another great shot of burbury st park and area...running along the top of the park is i believe gordon st and i can now clearly see the white building of the fountain pub to the left of friends hall
These are such great photos. I went to the school when it was known as 'Burbury Street Junior Infant School' and I started there as a little 'un aged just 4 years and 6 months at the beginning of the spring term in January 1951. There was also a nursery on the same site for children aged 2 and a half to 4. My teacher was Miss Butterfield who I believe eventually left to teach in South Africa.
I don't remember that building either that divides the front playground, although it could have been the girls' toilet block. The boys' toilets can be seen to the right of the main building against the wall in the infants' playground. As us older members will recall, all house's 'lavs' used to be outside with more than one family using each one !
It's strange because I can't remember that tower either, which doesn't have a clock btw. I wonder what was in it, and if you could go up it ? Further up Bridge St West to the left can be seen an Atkinsons pub called the 'The Wellington' and it was on the corner of Wellesley St and BSW. It was my father's local (Billy Bow) and my mother used to moan at him that he spent so much time there, it's a wonder he wasn't given a rent book. Sadly, the landlord of this pub gassed himself after money was missing from the till.
We lived right next door to St Saviours church in BSW, down an alleyway called 'Cottage Row' and it's just off the photo to the left. Other teachers I remember are Mr Berry, Mr Sheldon, and the headmaster Mr Margerison. We often played in 'Burbury Street Recreation Ground' as it was called back then and it seemed massive. As someone has also remarked though, everything seems bigger when you're a child.
I went to have a look not so long back and the detached park keeper's house all on its own is still there. If you look very carefully, there are two square pillars which would have been the metal gates to the park I would have thought. There were metal railings around the whole perimeter of the ground, but these would have been removed during the war as metal was very short. Well those two pillars are also still there, but they have been rebuilt with modern bricks with the original Victorian capping stones on top.
