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I was fortunate enough to pass the eleven-plus and was going to a girls' grammar school, wrote Rita Plackett. We were to arrive at the new school at 10.30 on the first day. I went by bus because it was too far to walk, and arrived wearing my new uniform, and waited outside with the other new girls. Most of them were with their mothers, but I had not seen my mother for five months as she had T.B. and was in an Isolation Hospital - I felt very lonely.
We were eventually ushered into the main hall and then taken to our Form Rooms. There were three first year forms divided up in alphabetical order. We sat at individual desks and our Form Mistress, Miss Winters, sat at her desk on a raised platform. There were 28 girls in the class and only 17 by the time we reached the fifth form.
Discipline was very strict - no talking - no arms on desk --- stand when someone enters the room -stand aside for your elders. If you were seen at any time outside school in school uniform eating ice cream, sweets. etc, or not wearing your school hat you would be reported and have detention after school.
The hats were blue berets with wire around the outer rim to make them stand up and show the School badge. By the time we reached the third form the wire was removed and the hats were worn as flat berets.
When we changed form rooms or went over to the Felvis Hall for morning service it had to be in silence. If you were caught talking on the way to morning service you had to stand up for the entire service while all the girls and mistresses were seated.
All the mistresses were unmarried, female, very frumpy and ancient. The only male on the premises was the caretaker who lived in a small cottage in the school grounds. The Head was Miss Barnes, who was nicknamed 'Brown Owl' because she blinked a lot and wore brown clothes most of the time.
She seemed quite elderly to us girls, but I learnt some years later that she was 40 at the time and was the youngest Head Mistress in the London area. She was very strict and only had to blink at you and you died on the spot!
The school buildings were early Victorian and had been built for the Drapers Company as a boarding school for young ladies. The main building looked like a church from outside and was very impressive.
There was a very grand entrance hail leading to a twisting staircase to the first floor. This building housed the form rooms, Laboratories, Art Studio, Dining Hall and kitchens, Needlework room, etc. etc.
The cloakrooms were under ground and were dark and damp and were used by the girls as air raid shelters during the war. Tunnels led off from the cloakroom and it was rumored that they led to the boys' grammar school across the road.
There was a beautiful Gym with wood panelled walls and a gallery. Next to the Gym was a large indoor swimming pool with diving boards and changing rooms. I can recall swimming my first mile in that pool.
Outside were hockey pitches, netball pitches, grass tennis courts, hard tennis courts and a large grassed area with a tree-lined walk running down one side called 'lovers lane' by the girls. There were also a number of small gardens, which the girls could adopt and tend as their own.
The Felvis Hall was housed in a separate building from the main school across the gardens and reached by a covered walk. The Felvis Hall was named in memory of Miss Felvis, who was a Head Mistress of the school in Victorian times, and her portrait hung on the wall.
It was a beautiful wood panelled hall, with galleries along two sides and a large raised stage. There was an organ and a Bechstein grand piano, on which 1 had my first piano lessons. The mistresses would file onto the stage to the sound of the organ p1atying every morning wearing their caps and gowns. This building also housed three laboratories and three domestic science rooms.
They were happy days at Tottenham High and I made many friends, some of whom I still see from time to time. By the time I reached the fifth form I found the strict discipline and particularly the school uniform very restrictive and when the time came I was happy to leave.
I did not return to the school again until the 1980's when I attended an Old Girls Reunion Lunch. It was a strange feeling as everything looked so much smaller than I remembered it.
Miss Barnes was there and we learnt from her that the school had eventually become a Comprehensive and she had remained as Head until she retired. She said the girls were very much the same as us, and the little coloured girls used to sit on the grass in summer making daisy chains exactly the same as we all did.
By this time the school was no longer operational as a school and was used by various clubs and societies. We were allowed to wander through the school buildings at our leisure and were dismayed at the bad state of repair of the buildings - roof leaking and walls crumbling.
The swimming pool was boarded over and no longer in use and Mobile Classrooms were dotted about all over the netball pitches. Our Gym Mistresses pride and joy, the red tennis courts, were broken up and sprouting grass everywhere.
The most saddening sight of all was the Felvis Hall. The wood panelling was covered in graffiti and girls' initials and the Bechstein piano was covered in carved initials, the wood was split and cracked, and the black veneer was peeling off.
Yet Miss Felvis's portrait still hung on the wall surveying all before her.
I later learnt that the Tottenham Council had sold off all the school grounds for housing. The actual school buildings were listed and I do not know what their fate has been.
I look back on my days at Tottenham High as happy days at a school that we were very proud of. However, my fond memories are now tinged with sadness because of the eventual fate of the school.
When I met up with my old friends at the 1980's re-union we agreed to form our own group and have our own re-union once a year. Since that time about twelve of us 'old girls' meet up once a year; they travel from as far afield as Cumbria, Kent, Oxford, Cambridge, Bedford and Essex. We meet at a pub in Ware for a long lunch and when we all get together it is as though time stood still.
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To add a comment you must first login or join for free, up in the top left corner.| Comments | | school photo - July | Posted
25 Aug 2018
19:58
By Matt_Bruce | hello
I have a print of a photo of all the school since my aunt was teaching there then.
I will try to upload a copy tomorrow if it will be of interest, but it may be in parts since it is a long wide panorama one.
best wishes
Matt | | Memories | Posted
16 Dec 2018
22:23
By stevenjones57 | My wife, Anne Slate, went to Tottenham High School for Girls in the early 60's. She's going to be 70 in February and I'm trying to put together a scrapbook for her as a surprise. Can anybody help me? Photos, teachers names, anecdotes? In anticipation, I would just like to say thank you for your consideration. Regards, Steven | | Caretaker | Posted
25 Feb 2024
14:40
By KennaJane14 | My grandfather, George Fowler was the caretaker and he had an assistant called Ernie. I remember the swimming pool, many happy memories of spending time with my grandparents at the caretaker's house. Even remember helping my granddad when he worked in the basements of the school, dark, damp and they had a strange smell. | | Janice Hamilton | Posted
08 May 2024
14:26
By TRACEYHOGAN | Looking for anyone that would know Janice who attended this school in the late 60's .tkchogan@hotmail.com |
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