John Evelyn Primary School

The school was constructed in the 1870's and opened in 1875. It was a fine example of victorian architecture with its tall windows and beautiful parquet flooring.

The Street layout from 1875 was different in many ways to today. Duke Street ran parallel to Evelyn Street and the original name of the school I believe was Duke Street school. Later Duke Street became Alverton Street and the school changed its name also to Alverton Street school in 1919, before finally settling on John Evelyn School in 1930. The flagstone ( see left ) clearly shows Alverton Street school as an earlier name, this was located on the west face of the building and can be seen in the picture of the school taken from Evelyn Street.

"This was a Public Elementary school receiving a Government grant. It opened on the 1 February 1875, following the 1869 Education Act, and could accommodate 243 boys, 231 girls and 309 infants. Apparently, the school had 3 floors with the infants on the ground, boys in the middle and the girls on the top floor." Peter Bradley

The whole area to the south and east of the school has changed dramatically. Hundreds of houses existed to the south of the school and were similar, but also inferior, in construction to the houses in Rolt Street, Etta Street and Gosterwood Street that still exist today. These houses were demolished in the 1960's to make way for the Evelyn Estate. Dorking Road and Shere Road are gone altogether. From the ordnance survey maps ( see pictures ) it can be seen that the playground of the school originally contained housing as well. In 1972 the Infants School was built next to John Evelyn School. In the process Alverton Street was cut in two, now joining only Etta Street and Gosterwood Street on one side of the infants and becoming an extension of Rolt Street on the other side. The Infants School was named John Evelyn Infants School, possibly to take infants away from the main school, but this is not certain yet. The head of this school Mrs Ann Rosen was there from its opening, later to become Head of the Primary School - replacing Mrs Broad in 1978.

"I believe that the infants school was built because of the rise in families moving onto the newly built estate opposite the school. Many of the occupants of the streets that were demolished (Shere Road, Dorking Road and one side of Rolt Street) remained in the area so the population increased. The closest infant school being Grinling Gibbons could not cope with the influx of children coming into the area so a new building had to be erected as a 'permanent' structure to replace the portacabins that had been erected in the late 1960s at the end of the old girls playground. I can remember seeing the council plans for the site when they were published in Deptford Old Town Library for the construction of the infants school @ 1971- ish . I even remember the plans for the demolision of the surrounding streets (Shere,Dorking and Rolt) being published in the Old Town Library and at Deptford Town Hall, New Cross @ 1964-65.The surrounding streets that were demolished languished for about a year and a half and were in a very dangerous state (for today's pc standards) before any work was started. Deep craters (@ 6-10 ft deep) as deep as any 'minor' Nazi bomb damage existed until the water and gas mains were deemed safe by the newish Lewisham council. Deptford Council had only been swallowed up by Lewisham Council a few years earlier (@ 1966?). " Lee Kluth

The Primary and Infants school combined into one, under one head teacher - Mrs Rosen. From Autumn 1978 the top floor of the old building ceased to be used by the school. By the start of the 1979 term both the first and second floor were no longer used and were reallocated to South East London College as an Annexe. The ground floor was still used along with the substantial playground. At the start of term 1980 the school relinquished the ground floor as well to the North Lewisham Secondary Schools support unit while the top two floors saw the Ravensbourne Adult Education Institute move in. Again the playground continued to be used by the primary & infants which was now entirely housed in the new building.

With pupil numbers continuing to dwindle the Infants building finally closed in 1986 as a primary & infants school and saw the end of Mrs Rosen's reign as head teacher. The Infants school then became Clyde Street Day Care School for very young nursery age children and effectively both buildings ceased to teach Primary education any more. It is unclear where the pupils went after this and who exactly continued to use the old building but it may have continued as an Adult Education centre for a few years afterwards.

John Evelyn School was finally Demolished in 1994? as part of the Evelyn Estate revamp. In its place we have nothing but a few unremarkable houses. I'm sure many people feel disgusted that so much history is lost for nothing. Sure the school will now gradually fade from memory over time, but it's worth trying to keep it 'alive' for as long as possible with a little effort from those who spent time there.

If you have memories of the history of John Evelyn Primary School please use the form on the main page and send them in to the site.