Tottenham: Education

EDUCATION. (fn. 1)

A schoolmaster was recorded from 1580 (fn. 2) until 1599 and another in 1615. (fn. 3) William Bedwell noted, as hearsay, that property at Page Green had been given to maintain a free school, which may mean that Tottenham grammar school existed by 1631, but in 1732, when Nicholas Reynardson's alms-houses were established under his will of 1685, a grammar school was said to have been built since the date of the will. There is no sign that Reynardson's provision for teaching 20 poor children ever became effective. (fn. 4) Apart from some free tuition given by Richard Claridge (fn. 5) the grammar school, endowed or re-endowed in 1686, alone catered for the poor until the opening of the Blue and the Green Coat schools, girls' charity schools founded respectively c. 1735 and in 1792. (fn. 6)

Education for the poor was claimed to be adequate in 1819, when Tottenham, with a population of some 5,000, had places for 60 boys at the grammar school, for 40 girls at each of the charity schools, and 100 boys and 100 girls at two recently established Lancasterian schools. (fn. 7) By 1835 a further 65 children attended a Roman Catholic school. (fn. 8) Churches led in the expansion of public elementary education until a rapidly rising working-class population in the 1870s outran their efforts.

The Education Act of 1870, largely the work of W. E. Forster, who had been privately educated in Tottenham, aroused strong local controversy. The vicar of St. Paul's and Fowler Newsam led opposition to the foundation of a school board, with unanimous support from the press. Vigorous fund-raising permitted improvements to the grammar and Blue Coat schools and to most Church establishments, (fn. 9) but the doubling of the population between 1870 and 1880 created a deficiency of over 2,000 places. In 1879 the Education Department ordered a local board to be set up. (fn. 10)

Tottenham school board occupied hired offices at Coombes Croft until 1900, when it moved to a permanent site in Philip Lane. (fn. 11) It remained responsible for the whole ancient parish, although Wood Green became a separate local board district in 1888. Temporary classrooms were rented at once and the first of ten planned new schools, at Coleraine Park, was ready in 1881. The board schools, with boys, girls, and infants on separate floors, had provided over 5,000 new places by 1891. In 1895 there was some demand for the London school board to take over, since the parents of nearly all Tottenham's board school pupils worked in the City, whereupon the local body claimed that its new schools cost £12 a place, compared with £18-£20 for the London school board. (fn. 12) The worst overcrowding in 1898 was around Page Green, in the south-east around Stamford Hill, at West Green, and at Noel Park, but in all areas the position had improved within ten years. By 1902, at the end of its existence, the school board had founded 15 new schools, many of them with over 1,500 pupils, and had opened Tottenham's first special school, for the deaf.

In 1903 Tottenham and Wood Green became separate Part III authorities, responsible for elementary education, under the Act of 1902. The education committees of the two councils continued the building programme of the school board, 7 new schools being opened in Tottenham between 1906 and 1912. Poor children had first received school meals at Wood Green, where the penny dinners committee fed 225 on its first day in 1885. At Tottenham, out of 1,187 pupils examined, 979 were found to be undernourished in 1906, a year before the passage of the Education (Provision of Meals) Act, which the committee adopted in 1908. The introduction of medical inspections in schools led to the treatment of over 2,000 extra cases at the Prince of Wales's hospital alone in 1910. An eye clinic was opened in 1911 and dental clinics were started in 1914. (fn. 13)

Public secondary education remained the preserve of the old grammar school until 1901, when, in anticipation of the Act of 1902, Tottenham county school was opened as the first co-educational school of its kind in Middlesex. Tottenham high school for girls, owned by the Drapers' Company, was taken over by Middlesex C.C. in 1909 and, like the county school, modelled on the grammar school. All Tottenham's secondary education was then provided by those three schools and by the Roman Catholic St. Ignatius's college, which received public grants from 1906. Wood Green's needs had been partly met in 1884 by the opening of Higher Grade schools; from 1910 they competed with a new secondary school in Glendale Avenue, and eventually they were replaced by Trinity county school. Technical education, started in 1892 under the Technical Instruction Act of 1889, developed quickly after the opening of Tottenham polytechnic in 1897.

Under the Act of 1918 Tottenham's education committee opened Downhills, Down Lane, and Risley Avenue as selective central schools, despite the Labour party's opposition on the grounds that such schools, between elementary and secondary, would retard the introduction of a general secondary system. (fn. 14) It was not until 1937 that the first nursery school was opened, in Vale Road. Resources were spent mainly on reorganizing elementary schools into senior and junior schools, on the lines of the Hadow Report, and on reducing the size of classes. Although most buildings had been finished by 1912, with classrooms to hold 70 or 80, rapid progress was made under a ten-year plan of 1935: the new Rowland Hill school, made necessary by development around Lordship Lane, was opened in 1938 and 10 old schools had been modernized by 1939. (fn. 15)

Under the Act of 1944, Tottenham became an 'excepted district', while Wood Green formed an educational division of the county. Tottenham administered 16,000 children in 1946, when the last all-age county schools disappeared with the reorganization of Bruce Grove, Stamford Hill, and Crowland Road schools. (fn. 16) Since the southern part was so densely built up, it was predicted that all the larger schemes, for older pupils, would be carried out in the north. (fn. 17) Primary schools themselves were divided, until by 1949 Tottenham had 15 infants' and 14 junior schools, in addition to two junior mixed and infants' schools awaiting reorganization, while Wood Green had 5 infants' and 5 junior schools; there were also 6 Voluntary primary schools in Tottenham and two in Wood Green. Tottenham had 12 secondary modern schools and Wood Green three. Grammar-school education was still provided by four schools in Tottenham and one in Wood Green, while the work of the old polytechnic was continued by Tottenham technical college.

From 1965 education in both Tottenham and Wood Green was the responsibility of Haringey L.B. In 1972 the two former boroughs contained 21 schools for juniors, 21 for infants, and 10 (mostly denominational) for juniors and infants together, as well as 3 nursery schools, 4 special schools, and a school for maladjusted pupils. Secondary education was reorganized from 1967 in order to create comprehensive schools for pupils aged 11 to 18. By 1972 the county secondary schools had been grouped into 7 comprehensive units. Of 5 Voluntary Aided or Controlled schools in that year, the Somerset school contained the old grammar school, St. Katharine's was shortly to be expanded into a Church of England comprehensive, and the upper and lower St. Thomas More schools were to form a single Roman Catholic comprehensive; the fifth school, St. Angela's Roman Catholic, was about to move to Edmonton. (fn. 18)

Elementary schools founded before 1879. (fn. 19)

The Blue Coat school (fn. 20) was established by local subscribers c. 1735, as the first school in Edmonton hundred to offer primary education other than of a dame school type to the poor. Presumably it always stood on the east side of High Road at Scotland Green, where Thomas Smith conveyed land to trustees in 1797 and where it was rebuilt in 1833. (fn. 21) The new building, in the Jacobean style, contained a schoolroom for 80 children and adjoined a mistress's house. About 40 girls, aged 7 to 14, were clothed and educated in 1833; numbers had risen to 60 by 1840, when a further 10 received instruction alone. A committee of subscribers under the vicar nominated pupils and appointed weekly visitors. The income came mainly from subscriptions, an annual charity sermon, and the girls' needlework. (fn. 22) Investments were worth £1,500 in 1840; Thomas Barber, by will proved 1844, left £250 to the school, whose funds had reached £2,000 by 1857. (fn. 23) Part of the stock was sold in 1876, after the parish had given the trustees the site of an adjoining watch-house; the blue uniform was thereupon discontinued and the accommodation enlarged to take 120 pupils, as part of the campaign against a school board. The school was converted into Tottenham middle class girls' school in 1886, whereupon modest fees were charged until their abolition by the local education committee in 1903. Attendance for a time remained well below capacity: 56 in 1888, (fn. 24) 77 ten years later, when a parliamentary grant was being paid, and 112 by 1906. Places were said to be in heavy demand in 1927, (fn. 25) when the premises were condemned as too small, but in 1930 the pupils were moved to All Hallows school. The 19th-century building, converted into shops, survived in 1973.

The Green Coat school, (fn. 26) called for many years the School of Industry, was founded in 1792 through the efforts of Mrs. Priscilla Wakefield. It occupied land given by Thomas Smith on the east side of High Road, next to Phesaunt's alms-houses at the corner of Stoneley South, and included a house for the mistress. (fn. 27) The curriculum, the sources of income, and the management were similar to those of the Blue school, save that by 1840 funds amounted to c. £700 and the pupils attended Holy Trinity chapel rather than the parish church. There were then 40 girls, aged 8 to 14, each of whom received a guinea on leaving and triennial awards for staying in the same employment. Thomas Barber left stock worth £250 by will proved 1844 (fn. 28) and a parliamentary grant was being paid by 1862, (fn. 29) when a new building was erected behind the grammar school in Somerset Road. Plans to take fee-payers, who would not receive the green and white clothing, (fn. 30) were presumably realized after the move: in 1864, 30 out of 72 pupils did not wear the uniform. Enlargements allowed numbers to rise to 173 by 1898, whereafter attendance varied little until the addition of new classrooms in 1939. The school ceased to be described as a school of industry c. 1907, when it became formally attached to Holy Trinity church. From 1952 it was housed in two buildings, the infants having moved into the old Holy Trinity school by Tottenham Green, and from 1955 it became mixed throughout, boys being admitted from the infants' department. Attendance at the Green Coat school, the oldest in Tottenham, rose to 254 in the 1960s but had declined, after rebuilding around Somerset Road, to 226 by 1972.

A Lancasterian school for boys (fn. 31) opened in a barn on the west side of High Road in 1812 and moved in 1822 to a new brick building, accommodating c. 180 with a master's house adjoining, on the south side of Church Road. There were 141 boys in 1820 and 172 in 1840. Management was by a committee of local subscribers, at one time including Albert Hill and members of the Forster family. Pupils were taught under the regulations of the British School Society (fn. 32) and were publicly examined yearly. The income came from school pence, supplemented by voluntary contributions and, by 1862, annual parliamentary grants. (fn. 33) Two classrooms were added in 1850, (fn. 34) enabling attendance to rise to 225 in 1864. Numbers were no more than 169 in 1882, (fn. 35) five years before control passed to Tottenham school board, which put up a new building to hold over 1,200 boys, girls, and infants. (fn. 36) The building was enlarged to take over 1,700 children from 1905, although attendance was only 1,240 in 1919. The Lancasterian school, divided into junior mixed and infants' schools in 1939, still occupied premises in King's Road in 1973, when there were 350 juniors and 2:5 infants enrolled.

A girls' Lancasterian school was established in 1815, in a building adjoining a mistress's house at the corner of High Road and Reform Row. Its committee was subject to the managers of the boys' school. The income came from school pence, subscriptions, and small profits from the girls' needlework; (fn. 37) in 1840 the girls' school relied on the surplus from the boys' school funds. Attendance was 79 in 1821 and 117 in 1864. After 1887 the school was absorbed into the Lancasterian board school. (fn. 38) The building was pulled down c. 1900.

St. Francis de Sales Roman Catholic school originated in a school for boys, girls, and infants opened in 1827 dose to the new church in Chapel Place. It had 65 pupils, a master, and a mistress in 1835. (fn. 39) A new schoolroom was built in 1858 and enlarged in 1873, (fn. 40) four years before classes moved to Brereton Road, (fn. 41) where a new building was finished in 1882. (fn. 42) At that date school pence, paid by those who could afford to do so, were supplemented by a parliamentary grant. (fn. 43) The building comprised a schoolroom, partitioned off from the chapel on weekdays, and a classroom; a separate boys' department was opened in 1885 and an additional schoolroom, for an infants' department, was finished in 1886. (fn. 44) The enlarged school had 349 pupils by 1905, but attendance fell to 287 in 1919 and 252 in 1938. (fn. 45) The former Marist convent's school was taken over after 1945 and extended in 1958 and 1969. Separate junior and infants' schools were created in 1971; there were 270 juniors and 216 infants in 1972.

West Green British mixed school opened in 1834, in a new building, leased from John Eliot Howard, on the south side of West Green Road. It contained a single schoolroom, although in the 1860s an adjoining room, perhaps part of the mistress's house, was sometimes used. The income came mainly from voluntary contributions and school pence. The school was not recorded after 1872 and presumably was superseded by West Green board school. (fn. 46)

All Hallows boys' school, also known as Tottenham National school, opened in 1841 on the south side of Marsh (later Park) Lane, near High Road. The site was leased to the vicar of Tottenham and others by trustees for the Coombes Croft estate. (fn. 47) There was a schoolroom for 124 and a house for the master, who in 1848 had an assistant. Attendance was usually low, 55 in 1852 (fn. 48) and 87 in 1859, until a particularly bad inspector's report in 1871 led to the master's dismissal. The income came from voluntary contributions, augmented by school pence, in 1848; an annual grant was paid from 1862. (fn. 49) Formal union with the National Society took place in 1875, in return for help in adding a classroom for 70 pupils. Accommodation was increased to 135 places by 1882, (fn. 50) 168 by 1898, and 238 by 1906; thereafter it remained the same for over 30 years, although attendance, which had been full at the turn of the century, fell in the period between the World Wars. (fn. 51) All Hallows became a junior girls' and infants' school after the Second World War (fn. 52) and was granted Voluntary Aided status in 1952. (fn. 53) In 1971 it was amalgamated with St. Paul's National school to form St. Paul's and All Hallows junior and infants' schools, next door to each other in new buildings on the north side of Park Lane. In 1972 there were 313 infants, most of whom went on to the junior school. (fn. 54)

High Cross or Trinity district infants' school opened in 1848 in a building east of the church. The school, later called Holy Trinity school, was linked with the National Society and derived its income mainly from voluntary contributions and school pence before the payment of an annual grant from 1862. (fn. 55) There were 76 pupils in 1865 and, perhaps after enlargements, almost a full complement of 105 twenty years later. (fn. 56) Numbers thereafter varied very little until the building was condemned in 1924. Land to the south of the church, formerly part of the vicarage garden, was acquired in 1932 and a new school for 120 infants was opened there in that year. (fn. 57) The original building, dated 1847, survived in 1972. (fn. 58)

Edmonton and Tottenham ragged and industrial school was founded by Dr. Michael Laseron, a German-born convert from Judaism, in 1858. The building, close to Laseron's house in Snells Park, Edmonton, comprised one schoolroom for boys and girls and another for infants. It was vested in Anglican trustees and the income came entirely from voluntary contributions (fn. 59) until Thomas Knight left stock worth £331 in 1861. A larger building in Union Row, on the Tottenham side of the boundary, was opened in 1862 by Lord Shaftesbury, as the Ragged and Industrial Home, and in 1865 a wing was added, where orphans could learn printing. The school was furnished with desks by the parish, in efforts to avoid a school board, and moved to Pembroke House in High Road c. 1878, when the old building was auctioned. It closed c. 1890 and Knight's endowment was divided between Edmonton and Tottenham school boards. (fn. 60)

The Hermitage school (fn. 61) for boys, girls, and infants, later St. Ann's girls' school, opened in 1858 as the first of three schools connected with St. Ann's church and, like the church itself, largely paid for by Fowler Newsam. The building, including a teacher's house, stood on the north side of Hanger Lane, later St. Ann's Road. The school was in union with the National Society and the income, from voluntary contributions and pence, was supplemented by Newsam's family, (fn. 62) although an annual grant was made from 1862; (fn. 63) Newsam's daughter Mrs. Robins left £1,000 to the school, by will proved 1895. (fn. 64) The establishment of St. Ann's boys' school in 1863 and of a new infants' school in 1871 left girls alone at the old Hermitage school. Attendance at the girls' and infants' schools combined rose from 74 in 1865 to 95 in 1870 (fn. 65) and 287 (18 more than the recognized accommodation) in 1882, (fn. 66) but fell to 228 by 1898 and remained at that level twenty years later. Despite rapidly increasing numbers of poor children, in 1870 Matthew Arnold considered the three St. Ann's schools the best in Tottenham and in 1890 they were excused annual inspections by the Education Department. There were long waiting lists in 1918, but the buildings were soon afterwards blacklisted by the Board of Education. (fn. 67) Reorganization into a senior school and a junior mixed and infants' school took place in 1934, the seniors using St. Ann's memorial hall until their school's closure in 1939, the juniors and infants taking over all the old school buildings. Additional accommodation was begun in 1958, whereupon the girls' old school became Robins building and the boys' Newsam building, while the original structure retained its name as Hermitage infants' school. St. Ann's school, which was granted Voluntary Aided status in 1951, had 235 children on the roll in 1973. (fn. 68)

St. Michael's National school, (fn. 69) Wood Green, began c. 1856 (fn. 70) as a Sunday school in a new building a few yards west of the church. Infants' day classes started in 1859 and the school was enlarged in 1863, (fn. 71) ten years before public subscriptions and the gift of a site by Mrs. Bella Goff Pearson of Nightingale Hall led to the opening of a new school for the older children, (fn. 72) with separate rooms for boys and girls. The expanded St. Michael's, answering the threat of a school board, was supported by a parliamentary grant, voluntary contributions, and pence in 1874. (fn. 73) Matthew Arnold praised it in 1879, and attendance rose from 375 in 1893. (fn. 74) to 420 in 1898 but fell to 399 in 1919. Boys and girls were placed under a single head from 1908 and were joined by the infants, who had continued to occupy the original premises, in the Second World War. There were 240 children on the roll in 1973.

All Hallows infant's school, founded to provide for infants near the old parish church and in the new populous district of St. Paul's, began in 1862 or 1863 in a room rented by the vicar at the back of Beech House. (fn. 75) In 1871 voluntary contributions and school pence supported a certificated mistress. The school, still using private premises, was reconstituted in that year but was not recorded thereafter. (fn. 76)

St. Ann's boys' school (fn. 77) was built and opened in 1863, chiefly at the expense of Fowler Newsam. It stood north of Hermitage school and was opened as a single classroom for 80. The school was intended for boys who had left Hermitage at 8 or 9 and who could otherwise go only to West Green; being in union with the National Society, it was at first often called Stamford Hill National school. A certificated master was supported by voluntary contributions, school pence, a charity sermon. (fn. 78) and, by 1865, a parliamentary grant; in addition the school received £1,200 under Mrs. Robins's will. (fn. 79) In the late 19th century it shared the high reputation of St. Ann's girls' and infants' schools. Attendance rose to 95 in 1870 and 121, slightly more than the recognized accommodation, in 1882; (fn. 80) in 1898 it was 127, after enlargement to take 145, and in 1919, after further extensions, it was 151. The boys' school was amalgamated with the other St. Ann's schools in in 1934. (fn. 81)

Tottenham Wesleyan infants' school opened in 1864, in a schoolroom and two classrooms, under a certificated mistress, and was supported by school pence, voluntary contributions, (fn. 82) and, from 1865, a parliamentary grant. The average attendance was 35 in 1865 and 58 in 1870. (fn. 83) The school seems to have closed before 1881. (fn. 84)

Trinity school, Willow Walk, began when the vicar of Holy Trinity rented premises at West Green c. 1866. In 1873 the building was below standard, when Fowler Newsam offered a new site, (fn. 85) but it was enlarged and re-equipped by opponents of a school board. (fn. 86) An average of 59 boys, girls, and infants attended in 1878, and 87 in 1882. (fn. 87) The vicar's support ceased in 1883 (fn. 88) but the local board took over the school in 1884. (fn. 89) Willow Walk had closed by 1888, (fn. 90) presumably because of the opening of West Green board school.

St. Paul's National school (fn. 91) for girls and infants opened in 1870, after the vicar had leased a site in Park Lane from the trustees of the Tottenham charity estates. It consisted at first of one schoolroom, used also for Sunday school, adjoining a mistress's house. (fn. 92) An additional classroom was built in 1875 and a parliamentary grant was obtained; attendance thereupon rose to 162 in 1878 (fn. 93) and to 330, slightly more than the official maximum, in 1898. The accommodation had been increased to 351 by 1906 but reduced to 264 by 1919. St. Paul's became a junior mixed and infants' school after the Second World War (fn. 94) and was granted Aided status in 1952. (fn. 95) It was amalgamated with the former All Hallows boys' school in 1971, to form St. Paul's and All Hallows junior and infants' schools, in new premises on the north side of Park Lane. The old buildings, bought by Haringey L.B., were used by the housing department in 1972. (fn. 96)

A new Hermitage school, for infants only, (fn. 97) opened in 1871. The chief benefactor, Fowler Newsam, referred to it as his own infants' school in 1873, when he secured a National Society grant for its enlargement. Attendance figures were included with those for the nearby girls' establishment, which was supervised by the same committee. By will proved 1895 Newsam's daughter Mrs. Robins left £800 to the infants' school. (fn. 98) After reorganization in 1934 the school formed part of the junior school, although the building retained its name as Hermitage infants' school.

Tottenham Elementary school for boys opened in 1876, in a schoolroom and two smaller classrooms built 15 years earlier. Its foundation was probably a belated move by the churches in the campaign against a school board: the premises were rented from the Wesleyans, the chairman of the governors was a Presbyterian minister, and the secretary was the vicar of St. Paul's. (fn. 99) A parliamentary grant was paid in 1878, when the average attendance was 195. (fn. 100) The school was closed on or shortly after the establishment of the school board in 1879.

Love Lane infants' school was probably opened by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge in 1879, (fn. 101) a year after the society founded its Tottenham training college (later St. Katharine's college.) (fn. 102) Pupils were transferred to the college's new practising school in 1880, whereupon the premises in Love Lane were hired as a boys' school by the local board. (fn. 103)

Elementary schools founded between 1879 and 1903.

Tottenham Practising National school was built and opened in 1880 by the S.P.C.K. after the society's training college had moved into new buildings in White Hart Lane. The school was designed both for infants transferred from Love Lane and for upper grade girls. (fn. 104) A parliamentary grant was obtained and the total accommodation raised from 435 in 1882 to 486 in 1898, while attendance rose from 355 (fn. 105) to 398. When the training college changed its name the school became known as St. Katharine's practising school. In 1906, the girls' department was overcrowded and the infants' not quite full. St. Katharine's became a senior girls' school c. 1937, providing only secondary education. (fn. 106)

Wood Green board school originated in separate boys', girls', and infants' schools, opened 'to supply temporarily the great educational deficiency'. In 1880 the boys met in premises belonging to Wood Green Congregational church, the girls in rooms belonging to the Baptists, and the infants in a temperance hall. A new building was opened in White Hart Lane in 1884. (fn. 107) It held 1,256 boys, girls, and infants in 1898 and, as White Hart Lane county school, 1,170 in 1919. After older children had been transferred, new buildings were erected in Earlham Grove and eventually renamed Earlham junior and infants' schools. (fn. 108)

West Green board school began in 1881 as a temporary school for 115 boys and moved to a slightly larger iron hall, leased from Primitive Methodists, three years later. In 1886 the boys, together with girls and infants from Willow Walk, moved to a school for some 1,200 pupils in Woodlands Park Road. The new building was similar to Wood Green board school (fn. 109) but places were in greater demand, for in 1889 the main hall had to be divided by curtains to provide extra classrooms. (fn. 110) West Green was the second most overcrowded school in the old parish in 1898, with 1,239 places for 1,448 pupils, and in 1906, by which time the number of excess pupils had fallen by one quarter. One of the first English experiments in a freer teaching method known as the Dalton plan was begun in the boys' department in 1921 by A. J. Lynch, the author of several works on education. (fn. 111) Unlike other county primary schools West Green was not reorganized into separate junior and infants' establishments. (fn. 112) In 1972 it still occupied its 19th-century buildings as a junior mixed and infants' school, with 390 pupils on the roll.

Coleraine Park board school, the first of its kind to be purpose-built in Tottenham, (fn. 113) opened in 1881, with accommodation for 1,152 boys, girls, and infants. (fn. 114) The school was nearly full in 1898 and had 50 pupils too many in 1906 but by 1919 attendance was 100 short of the reduced number of places, 1,092. Separate junior schools for boys and girls were established in 1928, after senior pupils had left, and merged in 1945. Junior and infants' schools, with 417 and 243 pupils on their respective rolls, continued to share the 19th-century building in 1973.

Bruce Grove board school was established, presumably in rented accommodation, by early 1882, when there was one school for 210 boys and another for 184 girls. (fn. 115) In 1894 a permanent building for 1,564 boys, girls, and infants opened in Sperling Road. (fn. 116) Attendance rose to 1,686 by 1906 but had fallen to 1,124 by 1919. Separate junior and infants' schools were formed in 1946 and shared the original building in 1972, when the infants also used nearby prefabricated classrooms. In that year there were 493 pupils at the junior school and 312 at the infants' school.

Stamford Hill board school in Burghley Road, where a few boys were already being taught, (fn. 117) opened for girls and infants in 1882. There were 1,415 pupils in 1888, three years before the opening of a separate building for infants. Overcrowding, stimulated by the abolition of weekly pence, reached a peak c. 1898, when Stamford Hill had nearly 100 pupils too many, despite being the largest school in Tottenham, with 1,711 places. (fn. 118) Pressure had eased by 1906 and accommodation had been reduced to 1,655 by 1919. In 1946 the school was divided into junior mixed and infant's schools, which occupied the old premises in 1972. At that date the juniors' roll numbered 300 and the infants' 180.

Page Green board school for boys, girls, and infants opened in Broad Lane in 1882. (fn. 119) It rapidly became overcrowded with the ending of school pence in 1891 (fn. 120) and had 1,814 pupils in 1893 (fn. 121) but by 1898, with the establishment of Earlsmead school, attendance had been brought down to little more than the number of places, 1,656. The accommodation thereafter was reduced, to 1,536 by 1906 and 1,465 by 1919. The infants' department closed in 1933, (fn. 122) after which Page Green became a mixed secondary modern school. (fn. 123) In 1972 the 19thcentury buildings were shared by Hornsey College of Art and the new Welbourne primary school. (fn. 124)

St. Paul's Roman Catholic school, Wood Green, opened in 1884 in a newly erected iron church in Station Road. A one-storey brick schoolhouse was built behind the church in 1885 (fn. 125) and the school's income, from pence and voluntary contributions, (fn. 126) was supplemented by a parliamentary grant in 1887. (fn. 127) The accommodation, initially for 80 boys, girls, and infants, (fn. 128) had increased to 223 places by 1898 and 339 by 1906, but had fallen to 280 in 1919. Under a seven-year programme, starting in 1960, the school was completely rebuilt. There were 249 infants and juniors on the roll in 1972. (fn. 129)

Noel Park board school opened in Gladstone Avenue in 1889, three years after the board first rented infants' accommodation attached to Wood Green Congregational church. (fn. 130) The new building had room for 1,524 boys, girls, and infants in 1898 but an average attendance of 1,803 made it the most overcrowded of all the board's schools. Numbers had been brought down to 1,481 by 1906 and 1,258 by 1919. In 1972 the 19th-century building was still occupied by Noel Park junior and Noel Park infants' schools, which had 552 and 352 pupils respectively.

Bounds Green board school originated in 1888 with infants' classes in the iron Shaftesbury hall in Carlton Road. In 1895 Bowes Park infants' board school, as it was called, was superseded by a new school in Bounds Green Road, where juniors occupied one building and infants another. (fn. 131) The infants' department quickly won a high reputation and often gained remission of government inspection, parents being invited to view classes in progress. (fn. 132) Bounds Green school had 1,295 places and 1,089 pupils in 1906 but by 1919 there were 1,271 places and only 983 pupils. Seniors were transferred in 1939, after which date the premises were occupied by separate junior mixed and infants' schools; in 1972 there were 472 juniors and in 1973 the number of infants was expected to rise from 295 to 330. (fn. 133)

Seven Sisters board school (fn. 134) opened in 1889 on an island site bounded by Seaford, Rosslyn, and Braemar roads. There was accommodation for 1,639 boys, girls, and infants in 1898, when the average attendance was 1,843. Numbers had fallen to 1,677 by 1906 but bad overcrowding persisted in 1911, when one girls' class numbered 88 and another 120; in 1919 there were only 1,351 pupils. Older children were transferred in 1934, leaving the building to juniors and infants, who, forming separate schools, still occupied it in 1972. The infants also acquired temporary classrooms in Greenfield Road in 1967 and a new hall there in 1969, and from 1970 some of the juniors were taught in the former Culvert Road school in South Grove. There were 580 children at the junior school and 514 at the infants' school in 1972.

Union Row board school, with accommodation for 400 boys, was opened in 1890, probably as a temporary school. It was less than half full in 1893 and had closed by 1898. (fn. 135)

Downhills board school opened in a new building in Philip Lane in 1893, with 1,543 places. It was attended by 1,403 boys, girls, and infants in 1898 and by 1,620 eight years later. In 1913 senior pupils were moved to another new building, (fn. 136) where they were later absorbed into Downhills selective central school. (fn. 137) The various Downhills school buildings formed the largest such complex in Tottenham in 1919, with 2,293 places. In 1973 the old structure was shared between a junior school, with 370 pupils, and an infants', with 300 pupils.

Alexandra board school, Western Road, Wood Green, began with mixed juniors' and infants' classes in a new iron building in 1894. The accommodation was 569 and the average attendance 311 in 1898. Juniors and infants were provided with separate buildings on the same site three years later. (fn. 138) Alexandra school had 1,038 places in 1906, when it was almost full, and 1,209 in 1919, when attendance had sunk to 897. Senior pupils were moved to Bounds Green, Lordship Lane, or Noel Park in 1947. Separate junior and infants' schools, with 230 and 210 pupils on their respective rolls. remained on the premises in 1972. (fn. 139)

St. Ignatius's Roman Catholic elementary school was opened by Jesuits in 1895 in a former outbuilding of Burleigh House, adjoining a site which had been bought for St. Ignatius's college in 1894. It did not receive a public grant until 1906 but thereafter expanded rapidly, (fn. 140) in a new building shared with the college and accommodating 465 by 1919. In 1952 it was reorganized as a junior mixed and infants' school, when older pupils moved to St. Thomas More's, and acquired Aided status. (fn. 141) There were 405 juniors and infants on the roll in 1973, when the infants were taught in a new building.

Earlsmead board school, with 1,125 places, opened in Broad Lane in 1897. (fn. 142) It had 38 pupils too many in 1906 but obviated overcrowding at Page Green. (fn. 143) The number of places had been reduced to 1,093 by 1919. The premises were later shared by separate junior and infants' schools, which amalgamated in 1973 and contained 350 children in 1974. (fn. 144)

Gladstone Avenue temporary board school opened in 1898 or 1899 as a junior mixed school. Its new building, leased from the Bishop of London's Fund, accommodated 320. Staff and pupils moved to Lordship Lane council school in 1906. (fn. 145)

Woodlands Park board school, St. Ann's Road, opened in 1900 (fn. 146) to accommodate 1,500 juniors and infants. It was overcrowded in 1906, with 1,678 pupils, and the number of places had been reduced to 1,457 by 1919. In 1972 separate buildings on the same site were used by junior and infants' schools, with 490 and 310 pupils respectively.

Schools founded between 1903 and 1945.

Tottenham U.D. education committee established the following schools. Forster Road mixed school opened in 1905, in premises leased from St. Mark's Wesleyan church and accommodating 256 children. It closed in 1907 but reopened on the same site in 1910, to relieve pressure on the Bruce Grove and Parkhurst Road schools. (fn. 147) The school had ceased to function by 1919.

Belmont Road school opened in temporary quarters in 1906 and moved to a new building in 1908. (fn. 148) There was accommodation for 1,636 children in 1919 and for 1,458 in 1938. (fn. 149) Reorganization had created separate secondary modern, junior, and infants' schools by 1949. (fn. 150) A new Belmont junior school, the first primary school to be completed in Tottenham after the Second World War, opened in Rusper Road in 1955, (fn. 151) while senior pupils and infants remained on the old site in Downhills Park Road. By 1963 the infants also had moved to Rusper Road, (fn. 152) where they occupied their own buildings in 1972. At that date 435 children attended the junior school and 310 the infants'.

Parkhurst Road school, built and opened in 1907, when the first Forster Road school closed, (fn. 153) had 1,260 places but only 896 pupils in 1919. Senior children later formed boys and girls' secondary modern schools, afterwards amalgamated. (fn. 154) In 1972 Parkhurst infants' school survived in the old buildings, with 258 full-time pupils on the roll. (fn. 155)

Crowland Road school opened in 1911, to relieve overcrowding at Earlsmead, Seven Sisters, Stamford Hill, and Page Green schools. (fn. 156) Between the World Wars there were 1,420 places, occupied by 1,012 children in 1919 and by 769 in 1938. (fn. 157) Crowland secondary modern school was formed in 1946. (fn. 158) In 1972 juniors and infants continued to occupy separate buildings on the old site, with 320 juniors and 226 infants on their respective rolls.

Down Lane school opened in Park View Road in 1911. (fn. 159) Under the Education Act of 1918 part of it was turned into a selective central school for girls, (fn. 160) although juniors and infants remained on the premises, where there were 1,636 places in 1919. Separate junior and infants' schools were created in 1940, the infants' closing some 20 years later. In 1967, on the reorganization of secondary education and consequent closure of the former central school, the juniors moved to Parkhurst Road, where there were 313 children enrolled in 1972. (fn. 161)

Coombes Croft temporary council school opened in 1912 in part of the premises formerly leased as council offices and later for grammar school pupils from the Tottenham charity estates. (fn. 162) The school, for junior boys drawn from the Lancasterian school, had 96 places in 1919. It was closed in 1924. (fn. 163)

Woodberry Down temporary council school opened in 1913 in premises leased from Woodberry Down Baptist church. The school, intended to relieve pressure at Stamford Hill, had 224 places in 1919 and closed in 1926. (fn. 164)

Risley Avenue school, the Roundway, opened in 1913 with 1,894 places, to take pupils from the Lancasterian, Bruce Grove, and Belmont Road schools. (fn. 165) Under the Act of 1918 part of it became a selective central school for boys until 1928, when the boys moved to Down Lane. (fn. 166) Until 1967 senior girls shared the building with junior mixed and infants' schools, which had 451, including 28 from the Blanche Nevile school, and 390 children on their respective rolls in 1972. (fn. 167)

Culvert Road, later South Grove, school opened in a new building in 1913, when pupils were moved there from Woodlands Park, Seven Sisters, West Green, and Downhills schools. (fn. 168) Between the World Wars the accommodation was reduced from 1,520 to 1,225 places. (fn. 169) During the 1920s the staff for a time included Stephen Critten, later known as the novelist Neil Bell, and the pupils included Edward Willis, later the author Lord Willis. (fn. 170) Separate boys' and girls' secondary schools and an infants' school were afterwards formed, the infants' closing c. 1963. After the absorption of the secondary schools into a comprehensive establishment, the whole building became an annexe of Hornsey College of Art until Seven Sisters junior school took over the upper floor in 1970. (fn. 171)

Allison Road school opened in 1913 in premises leased from Harringay Congregational church for Tottenham infants who previously had attended schools in Hornsey. The school, which had 200 places, closed during or immediately after the Second World War. (fn. 172)

Amherst Park temporary council school opened on the same day as the schools in Culvert and Allison roads in a building leased from Amherst Park Wesleyan church. It accommodated 250 boys, taken from Stamford Hill school, and closed in 1925.

Devonshire Hill school, Weir Hall Road, opened in 1926 with places for 760 juniors and infants from the Lancasterian and Risley Avenue schools. It occupied the same site in 1972, when there were 550 children on the roll.

Wood Green education committee established the following schools. Lordship Lane school opened in 1906, superseding the temporary school in Gladstone Avenue. By 1912 four temporary classrooms had been added to the main building, intended for infants only, and in 1919 there were 1,120 places. (fn. 173) Separate boys' secondary, junior mixed, and infants' schools were later formed. (fn. 174) Both junior and infants' schools remained on the site in 1972, when there were 477 juniors and 342 infants.

Muswell Hill temporary council school, for juniors and infants, opened in Albert Road in 1908 and closed in 1920. There was accommodation for 360 in 1919. (fn. 175)

Rhodes Avenue school opened in 1930, with accommodation for 434 juniors and infants. (fn. 176) In 1952 a separate infants' school was established on the same site. There were 294 pupils enrolled at the junior school and 200 at the infants' school in 1972. (fn. 177)

White Hart Lane New school, called Earlham school since 1968, opened in Earlham Grove in 1939. Infants and juniors shared the same building. By 1973 the infants' school, intended for less than 200, had 270 pupils, while the junior school had 441. (fn. 178)

Primary schools founded after 1945. (fn. 179)

St. Mary's Priory junior and infants' schools opened on the priory's land in Hermitage Road in 1966. They were run by the Servite sisters and had 315 and 220 children on their rolls in 1972.

Broadwater Farm primary school, in the newly built Adams Road, was founded in 1970 by Haringey L.B. to serve the Broadwater Farm estate. There were 206 infants and juniors in 1972.

Tiverton primary school was opened by Haringey in 1970 in Pulford Road, where it served the surrounding new estate. There were 116 juniors and 134 infants in 1972.

St. Martin of Porres Catholic school opened in 1972 in Blake Road, as a second primary school to serve the parish of St. Paul, Wood Green, for an estimated 245 children in 1973.

Welbourne primary school was opened by Haringey in 1972, to serve the area that was being rebuilt between High Road, Broad Lane, and Chesnut Road. Classes began in part of the former Page Green school, which was shared with the teachers' training department of Hornsey College of Art.

Secondary and senior schools founded before 1967.

Apart from Tottenham grammar school (fn. 180) the first source of public secondary education was the Higher Grade board school at Wood Green. It was intended for pupils who wished to stay on after passing the 7th standard of an elementary school, and, although administered under the Elementary Code, catered for those who would otherwise have had to travel to the grammar school. (fn. 181) Separate boys' and girls' establishments opened in 1884, using premises rented from the Wesleyans and Presbyterians. By 1898 both schools were overcowded: the boys', in Trinity Road, had 226 places and 286 pupils, and the girls', in Naas Road (later Canning Crescent), had 144 places and double that number of pupils. In 1899 both boys and girls moved to a new building in Bounds Green Road, where there was room for 900 in 1906 and 1,040 in 1919. Fees, originally 9d. a week, were 6d. a week from 1899, when each sex could compete for 100 free places. (fn. 182) Wood Green Higher Grade school closed on being taken over by the Middlesex education committee in 1921 but reopened as Trinity county grammar school. (fn. 183)

Tottenham county school was established by Middlesex C.C. at Grove House in 1901 (fn. 184) and was the first secondary school founded by the council in expectation of the following year's Education Act. As one of the earliest co-educational secondary schools in the country it was fiercely criticized. For twelve years accommodation was shared with Tottenham polytechnic, for which Grove House had originally been acquired, while numbers rose from 80 to c. 400. In 1913 the school moved into a new building, for 450 pupils, on the Green; numbers had reached 543 by 1936 and 658 by 1953, a year before extra space was found in High Cross memorial hall. New buildings at Selby Road, Devonshire Hill, next to the playing fields, were started in 1961 and occupied in 1963. Tottenham county school closed in 1967, when its premises were taken over by Tottenham school. (fn. 185) In 1973 the building on the Green was occupied by the Moselle school.

St. Ignatius's college was founded in 1894, when Jesuits bought Morecambe Lodge, Stamford Hill. Private secondary education was provided there for Roman Catholic boys until a new building, which also housed mixed elementary pupils, was brought into use from 1907. A public grant was first paid in 1906 and increased in 1908, on condition that 25 per cent of the places should be free. (fn. 186) The school, granted Aided status in 1950, (fn. 187) moved to Enfield in 1968. (fn. 188)

Tottenham high school (fn. 189) for girls was established in 1885 by the Church Schools Co., which had leased the premises in High Road formerly occupied by the Drapers' college for boys. The Drapers' Company itself took over the school in 1887, managing it as a day school with over 100 pupils and charging 3 or 4 guineas a term. Government was through a committee including local members until 1891 and then through the Drapers' own education committee until 1909, when Middlesex C.C. took over. The council bought the property in 1921. A new building was erected on the south side facing High Road in 1926. There were c. 500 pupils by 1949, (fn. 190) eighteen years before the school's absorption into High Cross comprehensive school. (fn. 191)

Glendale, originally Wood Green, county school was established by Middlesex C.C. as a mixed grammar school in 1910. (fn. 192) The school was amalgamated with Trinity county school to form Wood Green county grammar school in 1962. It then moved from Glendale Avenue to White Hart Lane, leaving its old premises for Woodside school. Under the comprehensive scheme of 1967 the buildings in Glendale Avenue were assigned to St. Thomas More upper school and the new ones in White Hart Lane to Wood Green comprehensive school. (fn. 193)

Downhills selective central school was opened by Tottenham education committee in 1919, under powers conferred by the Act of 1918. (fn. 194) The central school offered a curriculum like that of the grammar schools to mixed pupils from the age of eleven. It occupied part of the old Downhills board school's buildings in Philip Lane and was redesigned as a secondary modern establishment between 1957 and 1963.

Down Lane selective central school was opened under the Act of 1918 to provide a largely commercial or technical curriculum for girls. In 1928 the boys from Risley Avenue were transferred to Down Lane, which later became a secondary modern school.

Risley Avenue central school was the third of its kind established by Tottenham education committee. It was a boys' school with a curriculum like that at Down Lane and was closed in 1928.

Trinity county school, Bounds Green Road, was opened as a mixed grammar school, after the county council had taken over the Higher Grade school in 1921. (fn. 195) On its amalgamation with Glendale school in 1962 it moved to White Hart Lane, whereupon the old buildings were taken over by Parkwood school. (fn. 196)

St. Katharine's Church of England school became a girls' secondary modern school c. 1937, having previously, as St. Katharine's practising school, been an all-age school. (fn. 197) In 1962 it moved from buildings forming part of the training college complex to new accommodation near-by, entered from Pretoria Road. The school became comprehensive in 1967, retaining the Voluntary Aided status which it had enjoyed since 1952. (fn. 198)

Rowland Hill secondary modern school opened in Lordship Lane in 1938, with 539 boys and staff drawn mainly from Risley Avenue, Devonshire Hill, and the Lancasterian schools. Its foundation, contemplated since the closure of Risley Avenue central school, had been made necessary by the higher leaving age and the growth of council estates in north Tottenham. (fn. 199)

St. Angela's Providence Convent school began as a private school in Bounds Green Road in 1905. It acquired the Brabançonne in Earlham Grove, Wood Green, in 1921 and moved into a new school behind the Brabaçonne in 1926. (fn. 200) The Daughters of Providence took over the Ursuline sisters' direct grant school in Oakthorpe Road, Palmers Green (Southgate), in 1932; most of the seniors from Palmers Green moved in 1933 to Wood Green, where St. Angela's continued as a direct grant day school until 1945, while infants and juniors moved from Wood Green to Palmers Green. St. Angela's, Wood Green, became a 'transitionally assisted' grammar school in 1945 and Voluntary Aided in 1950, when it had 280 girls. In 1972 it was intended that the 410 pupils from Wood Green would transfer to a Roman Catholic comprehensive school at Palmers Green. (fn. 201)

St. Thomas More Roman Catholic school opened in 1952, fourteen years after work had begun on the buildings, in Holcombe Road. It remained a mixed Voluntary Special Agreement school until 1968, when the roll numbered 540, and was then reorganized on a two-tier comprehensive basis. (fn. 202)

Under the reorganization started in 1934, the following secondary modern schools were created in Tottenham out of existing elementary schools, part of whose premises they continued to use: (fn. 203) Belmont (mixed); Crowland (mixed), closed between 1949 and 1957; (fn. 204) Page Green (mixed), closed between 1957 and 1963; Parkhurst (mixed); Risley Avenue (girls); South Grove (boys); South Grove (girls). The following were formed in Wood Green: Bounds Green (mixed); Lordship Lane (boys), closed between 1957 and 1963; Noel Park (girls), closed between 1957 and 1963.

The following secondary modern schools were established after 1945: Markfield (mixed), Gladesmore Road, Tottenham; Cecil Rhodes (mixed), Rhodes Avenue, Wood Green (1959); (fn. 205) Parkwood (girls) (1963), Bounds Green Road, Wood Green, replacing Noel Park; Woodside (boys) (1962), Glendale Avenue, Wood Green, replacing Lordship Lane.

Comprehensive schools founded since 1967. (fn. 206)

Alexandra Park opened as a mixed school in 1967. The lower school took over a building in Park Road which had been erected for Bounds Green school in 1965, while the upper school occupied the former Cecil Rhodes school's premises. A library and other extensions had been built on the Rhodes Avenue site by 1973, when there were plans to increase the number of pupils to 1,320 within two years.

The Drayton school opened in Gladesmore Road in 1967, occupying a senior school which had been built in 1910, an extension added in 1938, and a new secondary modern school which had opened in 1957. The Grovelands extension was built in 1969 and further rooms were planned for 1973. There were 990 boys and girls enrolled in 1972.

High Cross school opened in 1967, in the premises formerly used by Tottenham high school, in High Road, and by Down Lane central school. There were c. 1,050 girls on the roll in 1972.

St. Katharine's Church of England School became comprehensive in 1967 but retained its Voluntary Aided status. There were 406 girls on the roll in 1972.

The Somerset school was formed in 1967 by the amalgamation of Tottenham grammar and Rowland Hill schools. The grammar school's Voluntary Controlled status was retained, with foundation governors in addition to those appointed by the local authority. The upper school took over the buildings in White Hart Lane which had been erected for the grammar school in 1938 and enlarged in 1960, while the lower school, for first- and second-year boys, occupied the former Rowland Hill school. Extensions included a library at the lower school in 1970 and sixth-form rooms. There were 1,022 boys enrolled in 1972 (fn. 207).

Tottenham school opened as a mixed school in 1967 in the old Tottenham county school's buildings in Selby Road. A sixth-form centre and a sports hall had been added by 1972, when there were 1,038 pupils on the roll.

Wood Green comprehensive school was formed in 1967 with boys from Wood Green county grammar and Woodside schools and some girls from Parkwood school. The upper tier occupied the former grammar school's buildings in White Hart Lane, to which additions had been made by 1972, while the lower tier used the Glendale Avenue premises of the former Woodside school. The number on the roll was 1,210 in 1973, when extensions were planned to accommodate all the pupils on the White Hart Lane site.

St. Thomas More upper school was formed in 1968, when it became part of a Roman Catholic comprehensive school and moved from the former St. Thomas More secondary modern school into the premises previously occupied by Trinity grammar school. There were 420 pupils on the roll in 1972.

St. Thomas More lower school remained in Holcombe Road on becoming the lower tier of the new comprehensive school in 1968. It contained 540 children, aged 11 to 14, in 1972, when there were plans for their eventual rehousing, together with those of the upper school, at Wood Green. (fn. 208)

The William Forster school, which replaced Downhills secondary school, opened in a new building in Langham Road in 1970, to mark the centenary of Forster's Education Act. There were 1,230 pupils on the roll in 1973.

Northumberland Park opened as a mixed school in the former Tottenham county school's premises in 1972. A move to Trulock Road was then planned for 1974 and numbers were expected to rise to 1,320 by 1977.

Special and nursery schools. (fn. 209)

The Blanche Nevile school began as the Cedars school for deaf children in 1895, when Tottenham school board took over a house in Philip Lane. Pupils from Edmonton were admitted and the school soon moved to two larger houses, which were replaced in 1924. Extensions allowed numbers to rise to c. 70 by 1949. (fn. 210) In 1972 there were 151 children, 64 of them severely deaf and receiving education at the school.

The Vale school was opened by Tottenham education committee in Vale Road in 1928. It was intended for 70 physically handicapped children, including those suffering from heart trouble, and was taken over by the county council when enlargement became necessary. (fn. 211) In 1972 there were 86 pupils enrolled.

Moselle school, Haringey's first school for the educationally subnormal, opened in 1970 in part of the former Tottenham county school on the Green, where there was room for 75 children. In 1973 it was planned to move to premises for 150.

William Harvey school for the mentally subnormal opened in 1970 in new buildings in Adams Road. There were 108 children, aged 3 to 16, on the roll in 1973.

The New Day school or White Hart Lane old school, for maladjusted pupils, temporarily occupied the premises of the former White Hart Lane county school in 1972.

Vale Road nursery school, the first of its kind founded by Tottenham education committee, opened in 1937; there were 75 places, filled part-time by 150 infants, in 1972. Additional nursery space was provided during the Second World War at Pembury House, Lansdowne Road, and at Rowland Hill school, both of which afterwards became separate nursery schools, with 116 and 90 full-and part-time infants in 1972. Nursery classes were added to most infants' schools after the Second World War.

Tottenham technical college.

Classes in art, science, and technical subjects began at Grove House in 1892, five years before the building was bought by Middlesex C.C. to form Tottenham polytechnic. (fn. 212) Evening attendance rose to 1,191 by 1911, although work was limited to small art classes during the day, chiefly because the premises were shared with Tottenham county school from 1901 until 1913. A large block, the oldest part of the college to survive in 1972, was built to the south in 1910 and Grove House itself was replaced by a new main building between 1936 and 1939, when the polytechnic was renamed Tottenham technical college. A large extension at the rear was opened in 1955 (fn. 213) and an annexe acquired behind Montagu Road school (Edmonton) in 1963; the college left Montagu Road in 1972, (fn. 214) by which date another annexe had been opened at South Grove. (fn. 215) By 1936 there were three departments: a junior technical school for 200 boys aged 13-16, a similar commercial school for 100 boys and girls, and evening classes for 1,400 students. (fn. 216) The junior schools were phased out soon after 1960, although the college expanded to comprise five departments and some 4,000 students, only 500 of whom were evening attenders, by 1972. In that year there were plans to change the name to Tottenham college of technology. (fn. 217)

Private schools.

Until the spread of working-class housing in the 1870s Tottenham was noted for its private schools. largely patronized by London families. As early as c. 1670 Mark Lewis advertised a 'gymnasium', specializing in languages, and in 1673 Mrs. Bathsua Makin, formerly tutor to Charles I's daughter Elizabeth, announced a wide curriculum in her prospectus for a girls' school. (fn. 218) A boarding establishment was also kept by the scholar William Baxter (1650-1723), nephew of Richard Baxter; three of William's children were baptized at the parish church between 1695 and 1700, before he left to become headmaster of the Mercers' school, London. (fn. 219)

There were two Quaker schools by 1712. One had been started five years earlier by Richard Claridge, who took about 20 boarders in addition to local boys. Claridge taught some of his pupils free, maintaining that they were neglected by the grammar school, and survived the denunciations of its master and the vicar, as well as an action at law brought by Lord Coleraine's widow and Hugh Smithson. (fn. 220) Claridge moved to London but others claimed to continue his school in a building adjoining the Old Ship inn, later called Sunnyside, until its demolition in 1910. (fn. 221)

The Forster family's long connexion with Tottenham began in 1752 when Josiah Forster (d. 1763), a Coventry schoolmaster, converted Sir Abraham Reynardson's house on the Green into a boys' boarding school (fn. 222) offering commercial and technical subjects. Josiah was followed by his sonin-law Thomas Coar, a former assistant of Archdeacon Paley and author of A Grammar of the English Tongue. Coar retired in 1810, leaving the school to his nephew Josiah Forster, who previously had taught in Southgate and who soon moved to the near-by Eagle House, where Coar's daughters Deborah and Fanny also ran a boys' preparatory school of good repute. Josiah Forster retired in 1810 and the Coar sisters left in 1841, after Forster's school had passed to Dr. Andrew Price, who specialized in foreign boarders. Eagle House school, (fn. 223) which later catered more for nonconformist dayboys, survived until the building was burned down c. 1884. (fn. 224)

The opening of Bruce Castle, (fn. 225) destined to be Tottenham's best-known school, was announced in 1827 by the Hill family, after their purchase of the mansion with 15 a. from John Ede. The Hills, already well known for their methods used at Hazelwood, in Edgbaston (Warws.), probably wanted to anticipate the foundation of a similar school near London by Jeremy Bentham, Lord Brougham, and other radical admirers. A partnership of four brothers managed the new school, with Rowland Hill as headmaster until 1833, when Hazelwood was closed, after the transfer of many pupils to Tottenham, and Rowland's brother Arthur took over. Bruce Castle was modelled on Hazelwood in its wide syllabus, relaxed discipline, and stress on self-government by the boys, as propounded by the Hills in 1833. (fn. 226) Financially it was a greater success, printing its own magazine, the Brucian, (fn. 227) from 1839 and winning high praise in the 1840s, (fn. 228) when Charles Dickens admired its methods as 'the only recognition of education as a broad system of moral and intellectual philosophy that I have ever seen in practice'. (fn. 229) Under Arthur Hill Bruce Castle gradually became more conventional until most of its pupils attended the parish church. Arthur was followed by his son George Norman Birkbeck Hill, (fn. 230) whose succession by the Revd. William Almack ended the family's connexion in 1877. Almack closed Bruce Castle in 1891 and soon afterwards the local authority bought it as a museum.

Grove House school (fn. 231) opened in 1829 in the former home of Thomas Smith, which had been bought by Quakers in 1828 as a boarding school for c. 25 boys. It was presumably founded because of the retirement of Josiah Forster, who was one of the trustees. Charging fees of c. £100 a year, it was in reputation second only to Bruce Castle, which it resembled in its spacious surroundings, (fn. 232) its advanced curriculum, and the absence of corporal punishment. After a fall in attendance during the 1850s, it was enlarged by the headmaster Arthur Robert Abbott, who supervised 46 boarders and 4 assistant masters in 1868. Abbott virtually took control on becoming the lessee in 1871 and accepted non-Quakers from 1873. He bought the school in 1877, after taking Anglican orders, and closed it abruptly a few months later, although Quaker families connected with Grove House were to contribute towards its successor, founded at Leighton Park, Reading, in 1889. From 1886 until 1889 part of the premises was leased by the Drapers' Company, as a temporary home for Bancroft's school in the course of its move from Mile End to Woodford (Essex). (fn. 233) Old boys of Grove House who achieved eminence included W. E. Forster (1818-86), Dr. Daniel Tuke (1827-95), Lord Lister (1827-1912), Sir Robert Fowler (1828-91), Alfred Waterhouse (1830-1905), Sir Edward Tylor (1832-1907), Joseph Henry Shorthouse (1834-1903), (fn. 234) and Joseph Albert Pease (1860-1943), who, as President of the Board of Education, returned in 1912 to open a new building for Tottenham county school, which had previously used the former Grove House. (fn. 235)

The Royal Masonic school, Wood Green, occupied the site of Lordship House and 10 a. bought in 1856. It was opened in 1857 for c. 70 sons of poor or deceased freemasons and, encouraged by the Queen's patronage, was well supported by subscriptions. The first building was replaced in 1865 (fn. 236) by a larger one of stone, designed by Edwin Pearce and J. B. Wilson and Son in the Gothic style. (fn. 237) In 1878 there were 211 pupils, twenty of them admitted by purchase or presentation. (fn. 238) Twenty years later the managers moved the school to Bushey (Herts.) and sold the Wood Green site to the Home and Colonial School Society for a training college. (fn. 239) The building was renamed Woodall House after its sale to the Tottenham and District Gas Co. in the 1930s and acquired by Haringey from the Eastern Gas Board in 1974. (fn. 240)

The Drapers' college was built on land bought in 1858, when the Company was about to move its alms-houses from the City. The school was designed for 50 freemen's sons, boarders aged 8-15, to be brought up on Anglican principles. The boys were housed in part of a north-south block, set well back from the west side of High Road and reached by paths flanking rows of alms-houses to north and south. After buying extra land the Company closed the school in 1885, only to reopen it as a girls' high school in 1887. (fn. 241)

Elmslea, Lordship Lane, was bought by the Drapers' Company in 1869 and opened for fatherless Anglican girls three years later, with £36,000 left by a former master, Thomas Corney (d. 1866). The inmates, whose number rose from 24 to 40, were aged 7-18 and were taught at Elmslea until the opening of Tottenham High school. After Elmslea's closure in 1930, the Tottenham magistrates' courthouse was built on the site. (fn. 242)

High Cross college, on land afterwards occupied by Rawlinson Terrace, offered a broad curriculum by the 1860s and lasted until 1881. In 1879 it prepared boys of any age for the public schools or government examinations. (fn. 243)

Apart from the schools already mentioned as many as 14 small private institutions were listed in 1832. Two, kept by the Misses Wilson at the Elms and by Miss Hague in High Road, survived in the same hands in 1845, while Wood Green had but one short-lived private school in 1839. Genteel academies presumably helped to support the professors of music, dancing, and writing who lived at Tottenham in 1845. (fn. 244) Later girls' schools included Moselle House, in High Road opposite Park Road from 1869 to 1872, Felix House, opened in 1857 and apparently closed in the early 1880s, and Hope Cottage, West Green Road, which was exceptionally expensive, according to its prospectus. (fn. 245) Girls also boarded with the Servite Sisters and others with the Marist Sisters, who conducted a small school and an orphanage in 1890 but no longer did so in 1908. (fn. 246)

Among some 40 private schools existing c. 1880 were Wellesley House, West Green, where boys were prepared for public schools, St. John's middle class school, founded in 1868 and with a few boarders among its 80-90 boys, and the Grammar School, Nightingale House, Wood Green, where boys were coached for the universities and public examinations. Tottenham college, one of the largest establishments, took many foreign pupils and printed brochures in French; it first occupied the Cedars and later a 12acre site at the corner of Selby Road, White Hart Lane, where it had closed by 1923. (fn. 247)

The number of private schools declined from the late 19th century. Clark's College opened a branch at the Hollies, Stuart Crescent, Wood Green, in 1909; it still offered a general education and commercial training to over 100 pupils in 1949 and closed in the 1960s. (fn. 248) An Angle-German school existed in Antill Road in 1910, presumably for the children of German immigrants who established a Lutheran church there. (fn. 249) As late as 1949 small preparatory schools included Norton school in Tottenham and Elmsly school in Wood Green. (fn. 250) Parkside preparatory school opened in 1920 in Church Lane, in the former home of Rowland Hill's nephew, Albert Hill; there were 73 boys and girls, aged 5-11, in 1973. (fn. 251)