London Past & Present: Schools

This film features children from Peckham Park School preparing for a play they will perform about life in a Victorian school. To set the scene, a series of schools across London are looked at including Peckham Park and Hortensia Road School (Chelsea), accompanied by a brief history of the London School Board and Education Act of 1870.

An old pupil of Peckham Park School is interviewed to share his memories of Victorian school life, in particular, he discusses punishment and school dinners. Different types of information available about school life, and the ways to find it, are detailed including records held by the Headmaster at Peckham Park school.

Date: 1970
Reference No: ILEA/VID/01/1631
Collection: ILEA

This film is part of the collections at London Metropolitan Archives, a public research centre which specialises in the history of London. If you haven't visited an archive before, it's a little bit like a library but with one key difference; the majority of items in an archive are unique, handwritten documents which cannot be seen anywhere else.

We care for and provide access to the historical archives of businesses, schools, hospitals, charities and all manner of other organisations from the London area. With 100 km of books, maps, photographs, films and documents dating back to 1067 in our strong rooms, we're proud to provide access to one of the finest city archives in the world - you could call it the memory of London.

This channel provides highlights from our film and video collections and films which we have created. Find out more at www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/lma and explore our film clips, photographs, maps and prints of London at www.londonpicturearchive.org.uk