Plaque

Chauncy Hare Townshend Schools

Erection date: 13/9/1876

Inscription

The Chauncy Hare Townshend Schools
The Baroness Burdett-Coutts, the Revd. Thomas Helmore, executors and devisees of the Revd. Chauncy Hare Townshend erected these schools as a memorial of friendship and in furtherance of his pious wish.
This corner stone was laid by their friend Hannah, widow of William Brown Esq. MD. on the 13th day of September 1876.

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.

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

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

Subjects commemorated i

Baroness Angela Georgina Burdett-Coutts

One of the great Victorian philanthropists who sought to rid London of its sl...

Read More

Revd. Thomas Helmore

Choir-master and hymn-writer. Born Kidderminster. Died at home in Pimlico.

Read More

Chauncy Hare Townshend

Collector, dilettante, ordained clergyman, mesmerist, and hypochondriac (list...

Read More

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

Created by i

Hannah Brown

Mrs Hannah Brown was Angela Burdett-Coutts' governess and long-time companion...

Read More

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

Also at this site i

Chauncy Hare Townshend Schools - war damage

Chauncy Hare Townshend Schools - war damage

This plaque is on the central cotagey-looking building which looks undamaged....

Read More

St Stephen's extension

St Stephen's extension

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

Read More

Nearby Memorials

James Maxwell - WC2

James Maxwell - WC2

WC2, Strand

James Clerk Maxwell FRS King's College London Professor of Natural Philosophy, 1860 - 65 The Institute of Physics

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
Highgate Cemetery - Fire - R15 - Faust & Meere

Highgate Cemetery - Fire - R15 - Faust & Meere

N6, Swain's Lane, Highgate Cemetery

The plot consists of 36 graves acquired by the London Fire Brigade Widows and Orphans Fund (founded in1882 by Massey Shaw, who, probably ...

2 subjects commemorated
Victor Weisz

Victor Weisz

W1, Welbeck Street, Welbeck Mansions, 35a

Plaque actually on New Cavendish Street

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
RMS Titanic Engineers

RMS Titanic Engineers

SE10, Park Row, National Maritme Museum

The memorial was originally displayed in the foyer of the Institute of Marine Engineers memorial building at 76 Mark Lane in the City of ...

37 subjects commemorated, 2 creators
River Effra - Vassall Road

River Effra - Vassall Road

SW9, Vassall Road

The hidden River Effra is beneath your feet.

1 subject commemorated, 3 creators

Previously viewed

W. G. Ifould

W. G. Ifould

Resident of the Central Ward, Hendon who served and died in WW1.

Person, Armed Forces

War dead, WW1
1 memorial
J. L. Poujol

J. L. Poujol

J. Lyons & Co. Ltd. staff member who died in WW1.

Person, Armed Forces

War dead, WW1
1 memorial
John Henry Buxton

John Henry Buxton

Our colleague, Andrew Behan, did some searching and at the Cambridge Alumni Database he found a John Henry Buxton who was a trustee of the Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Associati...

Person, Benefactor

3 memorials
C. Adams
War dead, WW1
1 memorial
Alfred James Hipkins

Alfred James Hipkins

Born 22 Medway Street, Westminster. Writer on musical instruments. An excellent pianist with little musical training. He gave over forty recitals at the Great Exhibition of 1851. Died Kensington.

Person, Music / songs

1 memorial