This page is one of several pages which are based on articles in our book entitled Royal Leamington Spa, A History in 100 Buildings which was published in 2018 and is no longer in print.
Image, Collection LHG
In response to an increasing demand for school places in the locality, Clapham Terrace School was commissioned by the Leamington School Board. The Leamington Spa Courier of the day reported that “ To all appearances the schools are built as public buildings should be – substantially and well – and the School Board are to be congratulated upon erecting a school which is both an ornament to the town and a credit to all engaged upon it.” The building was designed by Frederick Foster architect and built by John Fell and commemorated for all time in a beautiful glazed panel made by Maw and Co. of Broseley, Shropshire, which is to be found on the wall in the corridor below the bell tower. There are several cast-iron cappings (Alan Mayes??). The date of building is recorded as 1889 – 1890.
The school is in the Gothic style with a large central hall around which there were five classrooms, designed to accommodate 60 boys and girls respectively. The infants were catered for separately in three classrooms the capacity being 60 to 65 children. A Kindergarten for up to 75 children was also included. The structure was built of Kenilworth pressed bricks, with roof tiles coming from Maw and Co who were well-known for producing encaustic and floor tiles. There is a bell turret creating a striking feature to the school with the top of the spire reaching up to 65 feet. The total cost of the project including the purchase of the land from the Dowager Countess of Aylesford was in excess of £9,000.
The official opening took place in September 1890, not without a hitch as it appears that the School Board in their words were unable to secure the services of their preferred guests of honour. Undaunted teachers from other Board Schools entertained some 120 friends to a social gathering with a musical evening accompanied by congratulatory remarks from local dignitaries. All this was accompanied by “a bountiful supply of cakes and sandwiches” and fruit and claret.
Children from the schools in Radford Road and New Street moved to this school when it opened in 1890.
In the 1940s brick air raid shelters were built at the back of Clapham Terrace school and the adjoining hospital grounds.
Amongst those pupils who went on to greater things is Dennis Joseph Enright, academic, poet, novelist and critic. He was later at Leamington College for Boys before going to Downing College, Cambridge after a chequered career became Honorary Professor of English at the University of Warwick.
Peter Coulls, 2018