Building    To 1872

Enfield school-house / station

Categories: Education, Property, Transport

the V&A (our picture source) hold in their collection part of the façade of this building (not just the photo but the bricks themselves). Alamy have a photo of the saved section of the façade erected inside a building, presumably the V&A. The section is that of the central first floor including the segmental pediment.

The V&A write: "This brick house frontage was possibly built by or for Edward Helder, a bricklayer (d. 1672), after the designs of Sir Christopher Wren (1632-1723). It formed part of the school-house in which the poet John Keats received the greater of his education (about 1803-1810). At a later date {the plaque says 1849} the building became part of Enfield Railway Station. The station was demolished in 1872; the façade however was saved, and originally purchased for the Structural Collection of the Science Museum, then part of the South Kensington Museum."

Literary By-Paths in Old England by Henry C Shelley is quoted by Alamy, as follows:  "Cowden Clarke, the son of the master of the school, narrates that it had been built by a West India merchant in the latter end of the seventeenth or beginning of the eighteenth century. It was of the better character of the domestic architecture of that period, the whole front being of the purest red brick, wrought by means of moulds into rich designs of flowers and pomegranates, with heads of cherubim over niches in the centre of the building. Because it was such an excellent example of the early Georgian facade of Keats's Schoolhouse domestic architecture, and not because it formed part of the building in which Keats was educated, the façade of this Enfield schoolhouse escaped the usual fate of demolished bricks and mortar, and may now be seen in an annex of the South Kensington Museum, London..."

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

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Enfield school-house / station

Commemorated ati

John Keats - Enfield

The house which stood on this site was built in the late 17th century. Later ...

Read More

Keats, D'Israeli, Clarke at Enfield

According to Enfield Borough this plaque, together with the remaining plaque,...

Read More

Other Subjects

Bushra Nasir

Bushra Nasir

Studied at Queen Mary University and in 1997 became the first Muslim headteacher of a state school, Plashet School for Girls in East Ham.

Person, Education

1 memorial
Bedford College for Women, University of London

Bedford College for Women, University of London

Founded by Elizabeth Jesser Reid as the Ladies College, the first higher education college for women.  In 1900 it became part of the University of London and in 1913 moved to larger purpose built p...

Group, Education, Gender Issues

2 memorials
Westfield College

Westfield College

Founded in 1882 by Constance Louisa Maynard and Ann Dudin Brown, as a residential women's college modelled on women's colleges already established in Oxford and Cambridge. The name probably came fr...

Group, Education, Gender Issues

3 memorials
William Ward (benefactor)

William Ward (benefactor)

Merchant in the City of London. Founded City of London School for Girls. In his will, dated 3 June 1881, left £20,000 to the City of London towards a girls' high school, the residue 'to be applied...

Person, Education

1 memorial
Bedford Charity

Bedford Charity

Created by a gift of land by Sir William Harpur to the corporation of Bedford. A merchant from Bedford he had come to London and done so well that he was Lord Mayor in 1561. The following year he p...

Group, Education

1 memorial

Previously viewed

World Cup

World Cup

International football competition, founded by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). Apart from 1942 and 1946, it has been held every four years since its inception. Origina...

Event, Sport / Games

2 memorials