Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

Before I start this little rant, please can I make it clear that these opinons are mine only and are not expressed by any other members of my family.

The Back avenue used to be a place for the pupils to relax, kick a football around, roller skate or generally chat. I have fond (and not so fond - I remember when a senior used a bunch of juniors to see how many people he could jump over on skates!) memories of this and I think it's an important area for the kids to exercise and relax/

However, there have been issues with the house parents' accommodation for those who didn't live in Peele, Thorn A, Maine B and Leigh Hunt - the '1966' extensions gave those boarding houses without housemaster houses large 3 bedroom split level flats with a separate study - however, over the years, this was often not big enough for some families and some of these flats were also knocked through into the smaller two bed flats for more roomy accomodation.

Subsequently, in around 2000 as part of the aborted masterplan, 2 large attached houses were built on Lamb ashphalt, taking up the entire of the recreation space there whilst not giving the houseparents what they actually wanted, which was a private garden and a garage.

I see now in Housey and from on the grapevine that they are converting the 1966 extensions into 'town houses' for the house parents and they will have a walled garden at the back of the house, again taking up the whole of the amenity area for the children on the abck avenue. This will also cause the eventual destruction of the Tuck Shop (a pleasent arts and crafts style building behind Coleridge) which also includes a war memorial (the whole of the playgroup section was built in memory of those who had died after WWII IIRC)

I see this as a real crime to the pupils - whilst I see no reason for the houseparents' accommodation to be improved, this cannot be to the detirment of the pupils as this will undoubtably be... where are the kids meant to play - they can't on Front Av, that's too formal - Big Side is too muddy in winter or full of matches. I do not understant why the school are pushing with this. Why not revert back to the original idea of town houses in the centre of each block or utilising the woefully underused courtyards as gardens for the new town houses.

Sorry for my rant, but what do people feel about this?

The children have made some noises about this but have been fobbed off with platitudes like ,'Don't worry,dear ,the tuck shop will go somewhere else', but I don't think the children realise exactly how much space will be lost. I suspect you will be preaching to the converted on this site but I would write and register my disapproval if I knew who I should write to.

As first stop, I would suggest the Clerk, Paul Tuckwell.

In the olden days, when dinosaurs roamed the world and ladies wore skirts, housemasters weren't married (except in the houses Great Plum mentions). This practice gradually changed, and in about 1960, houses were built in East and West Gun Copse roads (that's when the rot started), mostly for housemasters in the respectively nearby houses. John Page, housemaster of Thorn B, moved into one and decided it was too far from the house (about 100 yards!), so moved to Thorn A. He was replaced by Pat Cullen who proceeded to get married and live in Worthing.

From Plum's description, it seems like the place is being redesigned for the benefit of the staff, and this results from too many of them being married. Simple as that. Married staff should be an exception, live in Horsham and cycle in every day, like the redoubtable Reggie Dean (anyone else remember him?).

To continue this rant, if Lamb Asphalt's been built on, where do they do SCHOOL DRILLS??!!

Please permit me to play my usual role of adding to the confusion!
There are some masters houses on the outside of the ring fence and between that fence and the station. I think its called King Edward Road or some such. (Out of Peele gate and head for the station and they are on your left, between you and the railway line).
Anyway, it is my understanding that that little estate is to be sold in order to gain money and the houses rebuilt somewhere inside the ring fence. If that is added to what is mentioned above, the school estate is going to beconme so crowded and built-up that the school might just as well have stayed in London!


PS If you look at the school on the perfectly wonderful Google Earth it shows that the four paths across the Quad are NOT at right angles to each other, which came as a complete surprise to me!

Surely, this is just follwing Government policy for the South East of England ?

If there's a blank space, BUILD ON IT !

J.R. wrote:Surely, this is just follwing Government policy for the South East of England ?

If there's a blank space, BUILD ON IT !

Reminds me of the Argentine method of driving

"If there is a space on the road, there should be a car on it, preferably yours"

Made for an interesting drive into work.

My parents lave on King Edward CLose behind the road, and yes there was talk a couple of years ago of selling all the land down to the station to developers! But in the contract of staff accomodation the school would have to place like for like-therefore i parents would have to have a 4 bedroom house built on CH within ring fence. In total around 20 houses with miniumum 3 bedrooms owuld have to be built on the campus somewhere.

anyway going back to Plum's point of housemaster accomodation...i agree with him. I think its awful what they did to Lamb's back ash, the housemasters houses there are squashed between the design school and the boarding house! I do feel though that people considering becoming houseparents with children etc should aknoweldge that having a house with garden is something they may have to forefit to live in the boarding house. Again this is only my opinion but i do understand that there have been occasions where single/couple's have been put into boarding houses that have a large house attached and those with kids into one with only a flat at the back!

Yes its important to provide staff with acocmodation that is adequate....which is part of the reason my parents chose to live in the close, we have a large house with a large garden and a quite road-only 1 house past us! plus the privacy of not being walked past by hundreds of kids all day long.

A Friend and I noticed the additional buildings they are making a few weeks ago behind Mid because when they refurbished Mid, they put in extra doors ( to connect to the houses) and the outline of the houses have been cut out of the back ash. It was only after a few moments of confusion about what they were doing did we realise what it actualy was ( first thought was dodgy construction). The space that the outlines take up, and therefore the space that the houses will take up is really rather huge. It's a huge space and squashes the back ash completely on the west side.
It's quite sad that they are toing this tbh, especially thinking of adding more houses down the back ash because CH is already squashed up, and will be even more squashed when they refurbish the kitchens/build the NEW NEW science block. grrr

Am I being siuilly or something? The asphalt behond Coleridge and Middletom, and behind Lamb (at least) had a multitude of functions related to health, such as PE (uegh but necessary), games when the grassed areas were too muddy or their use would damage the surfaces, inter house competitions etc etc ad infinitum. There was normally enough space but seldom too much unless you played bicycle hockey

I agree that the Avenue is unusable so where are pupils going to let off excess energy (all that is except Gemma and Huggermugger's DS (both too shattered by other sports and lessons)? The country is suffering from an excess of FAT so what is the school doing to try to prevent it? - make the pupils more sedentary.

Sorry, but it is not right (FMPOV)

It is important to put things into perspective. The House Masters and Mistresseses who live in the back flats have for years not enjoyed a garden or any privacy. Moreover, the proximity to the back ash means that they never have any time away from the children who are outside in large numbers. This new arrangement, which will probably be extended to the other houses in time, will provide a small and private space for the House staff who live there 24/7 all year. This is not unreasonable. The school is blessed with hundreds of acres of land and I am sure that another piece will be tarmaced to provide a place for children to run around, kick a ball etc.

CH is not a museum and will evolve slowly but surely - after all if the work on the boarding house had not been done then the school would have failed its Social Services inspections and been forced to close! Now all Old Blues who left pre 2000 would not recognise the place. On the whole the refurb has gone down well - not perfect but a damn site better than when I first arrived in the 1990's when pupils had horse hair mattresses, windows that never closed, precious little central heating in the dorms and fixtures and fittings that were well past their sell by date. Whether right or wrong, things move on and we need to let them particularly when we do not live there any more!!

Right, you lot! Belt up and get on with your essay. Holdsworth? What are you hiding under the desk?

Clearly onewestguncopse has had his cage rattled by the idea that the children's needs should come before those of the staff-perhaps because he is staff.What is this nonsense about gardens and privacy? If you want privacy then don't work in a boarding school because you won't get any and if you want a house with a garden then go and buy one. If the children were at home they would reasonably expect to be able to kick a ball around within spitting distance of their house and it is not unreasonable to expect this at their school. The school is a charity for the children not the staff -perhaps you would be better off working at Eton or Harrow.

nastymum wrote:What is this nonsense about gardens and privacy? If you want privacy then don't work in a boarding school because you won't get any

Precisely.