There were over 200 children in the first Millwall British School on the Isle of Dogs that was built in 1847.
With two teachers, in two classrooms, pupils learnt the Bible, reading, and writing – most couldn’t afford the extra fees for arithmetic.
The school was financed by local businessmen, stood in British Street opposite the present school on land which had been donated by the Countess of Glengall.
Pupils and teachers had to work hard against the relentless tide of noise from the rolling mills next door and the big shipyard across the road.
It was there, in the 1850s, that the towering framework of the iron-hulled steamship designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the SS Great Eastern rose up on the skyline.
The boys and girls could have watched its progress and mingled with the excited crowds on the several occasions when attempts were made to launch the giant ship.
Many of the boys moved on to work in the shipyard after a couple of years at school.
The girls in those days went into domestic service on the Island or further afield.
Later in the century, there were more opportunities for women’s work in the big food factories.
By that time, education was becoming more important to the national culture and economy and there were school places for every child – free by the 1880s.
It was compulsory too – no more long holidays hop-picking in the countryside.
Errant children and their parents were chased by the School Board Man and threatened with fines.
The first building on the present site of Harbinger School went up in 1871.
Three storeys high, with room for 700 boys, girls, and infants, it had 'double classrooms' to accommodate the English pupil-teacher system.
Glazed sliding doors allowed the certified teacher at one end to keep an eye on the pupil teacher at the other end.
The school was rebuilt in 1906-11 - the official date on the rear wall is 1908.
Then, as now, it was closely hemmed in on three sides by British Street (later Harbinger Road), Cahir Street and Marsh Street.
The playground at the front was enclosed by a row of buildings along Westferry Road.
There was St Cuthbert’s Church on the corner of Cahir Street, and then houses and shops as far as the corner of British Street which was the site of the original ‘Great Eastern Pub’, all helping to shield the classrooms from the noise of Westwood’s Engineering Works, which had moved into the former shipyard.
- Eve Hostettler (Island History News May/June 2008), for more from the Friends of Island History Trust: islandhistory.co.uk/
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