Welcome to the unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum - for discussing everything CH/Old Blue related. All pupils, parents, families, staff, Old Blues and anyone else related to CH are welcome to browse the boards, register and contribute.
Share your memories and stories from your days at school, and find out the truth behind the rumours....Remember the teachers and pupils, tell us who you remember and why...
I'd heard there were loads of tunnels all round under the school. Possibly a bit of schoolgirl exaggeration, but IIRC one of the books by either Louie Angus or Audrey thingy mentioned tunnels under the science block and what were the old music cells (junk rooms in our day) by the back wall. I believe that part was originally brewery land and the tunnels were connected with that.
There were reputedly also tunnels under the gym and swimming pool. Weren't there also steps down to the house cellars by outside kitchen doors? Or maybe it was grating and if you managed to get through the cellar from inside the house, you came out looking up through the grating.
Too vague really to be much use I'm afraid - a mixture of woolly memory and the realisation that, as I was incredibly gullible as a junior, people told me anything and I pretty much believed it
Well done Jo, I'd forgotten the swimming pool one! You could get into by following the big fat heating pipes, it went into a hole that ended up being underneath the squash courts - and let's not forget the one under the stage in the main hall that even I, who was pretty ruddy curious, failed to trace!!
I'm beginning to understand how you managed to get yourself the boot, Gerrie!
It was concerted focussed curiosity on my part! I swear!!
Gerrie M-A (GMA) - 2:34 71-75
"If you cannot have what you want, then learn to want what you have"
Anon or The Guru or someone worthy like that.
Wasn't DR.
Definitely not.
Jo wrote:I'd heard there were loads of tunnels all round under the school. Possibly a bit of schoolgirl exaggeration, but IIRC one of the books by either Louie Angus or Audrey thingy mentioned tunnels under the science block and what were the old music cells (junk rooms in our day) by the back wall. I believe that part was originally brewery land and the tunnels were connected with that.
There were reputedly also tunnels under the gym and swimming pool. Weren't there also steps down to the house cellars by outside kitchen doors? Or maybe it was grating and if you managed to get through the cellar from inside the house, you came out looking up through the grating.
Too vague really to be much use I'm afraid - a mixture of woolly memory and the realisation that, as I was incredibly gullible as a junior, people told me anything and I pretty much believed it
There must have been outside steps for the MEN to stoke the house boilers-- no way would they have been coming into the houses! one member of 3s who shall be nameless certainly met on of the stokers there, to scrounge ciggies.
Thou shalt not sit with statisticians nor commit a social science.
gma wrote: and let's not forget the one under the stage in the main hall that even I, who was pretty ruddy curious, failed to trace!!
I don't remember the tunnel under the stage but I do remember sneaking under the stage with a friend - unfortunately we were caught by the head girl & school mons who had come into the hall for some reason We were punished and had to sit at the back of the chapel for a week (with the mons) and had to stand up on the dais in dining hall.
don't remember the tunnel under the stage but I do remember sneaking under the stage with a friend
There was a section where there were big boxes of costumes and the entrance was behind there, it was really hard to open having been over painted a gazillion times I'm sure with that disgusting baby blue paint!! I remember doing a Henry VIII poem once for something ( vaguely remembere some sort of inter house poetry competition) and dressed up in some tudor lookalike monstrosity plus saggy cap with feather (I am exact about it as my lovely Mum just sent me the picture of it taken in my back garden (no, no idea why I took it home!!)
Gerrie M-A (GMA) - 2:34 71-75
"If you cannot have what you want, then learn to want what you have"
Anon or The Guru or someone worthy like that.
Wasn't DR.
Definitely not.
During the War, the Tube was blocked off between houses to avoid the obvious danger of a concentrated blast travelling down the entire lengh. In those days we appreciated these things !
I think the only bomb fell on the Isolation Hospital, used as a store for spare food. the School was treated to excess quantities of Peaches and Spam (Not together !) from damaged cans.
The exploration of the maze of tunnels sounds fascinating, but BEWARE Asbestos, I worked, identifying it for the Atomic Energy Authority, and it ain't good for you, big time !
Apropos Old Blues living longer---- did you know that 50% of us are Immortal ?
A research by Bristol University, no less, on pupils who has been under the care of Dr Friend, who kept meticulous records, and had a system of administering CASCARA to everyone detaine in the "Sicker" (Had a wonderful effect in discouraging Malingerers !) The results of the reasearch, which were forwarded to me, stated : "Pupils of this period have a 50% improvement on the general Mortality Rate "
Since the General Mortality Rate is 100 % it will be fun finding ou which of us live for ever ! !
I am 80 and working on it !
NEILL THE NOTORIOUS wrote:
Apropos Old Blues living longer---- did you know that 50% of us are Immortal ?
I always knew there was summat funny about many of those at CH. Almost by definition you have to be French to be an Immortal and then when you die they bury you in the Invalides. (Well you would be either not a valid Immortal or an invalid to be a dead Immortal )
NEILL THE NOTORIOUS wrote:A research by Bristol University, no less, on pupils who has been under the care of Dr Friend[/u], who kept meticulous records, and had a system of administering CASCARA to everyone detaine in the "Sicker" (Had a wonderful effect in discouraging Malingerers !)
Ooooooh, not that name again. My employer sent me to see Dr Friend because I had to work abroad; when I got there he had 14 filled syringes lined up plus a couple of other nasties in bottles or vials. He started off with smallpox and typhoid and ended with polio. I couldn't sit down for quite a while. You needed to be a masochist to call him Friend. Thinking about it that might have been your one's son wpo had learned at his father's knee.
What happens if a politician drowns in a river? That is pollution.
What happens if all of them drown? That is solution!!!
sejintenej wrote:My employer sent me to see Dr Friend because I had to work abroad
Was this the same Dr Friend? The CH medical officer of that name must have left in about 1949 at the latest. Dr Scott's elder son (a non-foundationer, like the younger one, who was a contemporary of mine) had already left by 1955.
Incidentally, was Friend an OB? Scott was, and so was his successor (Hoskyns, I believe his name was).
NEILL THE NOTORIOUS wrote:During the War, the Tube was blocked off between houses to avoid the obvious danger of a concentrated blast travelling down the entire lengh. In those days we appreciated these things !
I think the only bomb fell on the Isolation Hospital, used as a store for spare food. the School was treated to excess quantities of Peaches and Spam (Not together !) from damaged cans.
The exploration of the maze of tunnels sounds fascinating, but BEWARE Asbestos, I worked, identifying it for the Atomic Energy Authority, and it ain't good for you, big time !
Apropos Old Blues living longer---- did you know that 50% of us are Immortal ?
A research by Bristol University, no less, on pupils who has been under the care of Dr Friend, who kept meticulous records, and had a system of administering CASCARA to everyone detaine in the "Sicker" (Had a wonderful effect in discouraging Malingerers !) The results of the reasearch, which were forwarded to me, stated : "Pupils of this period have a 50% improvement on the general Mortality Rate "
Since the General Mortality Rate is 100 % it will be fun finding ou which of us live for ever ! !
I am 80 and working on it !
The isolation hospital was where RDTS's house (now Dr Maddren's) house now stands I believe...
When you are a 'newbie' on this forum, or when you are still just reading it from the Great Outside, it's really odd how many names you notice as part of the 'Old Guard' and you notice their familiarity with each other traversing across all sorts of threads - it's part ofthe attraction!
Then you notice that they've suddenly gone and it's a little unsettling - I have no idea who Great Plum is but I noticed that he'd gone and now is back.
Familiarity breeds content!!
Gerrie M-A (GMA) - 2:34 71-75
"If you cannot have what you want, then learn to want what you have"
Anon or The Guru or someone worthy like that.
Wasn't DR.
Definitely not.
As you say Great Plum used to be on a great deal, I think he was the first to get his buttons, JR, GP and me, the dreaded triumvirate, then GP changed his job (had to work more) and got married (!!!!) not sure if it was in that order, and has had to restrict his forum presence.
"If a man speaks, and there isn't a woman to hear him, is he still wrong?"
I'm still on quite often... but work have now changed their security settings for the net... this means that forums are barred but blogs aren't anymore...
