I am delighted to see that the old school is now looking very good after years of virtual dereliction.
I believe it now deserves to have a plaque declaring its significance to the people of Wandsworth.
St Mark's school educated many generations of local children for about a hundred years (including former pupils such as Barbara Windsor, who lived in Prefabs built nearby just after WWI [below]).
In its very early days, it was a meeting centre for the many activists engaged in preserving Wandsworth Common, at a time when it seemed as though the Common would disappear under a tidal wave of housing.
One of the most locally celebrated events of the Preservation Campaign of the 1860s and early 1870s came in ???, when young Samuel Sullings, a local sawyer who had been imprisoned for 6 months for breaking down fences that obstructed traditional footpaths onto the Common that had been blocked by ? Costeker.
When finally he was released, after a local campaign, he was feted with a party at the School, as described in local newspapers and the memoir of leading campaigner John Buckmaster. (Buckmaster Road is opposite the school, on the other side of Battersea Rise.)
— John Buckmaster on Costeker & Clarke
— John Buckmaster on Samuel Sulllings
— survey-st-Marks-church-and-school.html
— Link
— Link
— Link
— Link
I am delighted to read that the old St Mark's Infant School, in a desperate state for so long, could soon be repaired and enhanced.
For more information, see Cyril Richert's recent blog in the Clapham Junction Insider ("Interesting plan for the restoration of the old church school in Battersea Rise", 19 June 2023 ).
This little school is of extra interest to enthusiasts for Wandsworth Common because Samuel Sullings, our very own martyr, was feted there on his release from prison in July 1870:
WANDSWORTH COMMON.
Samuel Sullings, who was imprisoned with hard labour for breaking down fences on Wandsworth-common, and subsequently released on a memorial presented to the Home Secretary by Sir C. W. Dilke M.P., was entertained by a number of his fellow workmen at the Infant School, Battersea, on the 9th inst.
Sullings appeared in a new suit of clothes, hat, and boots, which were paid for by a few friends. The workmen have made a subscription, which will placed in the Post-offce Savings Bank.
Mr. Churchwarden Buckmaster occupied the chair, and made a speech, in which he endeavoured to show that those who had erected the fences were more guilty than Sullings; and the idea saying to poor men, when their rights and enjoyments were taken away by rich people, that if they felt aggrieved they could proceed by action at law or indictment, was simply adding insult to injustice. (Cheers.)
The chairman then referred to various matters connected with the common, and expressed a hope that would not again be necessary for poor working men to suffer imprisonment in defence of what they believed to be their rights; he looked with hope and confidence to the result the forthcoming City meeting.
Three cheers for Mr. Buckmaster, three groans for those who had enclosed the common, and a vote of thanks for the vicar for allowing the use of the schoolroom, concluded the proceedings.
[BNA: Link]
I don't remember much about what we did [at school]. The only thing I do remember, is I do remember on the first day crying because my friend Penny Jones, who lived next door, was a year older than me so she was in the other class and so we weren't together. So I do remember, I do remember crying the first day.
RP: Did you have a uniform?
BW: No.
RP: And did they give you lunch, did you stay?
BW: Well, no, no. Because I just literally could walk through the fence and go home. But what you did have was a third of a pint of milk. Yes. And you know, that's the sound of the milk bottles, clattering and sticking straws in and all that. Yes, I remember that, but I must have gone home. No, I mean, the school was so small it wouldn't have had any facilities to give you lunch at all.
["Windsor, Barbara final master for Emma.docx" or" Windsor, Barbara final master for Emma.pages".]
From April 2022 Chronicles Link
A young man named Sullings was yesterday brought before the police magistrate at Wandsworth, and charged, together with other persons, more than 300 in number, with breaking down the fence of a garden on Wandsworth Common, and destroying the trees and vegetables. This proceeding arose out of a movement to resist any further encroachments upon the common. The ground in question had not been enclosed till 1868, but the complainant alleged that he bought a right to it from Earl Spencer in 1836. Defendant was fined 40s., with £15, the amount of damage.
[BNA: Link.]
Samuel Sullings, aged about 20 or 21, normally a sawyer in Essex but at this time a local gardener, couldn't afford the fine, and he was sent to prison for six months — at the Wandsworth House of Correction.
A poor man is now suffering six months' imprisonment with hard labour for breaking down fences on Wandsworth Common, which obstructed the use of an old-established footpath.
[BNA: Link.]
54
St Mark's Church and School, Battersea Rise
St Mark's Church, among Battersea's foremost buildings, was erected to designs by William White in 1873–4. Though planned before the Rev. J. Erskine Clarke was Battersea's vicar, it became the first fruit of his local campaign for church-extension and his long partnership with White.
It was preceded by a school, empty at the time of writing, tucked into a corner of the church site. This was built in 1866–7 as St Mary's Infant School and designed by Benjamin Ferrey.
In 1865 J. S. Jenkinson, then Vicar of Battersea, consulted the 5th Earl Spencer about how his growing parish might be subdivided. Jenkinson preferred a new chapel of ease for St Mary's to a separate district church, and mentioned a site 'near the cemetery' which he asked Spencer to come and consider with him. As Jenkinson noted that those who were 'very tenacious of common rights' would need placating, the site was probably the present one, then common land.192 For the time being, however, this proposal took a back seat in favour of a school.
55
The pressure for school accommodation in St Mary's parish prompted Jenkinson to procure from Spencer in 1866 the gift of a triangle of land on the edge of Battersea West Common. Its 285ft frontage to Battersea Rise comprised more than was immediately needed, so the church was evidently in mind. But the deed of transfer mentions only a school, to be erected for teaching the poor children of Battersea.193
By February 1867 the school was complete. It was designed by Benjamin Ferrey, built by Charles Jarrett and mostly paid for by the local philanthropic stockbroker, Philip Cazenove. It consisted of one large schoolroom with a single classroom attached.194 The school is a pretty miniature in stock brick with red brick bands, a tiled roof and half-hipped gables; a hexagonal bell turret disappeared long ago (Ill. 3.47a).
It was at first called St Mary's School, but because of confusion with the parish school in Vicarage Crescent (page xxx) this was soon changed to St Mark's. According to Erskine Clarke, the name was chosen for the pragmatic reason that only one letter had to be changed in the inscription over the principal window.195 Sunday services were held here when the building was new. It ceased use as a school in the 1960s.
Early in 1868 Jenkinson and his ally Cazenove were ready to go on with the church project . . .
[Detailed description of St Mark's Church follws.]
61
By 2000 the parish sought better accommodation for its activities, claiming that the congregation had increased more than tenfold. The architects Timpson Manley brought forward a scheme proposing new buildings south and north of the church. White's church hall was to be replaced by a larger building abutting against the north aisle and transept, while Ferrey's redundant school was also to be cleared away in favour of a 'lighthouse' building at the angle of Battersea Rise and Boutflower Road, and a glass link into the south transept.
The northern element proved less controversial, though details were contested by the planning authorities and amenity societies. The southern building proved contentious; the listing of the old school in 2001 scuppered that element of the scheme. Timpson Manley's revised project incorporating the school was not proceeded with. The north-side building was finally carried out to fresh designs by BCP Architects in 2005–7. It includes ample open space at the level of the church, and a glass-clad front towards Boutflower Road.224 The southern element has not been pursued further at the time of writing, and the school building remains derelict.
On 20 Feb 2025, at 13:35, kwindsor@keme.co.uk wrote:
Hello, Philip,
Just a few memories from my Battersea days — nothing of any great significance, but I'm probably one of the last pupils to have gone to the school not long after the Second World War.
We lived in the prefabs adjacent to St Mark's Church, Battersea Rise from about 1946 to 1956, having moved from my grandmother's house in Brixton and being prioritised with new housing after the war because my father had been in the RAF. Our address was actually 20 St Mark's Bungalows, although they were always known as prefabs.
It was very convenient to start my school years a mere two-minute walk away from home and I attended St Mark's Infant School from around 1948/49 until 1950/51 prior to going to Belleville Road Primary School when I was around seven.
I have a very vivid memory of the school room, the two classes divided across the middle by I'm pretty sure, a curtain, and a large central fire enclosed by a railed safety guard. Miss Carter was the headmistress assisted by Miss Webb. I have a vague memory of standing in front of the fire and being awarded a prize and I suppose when I get round to sorting out vast amounts of memorabilia, there might be some evidence of this somewhere!
It doesn't happen these days, but the school bell was rung in the morning, calling children to school. Boys and girls were taught together, but when it came to playtime, girls were in the tiny playground adjacent to Battersea Rise and boys were in the one alongside Comyn Road. We were issued with cardboard pencil boxes, played with sand and had a choice of several basic musical instruments to experiment with. And of course in those days, a third of a pint of milk at playtime — I think the cod liver oil capsules came later! I can remember writing the date 1949 when I would have been five.
She also wrote:
