150 YEARS LATER

Emanuel’s iconic main building celebrated its 150th birthday in 2022. Our senior school librarian and archivist, Mr Jones, details its rich and varied history...

When the Royal Commission of the Patriotic Fund Boys’ School opened its doors in the autumn of 1872, its original purpose was to house and educate 180 boys orphaned by the Crimean and other wars. The building was designed by Henry Saxon Snell, a noted architect who specialised in health facilities, including many London hospitals and other public structures such as workhouses and mortuaries. Henry may have been surprised to find out that the Patriotic Boys’ School only functioned as an orphanage until December 1882, after which the inhabitants were dispersed to other institutions, with Emanuel School very promptly taking up residency in the building in January 1883. This was a moment of monumental significance in school history, marking the departure from its historic home in Wesminster, which was demolished a few years later.

The entire site cost £32,000 and the then-cash-strapped institution felt that relocating into a building which already accommodated boarding would mean that the required structural alterations would be minimal. The eleven-acre site also offered great potential for continued development when future funds became available.This was a fresh start for Emanuel, with new Headmaster the Reverend Arthur Towsey overseeing an initial school roll of 117, none of whom came from the old Westminster site. Initially most pupils boarded and by 1889 the roll had climbed steadily to 270. For much of the twentieth century this number fluctuated between 650-750, with the most recent decade seeing that figure swell beyond 1000, by far the highest in the school’s long history.

The dormitories were located on the first and second floors and housed between 22-28 beds. By the early twentieth century, boarding was in serious decline, with Wandsworth no longer as rural as it once was, and the dormitories morphing into the new House system, just over twenty years after Emanuel took residence. As the number of day pupils grew steadily, the dormitories were gradually converted into classrooms and by 1913 this era of school history was over.

The rest of the site has changed significantly more than the Saxon Snell building itself and, in 1883, there was a fraction of outlying buildings compared to the busy site of today. Some of the many consigned to history over the passing decades include the ‘old’ gym, the original Fives Courts, infirmary, pigsty, vegetable gardens, FirstWorld-War-style trenches, CCF obstacle courses, and the outdoor rowing tank.

1896 saw the first major extension to the Saxon Snell building when the Concert Hall was connected to the back of the structure, originally known as the ‘New’ Hall, then the ‘Old’ Hall, and eventually the Junior Dining Hall, before it became sole use of the Music Department in the mid-1990s. In 1907, the original school library was cleverly built above the toilets in the location which is now the Fiennes Theatre. The library remained relatively unchanged throughout its century long residency and when Headmaster Mark Hanley-Browne arrived in 2004 its redevelopment was one of his earliest targets, with this ambitious project radically redesigning the ground floor of the Saxon Snell building. The Buttery area (once a short cut that had since been glass-roofed over) and the Senior Dining Hall became parts of the library, with another courtyard being converted into the Marquand Room of the Library in a project completed in 2007.

In the early 1930s, the steeple was removed from the tower and in 1941 part of the structure was struck by a German bomb whilst the school was evacuated to Petersfield. By the late 1930s, most of the building had electricity and there was major expansion around the site, with the first Hampden Hall being built in 1937, the most ambitious project for several decades. The hall burned down in January 1957 but was quickly rebuilt by 1959 with the Pavilion Room and ‘old’ gymnasium (now the Dining Hall) as part of the upgrade.

The internal alterations within the Saxon Snell building itself are too numerous to list and the room numbering system has been changed several times. Were you to ask a pupil of today’s generation where ‘Room 22’ is, they would look at you with complete befuddlement! In 1970, the Dacre Building provided much-needed new classroom space, eventually being replaced by the ‘New’ Dacre Building in 2017.The new version was significantly larger and internally connects to both the Saxon Snell building and the Science Block.

All pupils now use their own personal devices, thus Computer Rooms 1 and 2 have been converted into classrooms. Only the very oldest alumni will ever remember taking a dip in the underground freezing cold swimming bath, which was underneath ‘Room 11’ close to the main toilet block, which was itself demolished in 2013 to facilitate the extension of the Fiennes Theatre. This was a complex conversion, which involved raising the roof and restructuring the foundations of the building, ultimately providing a 115-seat theatre.

The New Dacre Building was not the first time extensions had been connected to the original Saxon Snell building, with the Cyril Broom Science Block opening in 1980, significantly upgrading the laboratory facilities. Current pupils might also find it hard to believe that the area now occupied by M6 and M7 was once the home of both the kitchens and the rather exclusive Staff Dining Hall. There are very few staff remaining who remember the smell of cabbage wafting down the corridors!

When we lead tours of the buildings for OE reunions, we find that varying generations hone in on different changes. Those over the age of fifty are often amazed that the private studies, which were once for the sole use of the Head Boy and other senior pupils, are now office space for the Middle School Heads of Year! Of course, should the pupils of today return for the 200th anniversary of the Saxon Snell building in 2072 they are bound to be amazed by another host of developments. With old buildings, the only constant is change.