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Children in a classroom in the 1930s

Can anyone name any of those children in the picture?

I know that Pat Lettres is back row extreme left. Is it Keith Buxton sitting next to him?

Has anyone got any particular memories of the school?

Pelham Street School in the 1930s
From a private collection

Comments about this page

  • I went to Pelham Street Infants School in the 1950s. I remember Miss Coe was the headmistress and another of the teachers was a Miss Gabitas. I remember we went on a day trip to Chessington Zoo and all had to wear labels.

    By Carol Hardy (07/11/2007)
  • The little lad sitting immediately in front of Patrick Lettres is Stanley Dixon who lived on Over Street. He had a brother Ronnie, now deceased, who worked at Allen West. After he left school Stanley became a telegram boy and spent the rest of his working life with the Post Office. He now lives in Portslade.

    By John Wall (11/12/2007)
  • I started school at Pelham Street. about 1930-31. I remember writing on slate boards with a special pencil, then later using paper and pencil. If we broke our pencil we had to write with our finger nail! Sorry I don’t remember any names from that era.

    By Rita Buckrell (08/02/2008)
  • I went to Pelham Street School in the 40s, probably around 1948. I can’t remember anything much about it and would love to hear comments from others who went to the school around that time and who may jog my memory.

    By Sandra Waite nee Newman (16/03/2008)
  • I was there in the 1930s, and remember one of the teachers was a Mr Ingham, who was a bit of a bully. Not a very nice school!

    By Gordon Hickman (04/10/2008)
  • I attended Pelham Street School from 1934-1936 when I progressed to St.Bart’s Junior School in Providence Place. I am in the photo above and think that I still have it – somewhere. I remember a large coir mat in the entrance to the school which, when removed, revealed a large cellar type room in which was kept caretakers equipment which included bags of sawdust used quite often when a small pupil was sick. My maternal grandparents lived at No.17 Pelham Street which was constructed of pebbles and which looked similar to that shown as No 2 Pelham St. No16, in which my parents lived from 1939 until it was demolished to make way for the construction of the College. No 16 & 17 were a pair of semi’s which I always understood were built
    before before No 3 to 15 were constructed as ‘fill ins’. No 3 was occupied by my paternal grandmother.

    By James Redbourn (24/02/2009)
  • I lived in St Peters Street and both myself and my brother John went to Pelham Street Infants. I started in 1952 and stayed in the nursery class, as it was called then, for two years because my mother was in hospital. I too remember Miss Gabertash and Miss Coo. I also remember Mrs Lewis, I think she was the nursery class teacher. I recall that Miss Gabbertash lived on the Falmer Road at Woodingdean, long before the Council houses were built beyond the Downs Hotel. We went there one day for tea, I remember.

    By Ken Bishop (24/10/2009)
  • I was at Pelham Street in the 1950 and left summer of 1959. The only teacher I remember at that time was the PE teacher Miss Collins and the only name that comes to mind in full is June Busby! I just remember not wanting to leave on the last day, it was a great school.

    By June Oxborrow (nee Barnard) (08/04/2010)
  • I attended Pelham School from 1951 – 1955 in the Senior School. Miss Stubbs was the Headmistress – very strict, as were all the teachers – especially Miss Keysey. She was every pupil’s nightmare. I enjoyed my time at Pelham and was a Prefect. Happy memories.

    By Elizabeth (Bertha) Byrne (25/04/2010)
  • I sarted at Pelham Street in 1956 at under 4 years old. Headmistress, Miss Webster, who smacked the back of my legs on the first day. The lovely nurse was Miss Scott. She wore a full skirted overall in pale green. I believe Miss Jupp was my first teacher, so kind. She recognised me on a bus when I was 20 and spoke to me. Mrs Smith was the next teacher who gave me an old penny wrapped in silver paper so the class would think I had half a crown, this was for sitting up straight during story time. Not a very helpful thing to do, it did not help with the bonding of classmates. Later I was taught by her when I was 13, old enough to understand her methods were cruel. Pelham Street School was were I first fell in love, Andre Welch. I used to have a photograph of myself in class with a pink and blue tri-ang pushchair that said Mum-Ma when pushed. Also in the photo was Dennis Vaughan dressed in full cowboy gear, sitting on a metal horse on springs. I can almost smell the place as I type. The swing in the playground tucked around the corner, the little green canvas camp beds where we had our afternoon naps,(they stopped me sucking my thumb). Jealousy rearing its ugly head for the first time, a pretty blonde girl who I hit, her crime, wearing an angora knitted bolero with silver thread running through. Stop me I’m on a roll. I end with the end of my first day, Mum meeting me, I am siting in the playground, my thick brown hair having escaped it’s ties, my pleated skirt with straps having had it’s buttons pulled of by a boy who was behind me whilst enacting The Big Ship Sails On The Ally Ally Oh. Not forgetting my hand-me-down, brown, lace-up shoes with blakies on the heels that made me do the splits on the wooden corridor floors, hurting my under-carriage. Oh Mother, sanctuary, take me home … Horror as I am informed I must come back the next day. Life will never be the same.

    By Jean Sutton (03/07/2010)
  • Hi Jean, Dennis Vaughan is my uncle and I am trying to put together the family tree. Would it be possible to have a copy of the photograph you mention? Many thanks, Jenene.

    By Jenene Craven (25/07/2010)
  • I attended this school from 1946 to 1949 but cannot remember much about my time there other than having to sleep on rush mats on the floor every late morning. No recollection of teachers but I remember one lunch time running with the other children to a lock up garage in St Peter’s Street to see a man dead hanging from a rafter with a crowd all around gawping. The way home from school (up the hill to Buckingham Road with no parent – you were on your own in those days) was via Cheapside with the smell of soot in the air from the still bombed out houses near the the railway station. I was invited by a school friend for tea in her house one day after school. Her name was Daphny Dicks. I never saw her again after that. (See recollections on Stanford Road School)

    By Brian Whipp (25/04/2011)
  • Jenene Craven would like to contact you regarding family tree. Thanks, Helene

    By Helene Derkin (05/11/2011)
  • My mother Patricia Davis and her older sister Barbara were both at this school at this time. I still have my mother’s school reports, she loved it here and didn’t want to leave.

    By Karen Bryant (07/08/2013)
  • I was a pupil of class 3b 1938 (have photo). Miss Short was our teacher.

    By A.E.Steward (07/03/2018)
  • I think my dad Victor Fleet and probably his younger brother Brian, attended Pelham Street infants’ school. It would have been in the late 1920s as he was born in 1923. He lived in Viaduct Road and as a boy sang in the choir at St Bartholomews Church. My dad passed away in October 2021 aged 98.

    By Susan Wilton (06/06/2022)

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