It's Private

Almost no-one lived  in our East End before the age of publicly-provided schools of any kind.  Isolated hamlets and farm homesteads with children before 1870's beginning of compulsory education could look to the nearest village school at Sandridge, Colney Heath or London Colney, but the distance to be walked might have been considerable.  St Peter's Rural Board School, now known as Camp School, was the first to serve small populations nearer the city from the end of the century.

But there were several privately run schools. The term school was sometimes loosely used and may had registered fewer than ten or so  pupils – occasionally as few as three or four.  The children would have lived within the city or, if they boarded, perhaps brought from nearby towns.  So let's trawl through the 19th and early 20th centuries to discover how many private schools there were, from the advertisements the owners placed in the Herts Advertiser.  It is quite possible the same address was home to more than one establishment over a period of time, and the same establishment may have moved in response to expected growth. Nevertheless, it is a long list!

Oxford House began life in Alma Road under the tutorship of Mr G J Nettleton and was in existence before 1880.  It moved to larger premises in Bricket Road in 1883 before ownership transferred to Mr & Mrs J Thornhill by 1900.  From a mapping survey taken in 1877 Bricket Road had been laid out though no building had taken place; the first houses were on the east side.  It would have been one of these the school moved to.  Places were offered to both day pupils and boarders.  Below, in the paragraph about Claremont House, is a map showing that school.  Almost opposite Claremont is a pair of houses labelled Oxford Villas,  the starting location for Oxford House.

The pair of villas in Alma Road which were named Oxford Villas.  One or both of them had been
the first home of Oxford House School.
COURTESY GOOGLE STREET VIEW

An image of a room for younger children at Oxford House School.  It is more likely to have been
at Bricket Road than the earlier Alma Road premises.
COURTESY ST ALBANS MUSEUMS

Rochester House: Miss Clara Bamforth opened this school in London Road, renaming it Rochester House High School once St Albans Girls' High School began advertising itself.  Miss Bamforth specialised in elocution training.  In 1901 the school moved to 101 St Peter's Street, next to the White House.  The Bamforth family are recorded in the 1901 census living here – the name may be familiar as one half of the partnership Gibbs & Bamforth, publishers of the Herts Advertiser.  Later numbered 68, it was next door to Mary Dear's Temperance Hotel, which was also home to a school for a short time.

Gentlemen's Preparatory School: In 1900 it was run from a villa called Verulam in Hatfield Road.  By 1919 it is thought to be the same establishment as "a school for young gentlemen from 5 to 13" known as Wellington House, Bricket Road, and headed by Mr W Millington.

Manor Lodge: for boarders and day girls in Upper Lattimore Road.  Miss Palmer was in charge in 1896, but she gave her address as Ramsgate; and a Miss Miskin offered a Paris address! The school, including a separate school room,  was offered for sale in 1909, marketed as a "high school for girls", although two years earlier the school also advertised having "classes for little boys".

The extant building which was formerly Manor Lodge in Lattimore Road.
COURTESY GOOGLE STREET VIEW

Merrilands was a rarely-found educational building on the Beaumonts estate, Elm Drive, opening in 1933 and closing on the retirement of its owner, Miss I M Kell, in the mid fifties.  There was a uniform with the base colour of orange.

The owner and head teacher of Merrilands School at the Oakwood Drive end of Elm Drive
lived in the house on the right.  The house on the left, part hidden by a street tree, was
occupied by a rather unflattering bungalow until the 1960s and so is a later build.  
This was the school.
COURTESY GOOGLE STREET VIEW

Birklands as a set of buildings had an interesting history, constructed  for Londoner Henry Jenkins Gotto in 1883 and called Newhouse Park.  He had acquired nearby Newhouse Farm in 1877.  Dating from the 16th century it had been a meeting place for nonconformist dissenters.  Miss Elizabeth Cox had a small girls' boarding school called Birklands in Highgate, London, but decided to move her school to Newhouse Park in 1905, renaming it New Birklands.  Although other schools moved to St Albans during World War Two, Miss Langridge, who had taken over ownership of the school, move her school from St Albans to Warwickshire, returning in 1945.  It continued at a smaller level until 1969 when the site was sold to the University of Hertfordshire.  It is now a range of apartments.

Originally named Newhouse Park, the school which later occupied these buildings was named
New Birklands, reverting to plain Birklands.  It was located at the London Colney end of London
Road, close to Newhouse Park Farm.

Clare House began from the address of the Misses Hare in Stanhope Road in the 1890s, although it had moved to Lemsford Road post WW1, under the tutelage of Miss Ingall, and later by the Misses Bryce.  It was another school specialising in education for girls, although there was a prep section for boys, according to an advertisement from 1907.

Clare House occupied a detached 1890s villa in the newly built Stanhope Road, then on the edge of
St Albans and before the district of Fleetville existed.

Claremont House.  This school may have been the forerunner of the above-named Clare House.  It appears to have begun life at a building known as College House in College Street, but by the 1880s moved to a villa of the same name in Alma Road.  Advertisements for this establishment appeared in the Herts Advertiser as early as 1872, under the rather long name of "Mr C Root's Middle Class Boarding and Day School for Young Gentlemen".  In 1872 a separate establishment was being advertised under the name Claremont House: the Classical Commercial and Scientific School, although by 1876 this had been modified to St Albans Commercial School for Boys, in which day boys and boarders continued to attend.  The latter named establishment was still advertising in 1898 and run by Mr Wroot – although this is the year in which he died.  The sale particulars stated the house possessed 13 bedrooms and that there were boarded buildings and a playground at the rear.  It was later in the charge of Mr Jackson Harrington.  Today, this property is partly on the footprint of Telford Court. Claremont House seems to have been unusual in being exclusively for boys.

Clearly shown on the town plan survey surveyed in 1877 Claremont House has a similarly long
rear garden space as other villas in Alma Road, but as a school much of this space has been
added to the domestic quarters specifically for school use; dormitory bedrooms and a 
school room.  There is also evidence of a playground and toilets at the far end.  This is a
sheet from the town plan surveyed in 1877.
COURTESY NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SCOTLAND

Russell House.  Opened in WW1 in premises formerly occupied by St Albans High School for Girls in the cottage hospital building in Holywell Hill.  The final advertisement appeared located in Kelly's Directory in 1932.  The site is now occupied by Abbey Court on the corner of Albert Street.  The school was run by sisters, the Misses Cloute.

On the site which is currently Abbey Court at the junction of Holywell Hill and Albert Street,
had previously been a small cottage hospital, but other occupiers of the site had been an inn and at least two schools, one of which was Russell House.

Aylesford House in London Road.  This boys' school was begun by Mr W Hanford Turner from a villa on the country side of the Midland Railway bridge.  The name came from the villa it occupied on start-up.  In 1907 the school was owned by Mr C Leighton. c1935 the school purchased the adjacent villa, Nunsmead, and thus became 246-8 London Road.  Mr and Mrs Bayley owned the school at this point.  It accepted boys from 7 to 14, preparing them for public schools and the Royal Navy.  The uniform colour was grey with pink edged blazers, later changed to pink stripes.  In 1939 the school announced there was a large concrete cellar, a facility which would have been uppermost the minds of potential parents in that year.  In 1947 the school moved to occupy part of Sandridgebury House, and was later merged with Hardenwick School, Harpenden.

The Hall. Around 1930 a small school "for young children" opened at 20 London Road, the site of the former Dear Hotel.  The owner was Miss Elsie Bodkin.

On this site in London Road – at an access driveway to a car park – was a Victorian temperance
hotel known as Dear's. When no longer required for this purpose a later occupier was Miss Bodkin
who ran a small school.  A renumbering of London Road is the reason for the replaced
building being numbered 64.

Verulam School. Not the current establishment in Brampton Road, but the advertisement indicated it was close to Clarence Park at 88 Hatfield Road, one of the villas near to Granville Road.  First advertised in 1903 it espoused "a modern and practical education" run by Mr J W Cassels.  By 1919 it had moved to Upper Lattimore Road. Here it was run by Miss Collier as a girls' school with a boys' prep class.  While at Hatfield Road it is assumed it catered for boys.

If you thought this was a fine list of private schools to have occupied St Albans, the above collection is yet less than half complete.  In almost all cases the establishments occupied buildings previously intended as residential dwellings for individuals, couples or families.  No-one spent money in engaging an architect to design a school for that purpose.  Especially given the poor investment rick.

The collection will continue.

By-Pass It

 Until the 1920s the road network between London Colney and St Albans was straightforward: High Street in the village connected with London Road and High Street in the city; Shenley Lane in the village connected with Napsbury Lane and then the ancient road from London towards St Albans; the old road between the village and Cell Barnes Lane (Alexander Road and Nightingale Lane) took a rather different route to the city's market centre via Cell Barnes and Victoria Street. Finally, a link was available from High Street via White Horse Lane to Tyttenhanger Green and Camp.  This last route was still possible while the St Albans Bypass was still a single carriageway.

Working on the St Albans Bypass North Orbital in the 1920s.  The land purchased was sufficient
for twin 3-lane carriageways plus additional space for cables, pipes and space between the
carriageways.  Only one carriageway was completed.
COURTESY THE HERTS ADVERTISER

A post-WW1 national roadbuilding programme included a bypass around St Albans between Hatfield and Watford – a section of the North Orbital Road – squeezing through the gap between Cotlandswick and Newhouse Park Farm.  This fresh west-east barrier between London Colney and St Albans remained a single carriageway until the 1950s, but it did include a roundabout linking the village High Street with London Road.  A "square-about" would be a more appropriate label and was located a little west of the present maze of traffic lights.  Elements of the square-about can still be detected by the roadside.

The first roundabout which separated London Colney's High Street and London Road, the main A6
road before the London Colney Bypass was built.  The abbreviation TCB (circled) was the
location of a telephone call box.
COURTESY NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SCOTLAND

At the bypass end of the stopped up High Street remain the connections for the former telephone
call box which served this important road junction.  The just-visible overbridge marks
the location of the original roundabout (sometimes known as a square-about).

The often-related account of the capture of a German spy at this junction in 1940 still retains its location evidence; the former telephone kiosk used by the spy, an off-duty soldier and a police officer from the former Fleetville police station where a telegraph post and a pavement connection box remain in place at the bypass end of the former stopped-up High Street.

To pass along Shenley Lane and Napsbury Lane across the first iteration of the bypass was on the flat, which was fine in its early days, but to herald the major widening works in the 1950s a new bridge was constructed over the approaching dual carriageway.

Photograph taken on the Shenley Lane over bridge looking towards London Colney roundabout,
as the second carriageway was opened in 1956.
COURTESY THE HERTS ADVERTISER

Shenley Road over bridge completed in advance of the new carriageway and which replaced
the original surface junction.

Compare the sparse traffic level of 1956 photograph with a 2014 view of the London Colney
roundabout before the present addition of further traffic signals and their re-phasing.

A significantly larger roundabout was also required for the next stage of the project, and the imminent inclusion of the three-mile London Colney Bypass.  This shaped relocation required the diversion of a small length of London Road between Birklands and Nightingale Lane.  Houses already built became satisfyingly marooned in their own backwater, although those in Nightingale Lane were less fortunate, being closer to the incessant streams of roundabout traffic.

In or around 1920 the Electrical Apparatus Company (EAC) opened one of its four works buildings (the others being at Walthamstow, Wandsworth and Vauxhall) between Birklands and the Midland Mainline Railway.  Small farms are vulnerable when modern infrastructure and expansive developments nibble at the edges or slice through the heart of a farm.

The "square-about", and to the left the surface junction of Shenley Lane and Napsbury Lane.

By 1954 Newhouse Park Farm effectively ceased to operate, having earlier relinquished land for the factory and housing, and now transferring still more to the Ministry of Transport for road construction.  EAC acquire 37 further acres for its staff playing fields.  The farm homestead, outbuildings and a home field became the property of Albert E Bygrave, and in 1959 he opened his nursery fronting the bypass.

Yes, these houses are in London Road.  The road led to London Colney High Street. The original
"square-about" was out of sight at the end of this view.

However, the youthful entrepreneur Roger Aylett entered the horticultural marketplace a full four years earlier, having completed his horticultural qualifications at Oaklands Agricultural Institute (now Oaklands College).  He acquired through his parents a seven acre segment of land surplus to EAC's recent acquisition.

Roger Aylett's parcel of land lay between the houses on the north side of Napsbury Lane and the remainder of the former Newhouse Park Farm homestead.  He benefited from a lengthy frontage to the bypass and its newly fenced off works being prepared for the second carriageway.  Aylett may not have realised it at the time but his frontage opening along a busy road and a second minor access from Napsbury Lane, offered his business a splendid kerbside vista, which Bygrave used to good effect as a location marker – "adjacent to Aylett's"!  A dual carriageway might have resulted in awkward access for his customers, but in the case of Aylett's the large nearby  roundabout on one side and an over bridge on the other ensured convenient access when entering and leaving his site.

Map and aerial photograph providing an overview of the topic. London Colney is to the
bottom right; London Road leading to St Albans to the top of the image.
COURTESY OPEN STREET MAP CONTRIBUTORS
COURTESY GOOGLE EARTH

Driving or riding on a bus between London Colney and St Albans via the roundabout was one thing, but if you wish to cycle or even walk the bypass makes life difficult since it was necessary to carriageway-hop – until it became essential to respond to the accident rate and provide a scaffolding bridge on the site of the former square-about.  This bridge was later replaced by a more elegant structure, which is still in use today.

Meanwhile, the round roundabout became larger and collected even more traffic signals!