Social history: Education, private schools

PRIVATE SCHOOLS

King James's Theological College or Chelsea College, incorporated in 1610 and intended as a polemical centre for the defence of the Church of England, was national rather than parochial. So too was the Museum Minervae, a courtly academy which Sir Francis Kynaston (d. 1642) proposed to move from his London house into the half-built college during the plague of 1636 before the college's resistance forced him to go to Little Chelsea. Although neither institution survived the collapse of royal patronage, the college's site eventually being taken for the Royal Hospital, (fn. 1) their presence suggests Chelsea's early attraction for those engaged in private education. In 1650 Henry Bull, late of Chelsea, was said to have taken a house there as a school c. 1644 but to have been distrained for not paying the rent. (fn. 2) Masques at a Chelsea school in 1656 or 1657 were recalled in 1663 by Elizabeth Pepys's paid companion Mary Ashwell, who still assisted with small children there. (fn. 3) Possibly it was the good school which had been within convenient distance of a house leased to William Lawrence in 1652 and 1662. (fn. 4)

The Restoration brought the fruitless publication of a pamphlet aimed at reviving Chelsea College. (fn. 5) The lexicographer Adam Littleton (d. 1694) opened a school in Chelsea where he practised a new way 'of learning the Latin tongue by the English', presumably before becoming rector in 1670. (fn. 6) One lessee of a large house in 1675 sued another for not having opened it, as promised, as a school for young gentlemen. (fn. 7) The boarding schools of Mrs Priest (at Gorges House, below) and Mr Woodcock (below) were advertised in 1694 and 1695. (fn. 8)

Music and dancing were the subjects most notably associated with a new girls' boarding school at Gorges House under Jeffrey Banister and James Hart, whose scholars in 1676 presented the masque Beauties Triumph, written by Thomas Duffet and with music by John Banister, a presumed relation of Jeffrey. (fn. 9) In 1680 Josias (also recorded as Jonas, Joseph and Josiah) Priest, (fn. 10) a dancing master, and his wife took over the school, where in 1682 Sir Edmund Verney's 8-year old daughter learnt japanning and distinguished herself at a ball. (fn. 11) Priest persuaded Henry Purcell, with Nahum Tate as librettist, to compose Dido and Aeneas, 'the first true English opera', which was performed there c.1689 or 1690, (fn. 12) on one occasion with an epilogue written by Thomas D'Urfey and spoken by the earl of Clanricarde's daughter Lady Dorothy Burke. D'Urfey's caustic comedy Love for Money, or the Boarding School of 1691 probably derived material from Priest's school, (fn. 13) which may have continued until 1710-11, the last year for which Priest paid rates. (fn. 14)

Another girls' school at Chelsea was that kept by William Dyer, who in 1683 moved to Kensington where he took over an established dancing school. (fn. 15) Mr Woodcock who advertised in 1694 was presumably Robert Woodcock (d. 1710), who kept at school at Shrewsbury House from 1694; it was continued by his widow Deborah until she moved the school in 1713 to Manor House, as a tenant of Sir Hans Sloane, where she continued until 1728, and was probably succeeded by Mrs Edwards. (fn. 16) Bowack in 1705 cited the great number of boarding schools, especially girls', as an instance of Chelsea's growing prosperity. (fn. 17) Among them was Blacklands House, a French boarding school, which may have survived for a century. (fn. 18) Priest, Woodcock, Webster, and Lefevre were all named as schoolmasters. (fn. 19) John King, rector 1694-1732, likewise noted the leasing of several large houses as schools. (fn. 20) The wife of a papist, Thomas Humphreys, kept a small school in 1706. (fn. 21)

Sir Robert Walpole's two daughters attended the expensive Blacklands school c. 1715 (fn. 22) when it was kept by Mme Judith Nezerauw or Nazareau, who paid rates from 1702; (fn. 23) Charles Nezerauw paid in 1728. (fn. 24) Mrs Woodcock's school at Manor House was continued by Mrs Edwards from 1729 until 1741. (fn. 25) At Turret House, Paradise Row, (fn. 26) the parish lecturer William Rothery taught boarders and day boys including the botanist Thomas Martyn (1735-1825), who attended for ten years and remembered him as an excellent master but one who had died in 1759 'lost in drink'. Rothery offered a comprehensive education, (fn. 27) as did an advertisement for a school 'at the Five Houses in Chelsea Park', probably of 1729. (fn. 28)

Mid 18^th-century schools, otherwise unrecorded, included Mr and Mrs Phillips's girls' boarding school in Lawrence Street in 1750, (fn. 29) Mr Glover's school for deportment and dancing, praised by the master of Tonbridge school in 1751, (fn. 30) and probably a house leased to Mrs Jeuslin for boarders in Millman Row. Mrs Sarah Bellie, 'governess of an eminent boarding school in Cheyne Row', died in 1766, (fn. 31) as did a servant of Mrs Aylworth, keeper of a boarding school near Chelsea Common. (fn. 32) Mary Robinson, the actress 'Perdita' (b. 1758) recalled a seminary of 5 or 6 girls which she had attended from 1768 under Meribah Lorrington, the most accomplished woman known to her. After its closure in 1770 due to the intoxication of Mrs Lorrington, who died in Chelsea workhouse, Mary briefly went to Battersea, leaving her brother under the Revd Mr Gore at Chelsea, until in 1773 her own mother Mrs Darby opened a short-lived school at Little Chelsea, where Mary taught English to 10 or 12 boarders. (fn. 33) Whitelands House or Lodge in King's Road was a girls' school in 1772, when the Revd John Jenkins gave a lecture there on women's education. Formerly under Mrs Grignon in 1791, it continued as a school, where in 1797 the music master complained of his treatment. (fn. 34) The author Elizabeth Montagu was pleased at the progress of her favourite niece at a Chelsea boarding school in 1772. (fn. 35)

David Williams (d. 1816), founder of the Royal Literary Fund, began his radical career by moving to Lawrence Street, where in 1774 he opened a school which charged high fees but soon had c. 20 boys. It closed on his wife's death in 1775, despite its success based on the preference for scientific training expressed in his Treatise on Education (1774), and has since been seen as a unique attempt to put into practice the educational principles of Rousseau. (fn. 36) The Revd Weeden Butler (d. 1823), miscellaneous writer, kept a classical school at no. 4 and then no. 6 Cheyne Walk from the early 1770s, retiring after more than 40 years in 1814. (fn. 37) His son the Revd Weeden Butler (d. 1831), author, succeeded him and died at Cheyne Walk, apparently having closed or handed over the school. (fn. 38) The historian Robert Bissett (d. 1805) kept an academy in Sloane Street, perhaps only briefly. (fn. 39)

More specialized schools, although still offering some general education, included that of the mathematician Samuel Dunn (d. 1794), who apparently taught astronomy and navigation with commercial subjects from 1758 until 1763 at Ormonde House (below), where there was an observatory. (fn. 40) 'The English Grammar School' opened in King's Road in 1766 under the Revd William Williams and Jacob Desmoulins, a writing master, both as a preparatory school and for foreigners, where it was recognized that some boys would not need Latin. (fn. 41) The Revd Mr Porter, who had included naval and military subjects at his London school, offered them together with the classics when advertizing for boarders at Tobias Smollett's former house in Lawrence Street c. 1766. (fn. 42)

Greater success attended a military academy at Little Chelsea from c. 1770 under Louis Lochée and a maritime school at Ormonde House, acquired in 1777, opened in 1779, and later under John Bettesworth. (fn. 43) Lochée wrote several works on fortifications and provided examples at his academy, which he publicized as a 'military republic' in 1773. The scene of an attempt at military ballooning in 1784, it won royal patronage and offered a course without holidays, for which cadets paid £50 a year and provided their own uniforms. (fn. 44) Although it occupied a large building on the Kensington side of Fulham Road, which was extended in 1776, Lochée also acquired Stanley House and other property on the Chelsea side in 1780-1. The school probably closed in 1788 or 1789, before his execution at Lille in 1791 as a supporter of Belgian independence. (fn. 45) The maritime school was founded by subscribers and with the philanthropist Jonas Hanaway (d. 1786) as treasurer, to train 25 boys who would become midshipmen in the Royal Navy; the course was normally 2 years and 13 boys were on the foundation. The drawing master was John Thomas Serres (d. 1825) (fn. 46) and the mathematical master from 1777 until 1782 was Bettesworth. The governors in 1785 transferred control to Isaac Dalby and Henry Fox, the mathematical and French masters, (fn. 47) and the school closed in 1787, to be reopened as a 'naval and commercial' academy under Bettesworth, who offered a more general education in partnership with Fox. Both partners wrote on education. A fully rigged ship had been 'lately erected' in 1782 in the playground. The school was under William Goddard, another naval author, in 1802 and its 'recent extinction' led James Simpson to seek more pupils for his own naval and commercial academy in Wilderness Row c. 1805. (fn. 48) Presumably only the naval side had ended, as a school known as Ormonde House continued under Edward Francis in 1827 and 1828 and was replaced by Elizabeth Fry's School of Discipline in 1830. (fn. 49) Distinguished sailors who had been pupils included the master's son George Bettesworth (1780-1808) (fn. 50) and Hans Hastings, later earl of Huntingdon (1779-1828). (fn. 51)

A French boarding school in Sloane Street was advertised by Mrs Chassaing in 1797. (fn. 52) Nearby at no. 22 Hans Place was a superior school kept from 1796 or 1797 by Dominique de Saint-Quentin, an emigré who had married Miss Pitts and taken over her Abbey House school at Reading. Saint-Quentin was among subscribers to a fund for poor relief in Chelsea in 1795, 1809, and 1814. At Hans Place, which offered Greek and Latin, the chief mistress was apparently Frances Rowden, who as a parlour boarder at Abbey House had met the writer Mary Martha Sherwood (1775-1851). Miss (styled Mrs) Rowden was herself a writer and an enthusiast for the theatre and, as a former governess, was probably responsible for the attendance of Lady Caroline Ponsonby (later Lamb). (fn. 53) After moving to Paris with the Saint-Quentins, Miss Rowden kept a small school connected with theirs, her pupils in the early 1820s including the actress Frances (Fanny) Kemble (1809-93), and later married Saint-Quentin. Among their Chelsea pupils were the novelist Mary Russell Mitford (1787-1855) from 1798 until 1802, the poet Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802-38), who was born at no. 25 Hans Place, and the writers Emma Roberts (1794?-1840) and Anna Maria Hall (1800-81). (fn. 54) The education of young ladies by French nuns of the Visitation, presumably at Queen's Elm, was to be continued by a Miss Berthe in 1808. (fn. 55)

Another Frenchman, J. Ouiseau, by 1801 (fn. 56) had opened a preparatory school at Durham House which was continued from 1808 by Hector Clement and from 1826 until 1834 or later by Dr Bonaventure Granet; it had 40-50 boys 'nearly related to the nobility' by 1829 (fn. 57) and perhaps c. 100 in the late 1830s. (fn. 58) Durham House school was long lived, as it was under Henry Hofland in 1842 and 1855 and perhaps was still maintained by the Revd Dr J. Wilson in 1863. (fn. 59) The premises were leased to the Girls' Public Day School Trust in 1873. (fn. 60) Another well reputed boys' academy was that kept at Cheyne House, Upper Cheyne Row, in 1801 by Thomas Edwards, tenant since 1795. It was a 'finishing school' under the Revd Dr David Felix, brother of Chelsea's assistant curate Peter Felix, in 1828 and probably survived in 1836. (fn. 61)

In 1801 there were at least 25 private schools, although not all were described as such, their existence being implied by the size of the household: Dominique de Saint-Quentin's totalled 23 and Weeden Butler's 27. Largest of all was Thomas Pemberton's girls' school at Gough House, Paradise Row, with 72 residents. (fn. 62) Sarah Fernside's predominantly female household in Garden Row numbered 62 and Thomas Whiting's predominantly male household at Chelsea Common 58. After Pemberton's, the largest to be called a school was Thomas Edwards's, with 53. (fn. 63) Eight of presumed schools were in Sloane Street, all save one being for girls and the largest being Ann Babbington's, with a household of 44. (fn. 64)

Short lived schools included one near Oakley Square under the poet and novelist Isabella Kelly (d. 1857) (fn. 65) and Albion school in Paradise Row, which presented its second public examination in 1812. (fn. 66) Pemberton's school (fn. 67) was continued at Gough House by his widow Maria in 1826 and later probably by his daughter; it was a 'finishing establishment, very select'. (fn. 68) A boys' school was kept there by the Revd Dr Richard Wilson in 1845 and 1861. (fn. 69) Thomas Pilsbury's girls' school at Monmouth House, Lawrence Street, in 1801 was continued by his widow in 1815. (fn. 70) Few other schools of 1801, apart from Ormonde House, Durham House, and Cheyne House, survived in 1828. Catherine Elmes, who had kept a school in Smith Street, had been reduced to poverty at the time of her murder in 1833. (fn. 71) Thomas Bilby, author of several books on infants' instruction from 1828, taught briefly at an unidentified Chelsea school. (fn. 72)

At least 28 gentlemen's academies and 46 ladies', both day and boarding, existed in or on the borders of Chelsea in 1834. Another estimate gave Chelsea at least 95 private schools and Kensington 75. Masters included Richard Bailey of no. 10 Manor Terrace, King's Road, (fn. 73) who was presumably the man of that name at no. 9 Adam's Place, King's Road, in 1838, where John Paxton Hall had succeeded him by 1844. (fn. 74) Hall's day preparatory school by 1861 was called Oxford House, no. 185 King's Road, and by 1863 was under Charles Henry Lake, a founder of the Teachers' Guild, who taught 120 boys with 10 masters. (fn. 75) It was under Alfred Bonifacio, whose Chelsea Commercial School had replaced Ranelagh British school, by 1879 and closed between 1881 and 1885. (fn. 76)

The Roman Catholic Manor House boarding school for boys was kept from 1834 or earlier until 1851 by William Frederick Mylius at no. 7 Cheyne Walk, which in 1828 had accommodated boarders under the Revd H. Blunt. Mylius, who had moved from Carshalton (Surrey) was said in 1852 to have conducted it for upwards of 50 years. His sons Charles and John offered a wide curriculum but failed to maintain the school after 1853. (fn. 77) Roman Catholic girls could board from 1834 or earlier at no. 1 College Street under Mrs Lloyd and Miss Little. In 1846 Miss Little's seminary, established upwards of 20 years, was at College House, Rayner Place (later St Leonard's Terrace), and from 1847 to 1849 at no. 6 Paradise Row. Roman Catholic support was also sought by the Misses Keats at no. 46 Paradise Row in 1838 and by Mr De Wuits at Cam House, College Street, in 1846-7. (fn. 78) Such establishments may not have been able to compete in the 1850s with the London Oratory school (fn. 79) or with St Mary's day school for young ladies, recently opened in 1860 in Halsey Terrace (later Cadogan Street) by the Sisters of Mercy in addition to their charity school. (fn. 80) St Mary's took boarders by 1865 and proved to be Chelsea's most enduring private school, being described as a girls' boarding school in 1935 but receiving small boys in 1938. It had 148 mixed pupils, aged 5-11, on the eve of its closure in 1954. (fn. 81)

Other comparatively long lived mid 19^th-century schools included that of William Webbe, probably at no. 32 Paradise Row by 1834 and at no. 9 Lower Sloane Street by 1838, at no. 18 Sloane Terrace in 1848, and at no. 17 in 1850. Webbe was styled principal of Sloane Terrace Academy in 1872 and remained at no. 17, as a 'private teacher', in 1881. (fn. 82) Frances and Elizabeth Faulkner, daughters of the local historian, taught 11 young boys at their father's house, no. 27 Smith Street, in 1851, when Mary Ann Faulkner taught girls at no. 24, Waldegrave House. (fn. 83) The first advertised their preparatory school as Cadogan House and had moved it to no. 1 Markham Square by 1863 but Waldegrave House remained a ladies' school, under Mrs Frances Clarke, in the 1870s. (fn. 84) Catharine or Katharine Lodge, Trafalgar Square, was so named from 1850 when Mrs Julia Field and Miss Lowman renamed Bath lodge and opened a girls' school there, which passed to Miss Catherine Hall and closed probably in 1895. (fn. 85)

Of 29 private schools advertised in 1861, 11 were solely for boys. Only four masters were associated with the College of Preceptors: J.P. Hall and Dr Richard Wilson, who were fellows, Bonifacio, and J. D'Arnaud in Whitehead's Grove. Among the ladies, only Miss A. Ward in Markham Square was an associate of the college. (fn. 86) Many more schools existed, since in 1871 13 were classed as private and 30 as 'adventure'. Most, however, with attendances of under 30, can have occupied no more than one room and did not survive the opening of board schools. (fn. 87) St Leonard's Terrace provided instances of short lived enterprises, with schools kept by Mrs Mary Little at no. 18 (then Rayner Place) in 1845, by Mrs Caroline Smart at no. 9 in 1850 and at no. 13, with Robert Smart and apparently as two schools, in 1855, by Mrs Burnett next door until 1869, and by Henry and Clara Durant at no. 23 in 1872, where they were followed by Mrs Ann Harrison and in 1879 by Misses Mary and Jane Moore. (fn. 88)

Chelsea Grammar School, for 35 boys including boarders, was opened by the Revd J.E. Wilson in 1870 and survived in 1879. Other apparently new and short lived preparatory schools in 1872 were F.J. Weightman's Hollywood and the Revd W. Harris's school at no. 10 Walton Place, Hans Place. (fn. 89) The Girls' Public Day School Trust in 1873 was leased Durham House for its first school, from which it moved in 1879 to Cromwell Road, Kensington. (fn. 90) The Daughters of the Cross at St Wilfred's convent, besides briefly conducting an orphanage school, from 1870 taught young lady boarders. (fn. 91) The Daughters later also taught at the Oratory middle school. (fn. 92) Advertising a commercial class in 1920 and a high school in 1935, they apparently still took boarders in 1938 but after the Second World War may have provided merely a hostel. (fn. 93) Chelsea High School for girls, under Miss Hitchcock in 1884 and under Miss Hart at no. 10 Durham Place in 1891, had closed by 1894. (fn. 94)

In 1902 only two preparatory schools were listed, both presumably for boys, at no. 103A Fulham Road and at no. 37 Sloane Street. (fn. 95) In 1924 there was a girls' school at no. 131 Sloane Street and a boys' at no. 134. (fn. 96) The first survived under Miss D.M. Birtwhistle in 1938; the second had opened by 1918 under Charles Herbert Gibbs, a 'pioneer of pre-preparatory schools', and was still at no. 134, under C.H. Taylor and W.W.M. Holding, in 1938. (fn. 97)

Several schools flourished from the 1950s, most of them in the area of Sloane Street. Hill House, opened by Lt-Col. H.S. Townsend in Switzerland in 1948 and at no. 17 Hans Place in 1951, was the first school attended by Prince Charles (later Prince of Wales), in 1957. Described as pre-preparatory in 1958 and as Hill House International Junior School by 1970, it had five premises around Knightsbridge and over 1,000 boys and girls aged 4 to 13 in 1999, when it was managed by the founder. (fn. 98) Garden House was opened by Margery de Brissac-Bernard, originally a ballet teacher, (fn. 99) at no. 53 Sloane Gardens in 1951. It had 347 pupils in 1997, when the school office was at no. 53 and girls aged 3-11 were at nos. 28, 49, and 51 Sloane Gardens and boys aged 5-8 were in new premises at nos 26 and 28 Pont Street. (fn. 100) Sussex House was opened in 1952 by V.W. Davies of Davies's (Tutors) at no. 68 Cadogan Square, where he had taken tutorial pupils since 1950. Named after an earlier tutorial establishment in Holland Park (Kensington) and a sister of Lyndhurst House (Hampstead), Sussex House was managed by Davies's Educational Services Ltd from 1974 and by an independent trust from 1994. In 1958 it bought premises which it had shared at no. 67 Cadogan Street, formerly a Sunday school of Westminster's Belgrave Presbyterian chapel, and which it converted in 1977 into the Nicholl hall. Sussex House had 175 boys aged 8-13 in 1997. (fn. 101) Bridge House, no. 2 Cadogan Gardens, existed in 1958 but perhaps only briefly. (fn. 102) A house in the Vale was used as a day school without planning permission from 1958 and had 107 pupils in 1963, when the LCC ordered its closure. (fn. 103) Cameron House, founded in 1980 as a co-educational preparatory school called Cameron Learning Tree, moved in 1986 from St Luke's church to no. 4 The Vale, where it had 100 pupils aged 4-11 in 1997. (fn. 104)

The Octagon school took its name from the former St Mark's Practising School, which was equipped as a library when the neighbouring science block was opened as a co-educational nursery and preparatory school in 1994. Although fashionable and soon with 210 pupils, it only had a short lease which had been granted to an American businessman, Ed Loyd, by King's College. Friction over plans for expansion and arrears of rent led to the school's abrupt closure in 1996. (fn. 105)

Jamahariya school opened in 1982 in the former Kingsley (originally Cook's Ground) school in Glebe Place which had been sold by the ILEA to the Libyan People's Bureau in 1979. The sale caused alarm, bringing assurances from the United Kingdom and Libyan governments that the school was solely to provide an Islamic education. It was expensively refurbished for c. 300 children, mainly of diplomats and aged 5-17, and was still open in 1995. (fn. 106)

Private institutions for older pupils (fn. 107) included the Automobile Engineering Training College, found in 1924 to train for the car industry and including aeronautics from 1931. Its war-damaged premises at no. 102 Sydney Street were largely rebuilt in 1950, when the college had 350 students and was about to offer agricultural engineering. It had ceased to be independent by 1989. (fn. 108) The London Academy, residential and 'run on university lines', offered a general education and a course for continental students at no. 15 Cadogan Gardens in 1958 (fn. 109) and until 1975 or later. The Heatherley School of Fine Art, originating in a secession from the government's School of Design in 1845, moved from Warwick Square, Westminster, in 1978. It used part of the former college of St Mark and St John until the ILEA helped to install it in 1979 in the former Ashburnham school, whose east wing was bought by the Heatherley charity in 1988. The school had 50 full-time and 120 part-time students in 1997, besides 160 at its 'open studio' which retained the traditional atelier system. (fn. 110)

The many nursery schools since 1945 have included the Violet Melchett Training College at no. 43 Chelsea Manor Street, which offered a 20 months' course at its own residential and day nursery in 1958. (fn. 111)