Hi Lyn you must be up bright and early.
It is 5:51 pm here in New Zealand.
Thank you for the map!
I am afraid you are incorrect about the school being on Gower Street. The map doesn't tell you that Gower Street finishes at Guilford Street and the Annex building was on the corner of Clifford Walk and Guilford Street as shown on the map (attached).
I was using Google maps and looking at the new school without realizing it was 2008. How times change!
I am a little vague on Mark. It sounds as if he would have been in my year and I have a pretty good memory. Maybe he was in a different stream. As I said my classroom was in the main building. Perhaps his was in the Annex building.
Also, Do you remember Carol? Can't think of her surname. She was in the chess team. Gower Boys played at Lozells Girls School (organized by Mr. Philips). I was on board one playing Carol. We already knew each other socially.
She gave me a good game.
I have already attached this map; but I have edited it. I was relying on nearly forty years of memory for the exact position of the Annex building. We often had to walk from one building to the other and I really didn't think it was that far away.
I Emigrated from the UK in 1995. I didn't really live locally. I lived in Tower Road, Aston; only part of which still exists today. I heard lots of bad stuff about Upper Thomas Street School from lads in my street and decided to give it a miss.
John.