Hungerford
The main building of the school, originally called
The site has seen many developments the first being in 1902 when the East Wing was added indicated by a date plaque in the apex of the roof and the change in floor tile in the corridors. The original drawings also indicate that the exterior stair cases all originally exited parallel to the building however the main stair case now exits directly onto the playground, remains of the old stairs can still be seen. Around 1911 two additional buildings were erected in the playground and an entrance in Goodinge Road was completed. The large “Building on Stilts” was designed to provide shelter during inclement weather break times downstairs. Upstairs it was arranged as a workshop for training boys in the use of machinery/woodwork. The other two-storey building was built to teach girls laundry and cookery.
A leather bound Roll of Honour is kept at the school detailing the names of all staff and ex-pupils who served in the Great War (The First World War). The names of the fallen are written in red; gallantry awards recorded in blue.
In 1933 a plot of land was acquired by the school. Old maps show that this had originally been part of a long garage for coaches and horses that ran from
During the Second World War the school was largely evacuated. The
In the 1950’s/Early 60’s the ‘Building on Stilts’ became the home of the Welsh Class: an initiative of the then London County Council to attempt to save the Welsh Language. The initiative was spearheaded by the then Head of the Infants, Elizabeth James, herself a Welsh speaker. The link between Islington and
At Christmas 1964 the Girl’s School was amalgamated with the Boy’s school to form
At some point in the 1960’s (1966?) a girls’ toilet block was erected adjacent to the second Infants’ entrance.
In 1967 the Queen visited the school and was given a tour of the Infants by the then head teacher Betty Robbins. The Queen wore a turquoise outfit with a beret style close fitting hat. The children at the time asked the Queen why she was not wearing her crown! The Queen left a signed photograph of herself wearing her state robes which now hangs in the entrance lobby of the main building.
In 1972 the outbuildings and rooms in the ground floor hall were used by the Educational Guidance Centre and the Home Tuition Centre. A doorway was made joining the rooms and the internal windows were glazed with frosted wired glass. This was bricked up in 2000 but can still be seen.
Play Centre occupied part of the space on the ground floor and had access to the ‘building on stilts’ then known as the Handicraft Centre. Play Centre was a resource which Hungerford was famous for during the 1960’s – 1990’s at one time it was providing holiday and evening provision for nearly 300 children per day at no cost to parents. It has fond memories for large numbers of ex-pupils.
Hungerford has a long tradition of providing services to the wider community. Since the early 2000s a Breakfast club has been providing early morning activities and a proper breakfast to pupils but this is no a modern initiative in the early 1970’the then Infant School was providing cereal and a glass of milk to pupils who were arriving early to school without having any breakfast by the Headteacher and a helper Mrs Stickley.
It is hard to believe now but when the school was built it was surrounded by houses on all sides. Along
The Infants’ school prior to 1971 was housed in the
The new Infant’s Building was designed by ILEA architect Mr Barry Wilson (who also designed
The new Infants’ building had been mired in confusion from the original conception; unfortunately no input to the design was invited from the educationalists that would use the new space with the result that the new building was extremely challenging initially with insufficient space and poor lines of sight. Each Bay was designed to house 80 children and 2 teachers but this proved impossible and was amended rapidly to 75 children and 3 teachers. Major improvements were made from 1972 onwards that took account of staff expertise. The entrance was enlarged to include the school library, a second nursery class was built, the toilets were enlarged and a partition wall removed from each bay to allow clear lines of sight. The quiet areas, 2 in each bay, were given just one entrance to allow the space to be contained and usable for teaching. In the playground “play tunnels” that had been installed were removed which reduced the number of accidents dramatically.
The modern Infants’ building heralded a change in teaching style. ‘Team teaching’, with two classes using the same space and no doors, required new thinking and collaboration between staff which was revolutionary at the time. The building was beautiful with large glass panels looking out onto park like surroundings. The school itself was surrounded by grass and trees. The Infants’ provision was regarded as a “Flagship” provision within the ILEA and for several years was visited by educationalists from all over the world who came to view the “Open Plan” teaching methods and the landscaped play space. The provision also attracted experienced and forward thinking staff eager to develop and to challenge traditional practice. However, the single glazed glass, thin walls and easy to open louvered windows made it difficult to work in during very hot or cold periods and vulnerable to unauthorised access out of school hours. On two occasions in the 1980’s the Infants’ school was forced to moved back into the Victorian building for considerable periods of time due to problems. In 1984 cracks in the roof required the building to be vacated for a year and in 1987 the ILEA scientific Advisor for the ILEA said that the roof might collapse during harsh weather, unfortunately the original building had been mainly built with Asbestos and due to damage it was considered unsafe for use. It looked as if there building would be abandoned however, a successful campaign led by the staff was mounted and the building was rebuilt and the school moved back into the “new” building in 1991.
The ‘building on stilts.’ during the second decamp of the Infants’ was considered to be unsafe as rust in the supporting girders was causing the bricks to push the walls out. The building was taken out of service for 15 years until it was completely rebuilt in 1999 at which time The Film and Video Workshop took up permanent residence.
In the mid 1980’s the
At the point in time that the ILEA was being disbanded and responsibility for running
In 1995 the Infant and
The second two storey outbuilding which originally housed space for ‘Homecrafts’ has had a number of uses; an Educational Guidance Centre, an artists space for playground and school development; a home for Playcentre; a store for the school keeper; classroom space; a tuck shop and the original space for the Film and Video Workshop (the schools artist in residence). In 2005 the building was deemed to be the new Community Building of the Children’s Centre and was completely restored and extended to provide ‘Stay and Play’ space for young parents and their children under 5. The upstairs room was converted into a training room.
In 2005 The Infants Building was demolished along with the outside toilet blocks and the Primary Department of The Bridge School was built which opened January 2007.
In about 1975 the Goodinge Children’s Centre in
In the late 1980’s the provision in
In April 2008 Goodinge Early Years Centre was amalgamated with
Head Teachers:
This list is not complete and we would welcome any information that will allow us to have a complete history.
1943 Mr E.J Cole 1955 Mr W Pratten 1943 Miss E Still 1964 Mr S.E.P. Hayes ? Elsie L Whiteling
? – 1972 Mr J.H.Curtis 1954? – 1964 Mrs Elizabeth James 1972 - 1973 Miss Rosemary Phelps (Acting) 1964 – 1977 Miss Betty Robbins 1974 - 1993 Mr S.C. Ray 1978 – 1995 Miss Jenny Brice Mrs B. Ryan (Acting) Short period in 1970’s
Primary School 1993 -2003 Mr David Swales 2003-2005 Mr Brian Bench (Acting)
2005 - 2007 Mr Paul Larkey 2007 Mr Brian Bench (Children’s Centre added to the provision) Deputy Heads (The Deputy Head is a relatively new role the information is not complete) 1943 - ? Mr C.S Cordwell (Assistant Head) (Boys) 1959 – 1964 Mrs Sheila Chapman (Infants) 1964 – 1968 Mrs Ann Lutman (Infants) 1968 – 1970 Miss Jenny Brice (Infants) ? – 76 Miss Rosemary Phelps (Juniors) 1971 – 1972 Miss Sarah Simmonds (Infants) 1976 – 79 Mr W.E (Bill) Smith (Juniors) 1972 – 1977 Miss Jenny Brice (Infants) 1978 – 1980 Mrs Sandra Smidt (Infants) 1979 – 84 Mrs Penny DeVal (Juniors) 1980 – 82 Mrs
1982 – 85 Mr David Marsh (Infants) 1984 – 86 Mrs Pam Jones (Juniors) 1985 – 1986 Mrs Barbara Lary (Infants) 1987 Mrs Fiona Hope (Juniors) 1987 Ms Jude Patton (Infants) 1987 – 1989 Mrs Elizabeth Speck (Infants) 1989 – 1995 Mrs Mira Saha (Infants) 1987 – 2007 Mr Brian Bench (Juniors/Primary) 2007 – to date Mrs Jo Lambert (Primary/Children’s Centre)
Goodinge Managers:
1975 – 85 Jane ? 1985? – 1987? Claudette ? 1987? – 1989? Carol Byam (Acting) 1989? – 1996? Nancy Young 2005 – 2006 Jane Fulton
2006 – 2006 Gyles Shewell (Acting) 2006 – 2008 Ben Hassan
School Keepers: Mr Barry 1954 – 1970? Roy Veal 1971 – 1998 Ernie Johnson 1989? – 92? Frank Edmead 1999 – to date
We are always looking to add to this History and to fill in the missing names of the Head teachers etc. If you have any details or memorabilia, please contact the school directly we would be delighted to hear from you. 
