| Tottenham Girls’ High
School was established in 1885, on a site a couple of hundred yards south of the
High Cross where a private school had been built around 1833. In 1858, this school
was taken over by the Worshipful Company of Drapers (which has long-standing connections
with Tottenham—its almshouses happily survive to this day at the top of Bruce
Grove). Substantially altered and enlarged, it functioned as the Worshipful Company
of Drapers’ College for Boys until 1885, when it was taken over by the Church
School Company, who reopened it as Tottenham High School for Girls; in 1909 it
was taken over by Middlesex County Council. It closed in the early 1980s, and
for the next ten years or so the buildings were put to various uses by Haringey
Council. Once abandoned, they soon became seriously delapidated, and were placed
on English Heritage’s register of Listed Buildings at risk. Fortunately,
they have been sensitively restored and converted into low-cost housing for local
people, the work deservedly winning the prestigious National Homebuilder Design
Award for best partnership development in 2000. These photographs are by courtesy
of Helen, who was a pupil at the school in the 1950s and kindly gave me permission
to download them from the Schools Photos website and reproduce them here. |
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The exterior,
viewed from the far side of the High Road. It is little changed today. Although
it looks contemporary with the Victorian school building in the background, the
hall was in fact built at some time in the twentieth century. Previously, both
sides of the approach were occupied by the Drapers’ Company’s almshouses
(not to be confused with the ones in Bruce Grove). It has now been taken over
by an evangelical Christian group.
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The First
Form, 1951. . .
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. . . and
some of them in 2001!
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