Blackheath School - Reminiscences of a Former Pupil

[Chris G.]

An interesting description of a pupil's life at Mr. Valentine's school is contained in "Some School Memories of Blackheath" (http://books.google.com/books?id=lmYaAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA71&dq=Blackheath+Eliot+place+school&hl=en&ei=G9z_TIWPKMG78gbk2eGbBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CDQQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=Blackheath%20Eliot%20place%20school&f=false) by H. F. Abell, The Home Counties Magazine, Volume 7, F.E. Robinson, 1905 (Google eBook). A bit before Montague John Druitt's time at the school but it would appear to give an idea of what life was like for boys at the Blackheath school. As Stawell Heard wrote in his dissertation over at Casebook, "Mr. Valentine's School" (http://www.casebook.org/dissertations/dst-valentine.html): "In fact, the name Eliot Place School was something of a misnomer as in the nineteenth century Eliot Place was full of schools. At various times, there were schools at numbers 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9 and 11 Eliot Place." Heard appears to confirm that H. F. Abell was a pupil at Mr. Valentine's school at 9 Eliot Place.

Chris

[How Brown]

I just saw this CG...thanks a lot for sharing it.

[Adam Went]

Yes, excellent stuff Chris! It is true about the number of schools in Eliot Place.....perhaps it could even be worth consideration that the reason for Druitt's dismissal was that his failure to adequately mind the students led to their mingling with students from other schools on the same block and getting up to mischief. Just a thought.

Cheers,
Adam.

[Chris G.]

A past thread on Casebook (http://www.casebook.org/forum/messages/4922/17103.html) has photographs of the site of Mr. Valentine's School at 9 Eliot Place, Blackheath, contributed by Andrew Spallek and Chris Scott.

Chris