Today's location is lovely educational facility rotting away in a seemingly ordinary neighbourhood. Having closed its doors for good in 2011, guests were given no choice but to use the windows, and as such the place has had almost a decade of exposure to the elements.
It was getting late by the time we arrived and the sun was about to set. I hoped to make it quick, but this place is bloody gigantic.
It's a sad tale of redundancy. As a school it had a prosperous history, opening in 1912 and closing in 1989 when the school merged with another school, making the entire building unrequired. The local council gave it as a gift to a nearby college who used it as their art and design campus right up until 2011, when the college merged with another college and once again the building wasn't required. The college sold it to a property developer, who then proceeded to do absolutely nothing with it, much to the annoyance of the local council, who were miffed that they'd given something away, and the college had made money from it.
The boards around the main entrance are covered in graffiti. Here it says "School is over."
"I'm existing, not living." That's sad. You have my sympathy, but I can't say I relate. I'm more alive than I have ever been.
Years ago, students would have sat on these benches and socialised in their downtime.
While most of the college is single floored, a portion of it did have an upper floor, and none of the windows up there were baricaded. This proved to be a useful, albeit dangerous, means of entry. I told my survival instinct to look the other way while I continued my casual affair with Luck, and climbed up onto a flimsy rickety thing in order to reach and pull myself up onto another flimsy rickety thing. And once in, I was spoiled for choice! Where do I begin? Let's start at the front and work our way around the circular building.
This place has been completely trashed, but there are a few remnants scattered around that give us some idea of what it once looked like.
I have a level of resentment for the education system, largely because my school years were so horrendous, but also because I see it largely as indoctrination rather than education. If school teaches us anything, its obedience, uniformity and the ability to regurgitate information.
I think it's important to encourage creativity. Creativity is what makes the newsfeed fun to look at, and for many, it gives life meaning.
And while I'm thrilled that a college dedicated an entire campus to art and creativity, I also tend to find that art and academia rarely blend successfully. The world is full of brilliant people who made it far in life and claim that the best thing they ever did was drop out. But then there are some amazing people who create brilliant things, and still thrived in the system. I guess it all depends on the individual.
Personally I wasted college. I was not in the right mindset to decide what I wanted to do in the future. College is for aspiration and forward thinking. That's the whole point of it, to know what you want to be when you grow up. Whereas due to my childhood I lived on a more day-to-day basis. The handler didn't see us as small humans whose needs she was responsible for, but rather our needs were a massive inconvenience that interrupted her flirting or game of tetris. And often our meals would be dished out with an angry sigh, and we wouldn't be spoken to for several days for daring to inconvenience the womb bearer with our basic requirements. That was life for me as a child. That was normal. You don't develop lifelong aspirations when your earliest memories involve wondering if today's the day you're allowed to eat something. No, college served one very important role, and that was simply to get me out of the house. Aspirations came later. But I digress.
Technically is it trespass if I'm being welcomed in?
As mentioned, the college opened as a school waaay back in 1912, when the government decided that "the countrys prosperity depended on it giving the increasing number of children the knowledge and skills required by the professions and industries to develop a more cultural and socially aware society which enjoyed higher living standards" as quoted from their own 1902 manifesto.
The government cared about people? What planet is this???
Prior to 1912 this area was a massive meadow in a sparcely populated area. The educational needs were met by a tiny little place that opened in 1816, funded largely by the will of a wealthy man of the wool industry who wanted his money to be put towards educating poor children in Christian values. This school was a singular room suitable for sixty male students, with an attached chapel. The chapel was converted into a school room for girls in 1848, when someone said "You know, is the fact that they dont have several inches of tubular flesh to faciliate the removal of waste liquid really grounds for denying them an education?"
As the population in this area grew, the original school wasn't sufficient for the rising number of children, and as a result, a council meeting in 1908 announced that the old school would be replaced by one with the capacity for 250 students, with room for an extension if the student population was to grow.
Some creepy graffiti, probably from a former student.
These particular stairs lead up to a solitary room which I presume was a store room for the print room downstairs. It definitely feels like one of the older parts of the campus.
The floorboards have been pulled up for piping.
Back downstairs, the rest of the college sprawls out eerily and endlessly.
Because people love to grumble, the construction of this school was protested against, largely with the argument that this was an unneccesary spend of money.
Then they took to Twitter to whine about how offended they were, except they didn't, because Twitter wasn't around and people knew how to debate sensibly in the era before outrage culture.
Construction went ahead, and this school was built, with capacity for 309 students.
The toilets are still in better condition than the toilets in some pubs and clubs.
Although the toilets in some pubs and clubs don't often have scary pictures of people leering up at me from the floor.
So, from what I can tell, this was a graphics classroom. There's still coursework dotted around, some of it stuck to the walls.
The former students of the colleges last graphics class all have their names scrawled on the walls too, and there are a few touching farewell messages dotted around from the last students to use this classroom before closure. They'll be in their mid-twenties now, but their time here has been immortalised. At least until the bulldozers show up.
And this is how you know it was an art college- You don't see genitalia graffiti drawn with such detail anywhere else!
There are entire sketchbooks of coursework here, having clearly been set on fire at some point, but still mostly in good enough condition to have a flick through and appreciate.
I'm actually quite fond of this particular work.
According to my sources, the original Headmaster in 1912 was on an annual salary of £180, which is the modern equivalent of about £20,000 today, give or take the odd penny. The senior assistant in charge of the girls was paid a yearly salary of £95, equating to just over £10,000 today. In 1913, she married and moved to Australia.
As for the pupils, 318 children were on the register, but only 304 actually showed up. But students back then were awarded with half the day off for good attendance, so it sounds pretty sweet.
As expected, all the people who protested the schools construction were open with their criticisms, grumbling that the equipment was inadequate, the desks were too high, the ceiling was too low, the lighting was abysmal, and the playground lacked gender segregation. These are all actual complaints made in the schools first year, and only serves to prove a point- people will always grumble. This is actually worth keeping in mind, as it's prevalent throughout history- There were no "Good old days." People moaned then, and they moan now, and they sure will be moaning again. Maybe we should just start appreciating what we do have.
Naturally I take this mindset and apply it to todays outrage culture. We live in an era where everything we say is automatically offensive, even if we're agreeing with someone. I got called a bigot once because I said that the character "Anode" in the Transformers comics was annoying. Yeah... she's a fictional robot! You can't win against outrage culture. They will argue for the sake of arguing, turn on you at a moments notice, and judge your entire moral and political compass based on the way you sit. Best you can do is sit back and watch, sip your wine, and enjoy the show.
The classrooms are more or less the same, trashed, vandalised, and decorated with old student art work, and broken furniture.
For all the criticism in 1912, for not having a gender segregated play area, and whatnot, the school was actually ahead of its time, trying to be progressive as often as it could. Despite the complaints of inadequate equipment, they did try to order a sewing machine but this was denied by the educational committee who said that such contraptions had no place in a school environment. One wonders what they'd make of schools today.
In 1914, the male teaching staff were sent off to be extras in Blackadder Goes Forth, and to compensate the sudden low staff numbers, the school introduced student prefects to help out. But by this point, having been open for only two years, the reports were aready becoming more positive, complimenting the gardening done by the male students, and the cookery done by the female students, but it did criticise that there weren't any provisions for the boys to learn handicrafts.
However, during the first world war, the female students did start to take part in gardening lessons, something so monumental that the source material I'm referring to actually adds an exclamation mark to it.
The white board is propped up against the wall, and on taking a closer look, I was quite surprised to see that it still has writing on it from the last day of college, back in 2011.
The building closed early at 11am on November 11th 1918 to celebrate the armistice between the British and German troops, and on the 30th June 1919 the students enjoyed a half-day to celebrate the signing of the treaty of Versailles. Some might say that this was a premature celebration. After all, this was the treaty that threw Germany into the biggest economic recession in recorded history, in an attempt to ensure they'd never be a threat again, and we all know how that turned out. They were neither pacified nor satisfied, and certainly not permanently weakened. In fact it became a little ball of resentment perfectly malleable to the words of everyones favourite little facist.
Funilly enough, I found out while researching this that Remembrance Sunday was on November 11th, no matter what day of the week it was. They only moved it to the closest Sunday in 1948.
Two reports in the 1920s, one in 1921 and the other in 1924, talk about the great tone and energy of the school, describing the students as well mannered and happy. In 1926, the school was expanded to provide accomodation for the headmaster and the caretaker, but this was just the beginning of a series of changes and expansions.
The first manor change came in 1928. In an oddly regressive move, they introduced gender segregation, perhaps bending to complaints or maybe even responding to a specific incident. I havent found much that elaborates on why the decision was made. They split the school, even employing a female headteacher just for the girls. The Male section had 237 students while the female section had 170. Boys studied English Literature, Written Composition, Geography, Science, Maths, History and Woodwork, while the girls studied Cooking and Laundry, and all the other things that would make them into the ideal housewife, while also taking part in folk dance and choir competitions. The original headteacher, often credited for giving the place its warm atnosphere, retired in 1932. One wonders if these changes to how the school should be ran had any impact on his decision to call it a day.
The changes didn't last though, and in 1935 it opened once again as a mixed school. The new headmaster ruled over 550 students, and a whole new wave of developments took place, including the construction of a handicraft room, a domestic science room and a "housewifery" room.
Seemingly willing to push the boundaries somewhat, likely because of the ridiculous backwards steps taken in 1928, the school also began experimenting with gender roles in 1935, allowing the boys to do cookery and the girls to do woodwork. It was such a controversial move at the time that it attracted media attention and everything!
What is with societies fixation on reproductive organs? 1935 also marked the installation of the schools first telephone too, but where was the focus? On the fact that two young examples of the human species, each with hands and a brain, can both do cooking and woodwork in spite of having different genitalia. What is wrong with our species?
As expected, the curriculum changed in 1939 to include air raid precautions, for which the kids were each given their very own gas mask.
In the early months of World War 2, school was closed until further notice, presumably under the impression that hostilities would be a short period of inconvenience that everyone just had to endure before normal life could resume. A bit like Love Island. However, when everyone realised that the war was indeed going to be the status quo for the foreseeable future, the school reopened. However, lacking an air raid shelter, parents were told that school attendance was completely optional. And those who did attend found that their school day was interrupted pretty frequently by the air raid siren, due to it being situated near a city.
Here we have the cafeteria. This section of the school was actually made into an eatery in 1971. Presumably school meals weren't a regular feature beforehand, although they were introduced briefly during wartime when the majority of parents were spread a little too thin helping the war effort. However in 1944 a twelve year old boy simply dropped dead in the school, and having been perfectly fine earlier in the day, everyone was mystified. The reason, it turned out, was a chunk of apple lodged into his bronchial tube. It must have been quite a shocking experience for those involved, the students and the teachers. Nobody goes to school expecting one of the students to just die on the spot. Naturally this added a controversial touch to the whole concept of school meals, so much so that when they tried introducing the school meals again nearly thirty years later, they attracted media attention again.
Theres some rather creepy graffiti over the old serving hatch, which reads "If you look closely, you will see her..." I had a good look around, but I have no idea what this was referring to.
Same handwriting here. The cafeteria windows still have curtains, which is pretty cool.
The snack cupboard still has the names of the various chocolates on the shelves.
Here we have the old assembly hall. While it no doubt served a purpose during the college days, this hall has seen almost a century of children assemble here before class. And never being one to shy away from the unconventional, an entire morning assembly was done in French back in 1968. Presumably all the kids either knew enough French to follow, or they just smiled and nodded.
And there's some more college coursework here. This one seems to be more fashion orientated.
1946 brought about the introduction of parent-teacher evenings, and to the dread of all the children, the raising of the school leaving age. To accomodate more students, a nearby house was purchased, just so that they could have it demolished and expand the school onto it.
In regards to gender segregation, the curriculum was now almost identical, differing only with the sciences. While "Science" for the boys meant Chemistry and Physics, for the girls it meant Nature Studies and Human Physiology, so it wasn't quite at the point of equal opportunity yet. 1948 did see the addition of French to the curriculum, and then the second headmaster, having brought about all this progress, retured in 1951.
And then 1955 brought about another major change. Up until then, the school had been named after the street it faced, but educational authorities at the time decided that schools named after the street they were on was a little undignified for some reason, and that it was better to name them after the district they were in, instead.
It seems a little pointless.
So the school was renamed after a strip of land, which was first named as such in 1782. At that point it was owned by a lawyer who claimed descent from Edward III.
This actually isn't a huge claim to make. King Eddie had numerous illegitimate children, what with there being no Jeremy Kyle to shout at him in front of a judgemental audience.
The original construction was expanded upon extensively. In 1956 the school had around 680 pupils, and further extensions had to be built. Rather oddly, the school built upwards in one of its more unusual developments situating moder brutalist architecture on top of the existing 1912 structure. It's up these stairs, but we'll come back to that. As you might be able to tell from the pictures, the sun is starting to set. It will be dark soon, and I've only seen half the building.
There's a mannequin arm left casually on a shelf. The rest of the body was sadly absent.
Some more coursework.
The white board reads "Welcome to the new Knit workshop."
Here a former student Ethan has a rather touching moment, as he tells us that while he didn't always show it, he had the best year ever in this college, all thanks to Chris, Steve, and Eve. Awww. Isn't that nice? And someone went and added a willy for good measure.
Here are some portraits of "Awesome peeps."
Ethans starting to irritate me now. Cocky little brat...
Over on the white board, the graffiti continues. Someone really likes Eve!
I guess with the college closing, and numerous students sneaking back in to write their final goodbyes on the wall, it's inevitable that some of the unspoken college crushes get vented here too.
Or were they unspoken? Well, they wouldn't be scribbled on a wall if they were said in person, let's be honest.
Check this out! It's so weird that all this college work is still here!
As a school, they had trips to France and also exchanges with French students. The school also celebrated Bastille Day in 1989, in honour of a turning point in the French Revolution. This had boules competitions, a can-can competition and more morbidly, lines of kids queueing up to use a replica guillotine.
Also rather morbidly, in 1983 the school introduced an award, named after a former student who died serving in the military. The award was given out to any student who showed determination or a tenacious sense of purpose. I can see what they're trying to do, honouring a war hero and all that, but if I was given that award, I'd feel like the school was just saying to me "Here kid, it's great that you have passion. Here's something to remind you of the other kid who had passion. He was shot."
The second-to-last headmaster stepped down in 1989, only to be replaced just in time for the school to close. The replacement must have been miffed. However given that the school closed due to merging with another, he probably still stayed in employment.
It's now dark outside, but I'm not done yet. The entire front portion and upper floors are still undiscovered. This seems to be an old computer area, given that theres a sign requesting that computer users shut down when they're done.
Here's the old staff office, trashed but still furnished.
Some of the graffiti reads silly things like "Run while you can" which I've seen a hundred times before in other locations, but there's also some more poetic graffiti here.
"Here lies a school of broken dreams and hollowed screams, and penail friends."
At first I thought they'd misspelled Penial, and were refering to their friends as dicks, and maybe thats exactly what they are doing! But this was still an art campus, and PeNail appears to be a brand of paintbrush. Maybe it's a clever duel meaning!
This is by far my favourite part of the college, exposed to the elements, the ceiling collapsing, and nature getting in. It's also where we happened to find an odd set of custom playing cards which seem to have some kind of Illuminati or occult vibe.
I have no idea what any of this means, but I am intrigued.
Here's some early promotional material for the new Mary Poppins sequel. It was pretty brutal.
Of course, they did the typical mistake, and drew a Jewish star instead of a pentragram.
Stupid kids are only gonna summon Jesus instead of the Devil. Just let Jesus sleep, okay? Bad enough everyone keeps blaming their silly agendas on him, but the only time anyone calls him, it's because they got the wrong number. He must be pretty depressed.
Who is Nick Green? Also notice that this is the same writing as seen in the cafeteria?
Nature is really creeping in here, giving the whole place a post-apocalypse vibe.
I think someone kept their memory stick here. It's long gone.
And here we have the old reception area, which is oddly decorated with pictures of screaming children...
And here we are finally venturing upstairs. The college is circular, so the middle area, the only accessible outdoor part except for the way we came in, is a massive jungle. In the dark that was far more creepier than the building itself.
Obviously in these upper floors, we were forced to use our torches sparingly. The college is situated in a residential area, so anyone who happened to glance out of their window would know that there was someone in here.
Not that intrusion is particularly uncommon.
There is so much art work up here though. It's kinda sad that someone put loads of effort into all of this, and now it's just left up here.
But it sure is weird that with all the trespass, none of this has been ruined.
Has someone tried to build a skate ramp?
The college merged with another in 2011, and as such no longer had use for this art campus, closing it in 2011 and then selling it to developers in 2013 for around 3.5 million.
The council didnt take the sale well- they didn't appreciate giving a community asset away for free, only for it to then be sold. Certain members of the council are now seeking legal action, although I can't imagine they'll get very far. Look at it this way- If I was to give you a laptop as a gift and you then sold it, I really think that's more of a case of me missing an opportunity than you wronging me. In my opinion the council are just bitter because someone else was more commercially astute.
The money has, allegedly, gone to improving the existing college, but the council in all their glory think that the 3.5 million is rightfully theirs.
It's a sad contrast to the mindset that led to this school being built in the first place. In 1912, the government acknowledged the need for better educational facilities, and in 2019 the council are angry that a college has sold some of its assets in order to fund some improvements.
As for the derelict college, the development has so far ranged from slow to non-existent, tending to go as far as saying what they'd like to do with the place, but then not doing it. One particular thing that holds them back is the presence of badgers, who would need to be rehomed before anything takes place.
Plans were put forward to demolish the entire thing and build 59 homes on the land but these plans were protested against due to the traffic congestion, and after being ignored by the developers for some time, the community finally won. The college still sits derelict.
To be honest though, the company that wants to build those 59 houses has several groups on Facebook dedicated to exposing their shoddy quality, and all the corners they cut when building things, so maybe the community is better off with their derelict college.
But they are aware that the college is prone to regular trespass, and some people have been injured, including someone who was hospitalised after accidentally cutting their forearm on some broken glass in 2017. Ideally the locals would like to see the place demolished. Its accepted 100% that something needs to be done but the proposed 59 house development was considered a little too much, given traffic issues.
The oldest part of the school, it's suggested, could be saved and turned into something useful.
I'll finish on this view from the college of the nearby city looming in the distance.
To conclude, it's sad to see so much art work just abandoned, and it's touching to see so much student graffiti actually reflecting back on the good times that were had here. But given that it played such a strong historic role on the local area, it would be a shame to see it turned into just another housing estate.
Anyway, share this blog where you want. Next time I'm celebrating my 200th blog post over on the main blog, "Shrewsbury from where you are not" and then I'm back here for a derelict builders merchants that I stumbled across on my travels.
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Thanks for reading!
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