Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

Does anyone recall the newspapers delivered to the various houses. Coleridge A used to have The Times and the News Chronicle and I think The Sunday Dispatch. Presumably these were the Senior Housemaster's choice. Were tabloids permitted ?
There used to be a paper shop cum/ Post Office on Tower Hill to which one could walk on a Sunday to purchase one's own.

Kit Bartlett wrote:Does anyone recall the newspapers delivered to the various houses. Coleridge A used to have The Times and the News Chronicle and I think The Sunday Dispatch. Presumably these were the Senior Housemaster's choice. Were tabloids permitted ?
There used to be a paper shop cum/ Post Office on Tower Hill to which one could walk on a Sunday to purchase one's own.

The Times, Daily Telegraph and Punch magazine are the house publications that come to my mind.

Tabloids, such as the Daily Sketch and Daily Mirror, were non existent in my experience.

We (ThB) had The Times and The Daily Telegraph anyway, and during my first year I remember a public debate (with a vote) on whether the third paper should be The Daily Express or the News Chronicle (I think the latter must have won, because we were still taking it when it folded, after which we took The Daily Mail by default).

On Sundays we took The Observer, The Sunday Times, and The Sunday Express. The only other Sunday newspapers in those days were The News of the World, The People and The Sunday Pictorial, which probably wouldn't have been allowed (though they were what my parents read).

The only daily 'tabloids' then were The Daily Mirror and The Daily Sketch. I don't think they would have been approved of. The two 'serious' left-leaning papers (apart from the News Chronicle) were The Daily Herald and The Manchester Guardian (perhaps some houses took them, but I doubt it). Neither the Telegraph nor the Mail were as partisan as they are now (though the Express was).

michael scuffil wrote: The only daily 'tabloids' then were The Daily Mirror and The Daily Sketch. I don't think they would have been approved of. The two 'serious' left-leaning papers (apart from the News Chronicle) were The Daily Herald and The Manchester Guardian (perhaps some houses took them, but I doubt it). Neither the Telegraph nor the Mail were as partisan as they are now (though the Express was).

AFAIR Col A had the Times in my day (I suppose it was compulsory because, according to legend, S level classicists were required to complete the Times crossword before arriving in class. I remember a screaming headline from the Daily Sketch "The School which bans the Pops" following the ban on pop records in about 1960 so we must have had that one.
I actually got into trouble with Kit because I refused to read the newspapers - it was then, as now, all doom and gloom like some catastrophe abroad but "no British killed"

I only remember Punch, though there may have been other publications. My other memory is New Scientist (which I still get) in the science library: it opened my eyes to the wider realms of science in a format that I could enjoy (though not necessarily understand)

We had the Times, the Daily Mail and the Sun; though for some unknown reason (in a 11-17 boys' house), the Sun was banned after not very long.

I recall two other details.

One was that the Matron got the papers in the evening. It was someone's trade ('Matron's papers') to put the sheets together in the right order and take them up to her.

The other was that if you wanted a cutting, you put your initials in the four corners of the article or photo in question, and thus reserved it. You could retrieve it from the matron the next morning.

I too remember the Daily Sketch article, but pace sejintenej, I don't believe any house actually took the paper. I think the article was seen by a few people in the holidays, and a few copies were circulated. The Sketch was the sort of paper read by one's maiden aunt seeking a thrill and something to gossip about; I don't think anyone would have wanted it.

I recall that the papers were delivered to Houses by the CH Post Office (Sgt. Fielder ran this amongst his other duties ).
Anyone wanting to reserve a cutting for future use had to be very quick off the mark to place their initials on the item concerned. I don't say that there was physical confrontation but it could get quite heated. Cricket averages from The Times were of particular interest to me. Occasionally as a joke we used to pretend
that that day's papers had arrived by producing those of the previous day.

I think we had the Telegraph, just the one paper, in 6s. I don't remember any discussion, possibly all the houses had the same, I don't know.

I'm amused that you marked cuttings you wanted with initials, we did it with our number, there couldn't be any confusion that way.

We did have our own Sunday paper when I was in The Flat, just six beds for Prefects. One Sunday in Autumn 1966 the rugby reports carried the memorable headline Old Blues are Fast and Persistent. No comment!!

Until I left, we always had a fair spectrum of the dailys in Coleridge B.

The rest could alwys be found in the library !

I remember Maine B was very much a Guardian/Independent sort of house. Fairly middle of the road politically, with a slight lean to the left in some areas. They used to get dropped off at the side door between us and the Housemaster's house, whilst Maine A's got dropped off in Centre Hall. Naturally, every so often Maine A found it had no papers and that us sneaky types in B had both.

Col B 1947-54, Daily Telegraph & that pathetic Liberal rag the News Chronicle.