of opening the existing school. At the time he, the speaker, used to look upon it rather as a hobby of Mr. Jenkins about which he was rather sceptical, but now he could see its excellent results had been done to two causes — one, the enthusiasm of Mr. Jenkins and his fellow Governors , and the other, to the most excellent administration of the head master (Mr. Peters) and his staff. Whenever they had been discussing at the Education Committee of the County the pros and cons of their educational system they had always had before them the success achieved by this school, and it must he a proud moment to these interested in it to think that to-day they were laying the foundation' stone of what was intended to be a magnificent building for its future housing. Mr. Gott, the Organising Secretary of the County Education Committee, and the Committee had mapped out for the whole County of Middlesex exactly where these Secondary Schools should be located, and they had freely, though not wastefully, spent the money at their disposal in promoting this secondary education. They had felt for many years that the Country had provided for efficient elementary education, and they had come to the conclusion thay in face of the ever increasing population in the County there was not adequate provision for those who, after all, were the real shoulders that had to bear the burden of taxation - the middle classes. They felt that an education superior to what many parents of that class with large families would not have been able to provide, should be placed at their disposal with the aid of the County. It had been expensive work, and he was afraid when they h ad finished the erection of this school they would be at the end of their resources, and have to rest and give them time to develop before launching out again into any lavish expenditure. He always listened with a great deal of attention to Mr. Jenkins, who devoted a great deal of his time to the study of this great question of education, but he took one exception to a suggestion he had made that afternoon, that when they vacated the old building it would be used for a Trade School. Now he believed that if they wanted their County to be successful they did not want the whole of their boys' abilities trained in the commercial section. They wanted some of them trained to take the place of some of their greatest engineers and men of science. Trade Schools were, of course. necessary, but he thought too many parents desired their children too in for a commercial education, only with the result that the country was getting overstocked with them, and their value in the market was much reduced. In conclusion, he impressed upon parents the duty of a good home training for the children. On the motion of Mr. Hollier, seconded by Mr. Malone, a vote of thanks was then passed to the Colonel, and on the motion of Mr. Lewin, seconded by Mr. Clegg, a similar compliment was paid to the Chairman. " - Tottenham, Edmonton and Wood Green Weekly Herald, 6 November 1912, p. 2.
The name on the stone
Sir Henry Ferryman Bowles, 1st Baronet (1858-1943), Conservative politician, one of the original members of the Middlesex County Council, elected to represent Enfield West in 1889. Elected Alderman in 1909. His family home was Forty Hall. The nearby Myddelton House gardens were the work of his younger brother, Edward Augustus Bowles.
The architect
Harry George Crothall (1865-1929) was appointed architect to Middlesex County Council Education Committee in 1903 and from 1905, County Architect, and responsible for numerous school buildings, including Sir Thomas More Roman Catholic School, Wood Green and the former Tottenham Grammar School.
Obituary : Builder, vol. 136 (1929), p. 285.
Obituary : Builder, vol. 136 (1929), p. 285.
The builder
Mattock Brothers of Southgate, and later Winkfield Road, Wood Green, were active in the 1870s until the 1930s(?). The firm were often employed by the Hornsey School Board, and later the Education Committee of Middlesex County Council.
Bibliography
Middlesex County Council Education Committee Some types of secondary schools in the Administrative County of Middlesex. [By B. S. Gott and H. G. Crothall. With illustrations and plans.] London : Harrison & Sons, [1913]. Features plans and elevations of Hornsey County School for Girls, Tottenham Grammar School for Boys, Tottenham County School for Boys and Girls, Wood Green County School for Boys and Girls (now, St Thomas More Catholic School). Read this book online.