St. Leonards British School
Later becoming known as the London Road British School[1], this school stood on the corner of what is now Kings Road and London Road with a street address of 45a London Road. With construction starting in May of 1896, the school had separate entrances for boys and girls; that for boys being in London Road and the girls on the opposite side of the building in Kings Road[2] with a bell at the top of the building[3] and was designed by Thomas Elsworthy, the building contractor being Alfred Vidler jun. The difference in levels was utilised to ensure that the two sexes were kept separate within the building, with the ground floor being used for infants, with separate floors for boys and girls above this. Two classrooms were provided on each floor together with a lecture gallery. The building could reportedly accommodate five hundred children in total, [4].
At the time it was operating as a school (circa 1868[2]-1913[3] or 1896[2]) , the address was known as 24 Gensing Station Road[5] - the road both having a name change and re-numbering in the intervening years. A 'For Sale' notice for the school building appeared in September 1896, it being claimed by one source that the school continued operating for a number of years after this date until 1913, however irrespective of exact date of closure, the school merged with the Tower Road School just prior to its closure.
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St. Leonards British School
References & Notes
- ↑ British Newspaper Archive Hastings & St. Leonards Observer 25 February 1928 Pg. 0005
- ↑ a b c Leigh Kennedy - Historical Hastings
- ↑ a b Margaret Haywood Historical Hastings
- ↑ British Newspaper Archive Illustrated London News 30 January 1869 Pg. 0012
- ↑ "Uk Census", , 1881; St Mary Magdalen; line 178.
