Plaque

Chauncy Hare Townshend Schools - war damage

Erection date: 1953

Inscription

Destroyed by enemy action in the year 1944, the top floor of these schools was rebuilt in 1953, the year of the coronation of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
S. Burdett-Coutts Esq., Chairman of the Foundation

This plaque is on the central cotagey-looking building which looks undamaged. While the tall, three-storey building to the left looks very much like its top floor might have been rebuilt in 1953.

Site: Chauncy Hare Townshend Schools and St Stephen's extension (3 memorials)

SW1, Rochester Street

The central, rather cottagey, building has both CHT plaques, the terracotta plaque to the left of the entrance and the war damage plaque to the right.

The church extension is to the right of the school in rather cleaner stonework with the plaque below the Gothic window.

The website of the school helps us to understand the school plaques. "In the early 1840s, the Bishop of London informed the Dean and Chapter of Westminster that Miss Burdett-Coutts had approached him with a proposal to build a church and school in Westminster in memory of her father and that she would like this memorial to be the centre-piece of a new parish bearing the name of St. Stephen. The area he had in mind was then one of the worst slums in London; an area bounded by Rochester Street, Rochester Row, Vincent Square, and Bell (now Elverton) Street.

There were originally three schools: a boys school, a girls school and an infant school (called Townshend Foundation). In 1849, the main school was built and on 21st August, 1907, the combined schools became the Burdett-Coutts and Townshend Foundation School, Rochester Street."

It's not clearly stated but we imagine that the cottagey building was the Townshend Primary school, and that the large, tall building to the left housed the boys and girls schools.

2024: Liz Cooke wrote to say that the cottagey building, now let out to tenants, was built as the school-keeper’s house, not as the primary school. That caused us to look more closely at these buildings and we see that, despite the detailing on the front elevation, the large entrance around which both CHT plaques are placed is actually part of the large tall building to the left, not part of the cottagey building to the right. This is made clear in this 1901 Goad insurance map which also shows that the large building to the left was originally 2½ stories high.

That map also shows that the eastern end of the large building was always sectioned off so we think that might have been the infant school.

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This section lists the subjects commemorated on the memorial on this page:
Chauncy Hare Townshend Schools - war damage

Subjects commemorated i

Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II

Queen Elizabeth II.  A London Inheritance's post 2nd June 1953 – Coronation D...

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World War 2

Sorry, we've done no research on WW2, it's just too big a subject. But do vis...

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This section lists the subjects who helped to create/erect the memorial on this page:
Chauncy Hare Townshend Schools - war damage

Created by i

S. Burdett-Coutts

Chairman of Governors of the Burdett-Coutts and Townshend Foundation School i...

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This section lists the other memorials at the same location as the memorial on this page:
Chauncy Hare Townshend Schools - war damage

Also at this site i

Chauncy Hare Townshend Schools

Chauncy Hare Townshend Schools

The Chauncy Hare Townshend Schools The Baroness Burdett-Coutts, the Revd. Tho...

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St Stephen's extension

St Stephen's extension

St Stephens was erected in 1847-9, designed by Benjamin Ferrey, and funded by...

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