Earlier in the month we had a fantastic Historical Walking Tour of the school grounds for the annual Wandsworth Heritage Festival, led by the School Archivist. The weather was beautiful and our 45+ visitors thoroughly enjoyed their two-hour jaunt around the buildings and grounds. We were delighted to be joined by several OEs, parents, grandparents of current pupils, relatives of OEs from earlier generations, interested locals and others who had gone past the school for years on the train and could not pass up the opportunity for a chance to look around.
The Archivist enjoyed throwing questions at the OEs on the tour, all of which were on great form and contributed amusing anecdotes from their time at Emanuel. Everybody enjoyed the displays in the Goddard Room of the library and had a look around the permanent Archive Room. Two OEs who were chatting amongst themselves quickly realised they had been in the same year and had not seen each other in around fifty years! One of the accompanying photos is of a view which always impresses OEs, that of the distinctive stained glass Concert Hall (or Old Hall, New Hall or Junior Dining Hall, depending when the alumni attended Emanuel) which can now be strolled past from the top of the new Dacre building on the way to the science block. The crowd was so big that only a proportion of the visitors are visible in the photo.
We stopped in the Junior Library, pausing beside the giant poster of legendary English teacher Mr Charles Cuddon (who was known to moonlight as a part-time male model!) and took a quick snap of the OEs who had been taught by him. It was a very special moment as they all had positive memories of one of Emanuel’s most charismatic and long-serving teachers.
Our tours will return for London Open House on Saturday September 9th.
Tony Jones
School Archivist
