St Pauls National School

[Vivienne14]

This building in Legge Lane hasn't been a school for a very long time. In fact it looks like it's had no function for years. It was once a board school, built in the mid-1800s and run on Anglican principles for 250 local children. It would have had one main central room in which the teaching of children of all ages and ability would have taken place. Today this very sad and abandoned building still shows evidence of its original use. On Legge Lane you can see bricked up tall and slim arched windows within a high gable. These would have let in lots of light to the huge classroom space inside. These first three images from Streetview show its sorry condition.

Someone has also posted interior shots from a visit to the building in 2015 here
https://www.28dayslater.co.uk/st-pa...ellery-quarter-birmingham-january-2015.t94499

This is one interior view from that site



The last owner was reported to be Birmingham University College, but plans for its development don't seem to have materialised. This is yet another valuable building to keep an eye on. Viv.

 

[Astoness]

thanks viv...thats another building i have looked at in the past...sad to see it in such a bad state now

lyn

 

[Vivienne14]

Yes Lyn. The 28dayslater link gives us a very graphic picture of the state of the interior. The only thing that seems to have been done is to throw a big blue tarpaulin over the roof. Such a pity it's in that state. Viv.

 

[Old Boy]

View attachment 104723 View attachment 104724 View attachment 104725
Someone has also posted interior shots from a visit to the building in 2015 here
https://www.28dayslater.co.uk/st-pa...ellery-quarter-birmingham-january-2015.t94499

This is one interior view from that site

View attachment 104726

The last owner was reported to be Birmingham University College, but plans for its development don't seem to have materialised. This is yet another valuable building to keep an eye on. Viv.

Hi Viv,

I do not wish to be controversial but why is a building valuable just because it is old? Looking at the photgraphs I see nothing special about it and it would be best demolished altogether.

Old Boy

 

[Vivienne14]

Hi old boy. Not controversial, it's good to discuss! I agree, just because it's old and falling down is not why I see it as 'valuable' This is why ...

From an educational perspective, it's an example of a church school (pre-1870 and 1880 Education Acts) operating before formal state school provision. The churches regarded education as desirable, but not all parts of society believed in its need for the lower classes and the poor, especially by those who employed children. St Paul's National School was part of the churches 'National Society'. It used a monitoring system with one teacher and 'monitors' delivering more repetitive exercises in the 3 'rs' to over 250 children in one large classroom. Hence why the building is unlike later schools with many individual classrooms. As the need for more trained teachers teaching individual age and ability groups became desirable, so the one classroom system became less effective.


The building design is a graphic illustration of that system. It also echoes it's church connections, so not only is it part of our education heritage but it can demonstrate to us the part played by the church in education development. Aesthetically, if restored, the windows (uncovered and restored on the wall on Legge Lane side) plus the vaulted roof would be a delight to see. (Pie in the sky - perhaps - but how lovely to see the light streaming through those tall windows). A restored schoolhouse could play a part in showing our children's children an example of how the early formal education of their ancestors developed into the education system we know today.

From the point of view of the school's position in the locality, it would have directly served the children of the jewellery quarter community. Initially children would have received only about 2 hours education per day, but this would have been enough of a start in making differences to the quality of those children lives. They would also have been given instruction in practical skills such as sewing, cobbling, tailoring, baking, gardening etc. As the Birmingham economy expanded into a multitude of trades it needed more workers with a basic education and some of these children doubtless benefitted greatly from this basic church education. The school itself would have gained much early local experience and doubtless would have contributed a great deal to the later more widespread Board school development.

At a basic level, if the school was repaired it could be added to the JQ list of tourist attractions and provide educational visits for school history projects etc. Sadly, the realist in me knows this is unlikely to happen. But we can hope. And we can keep an eye on developments.

Viv.

 

[rosie]

Thank you for this explanation Viv. I didn't know about this building. Some of my ancestors might even have been pupils there?!
A school building was moved to the Black Country Museum for preservation , it would be nice to keep ours too.
rosie.

 

[Vivienne14]

There was a plan put forward about 4 years ago according to this Skyscraper city post to stabilise the building and convert the interior into flats. It doesn't appear to have been taken up. Think it would have been a mistake. Although if it was a matter of on the one hand conversion to flats or just let it crumble to the ground, I might have been persuaded by the flats option.

Also posting a photo of the ceiling from the 28dayslater blog. Could be stunning if it was renovated. Viv

 

[paul stacey]

The preposition or certain authorities to demolish every thing in sight, in some parts of the UK is staggering, thanks to people like Viv who keep a weather eye out we get to know about these vulnerible buildings. Paul

 

[Vivienne14]

Thanks Paul. Lyn (Astoness) is the weather eye - I'm just plain nosey! The icing on the cake would be, as Rosie mentions in post #6, to find ancestors who attended the school. But obviously that would be difficult to demonstrate. Viv.

An afterthought. I think church records are quite well preserved and wonder if anyone knows where to find early church school records?

 

[Vivienne14]

A side view of the school. Viv.

 

[paul stacey]

Of course Dear Lyn, is for front on Birmingham's unloved historic buildings.Paul

 

[Astoness]

Of course Dear Lyn, is for front on Birmingham's unloved historic buildings.Paul

thanks paul although i have to say that at my age i really must stop risking life and limb to enter some of the old buildings but its not easy as it comes second nature to me to go in camera a blazing lol

 

[Vivienne14]

It's seems quite difficult to find information about this school. It might at one time have been two schools as I've seen references to 'Legge Lane Schools'. A couple of things I've found are it cost £2000 to build in 1869 and in 1878 Edward Goodber was Master of the School. At that time it was a mixed school or schools. Viv.

 

[mikejee]

The c 1889 OS map shows St Pauls school and another marked "Charity School" on Legge Lane, so that might explain the mention of "Schools" . Having said that I can find no listing of any other school in the directories around that time (!!). The map lists the St Pauls school as girls and infants. the whites 1873 directory lists it as infants.

 

[Vivienne14]

Thanks Mke.viv.

 

[Vivienne14]

There is a late 1980s/early 1970s exterior view of the building in post #81 here posted by Mark Tooze.

The Jewellery Quarter

Wasnt the Vittoria Restaurant on the corner of Warstone Lane and Frederick Street Was the Vittoria the one that collapsed? Opposite what is now The Golden Square.

birminghamhistory.co.uk

Viv.