Chelsea Central School

Yes! My mum, Annette Mahoney. We’re trying to remember the headmasters name?

Hi, I found this page quite by mistake. My mother was a teacher at Chelsea Central in the 1960s - Mrs Allan. Does anyone remember her and does anyone have any reminiscences relating to her?

headmaster's name was Mr Woodland? We used to call him Bullet because of the shape of his head. He always walked round the school smoking a pipe.
What did your mum teach?
I was there 1957 to 1962.

Headmaster's name was Mr Woodland? We used to call him Bullet because of the shape of his head! He always walked about the school smoking a pipe.
I was there 1957 to 1962. My maiden name was Valerie Harper. Peter Springett, the footballer, and me were captain's of the same school team.,

What did Mrs Allen teach?

Re., the nickname which was given to Alfred Woodlands - the headnaster of the school:
He was called :"Bullet" - pronounced "bullit" by the boys because of his pronounced habit of walking up to pupils, stopping and then,,,with one hand..reaching behind him...to his own rear and scratching....they said it was because he had a "bullet-hole" in his nether regions - not that there were any students who knew the term, "nether regions"!
He did indeed smoke a pipe and he wore the kind of shaggy/baggy/ woollen trousers which stopped just above his ankles and which were common at that time!

Nobody commented on Chelsea Central School this year, 2020?
Well....we seem to have had enough of "Bullet-hole" Woodlands, so...how about memories of the smell of the gasworks at Lotts Road?
Anybody with fond memories of that aroma?

I was there and remember the smell and coming home with a dirty black collar on my shirt. Mrs Allen, I think taught music. I recall her showing us the Chinese character for mouth. Don't recall her being there very long. Other teachers include, Messrs Rogers Science, Carter metalwork, Thornycroft woodwork, Jones English and Mrs Leahey History. Also I think there was an assistant head, as short guy named Fred ". A song at the time was "Big John". Someone made other words about "Small Fred".

Can you recall a Sally Unwin and Mavis Molloy 1955-59

Can you recall a Sally Unwin and Mavis Molloy 1955-59

I have recently created a site on FB Chelsea Central School, do join!

You had a friend called Tily, or, perhaps Tilly.
Was not Pedro a nickname?
You were more generally called, Peter?
I remember a Spanard telling me that Pedro was more common in Mexico than Spain.

We used to compare the smell from the gasworks to the Dinner Ladies cooking cheese pie.
I was there from 58 to 63, Fred Sewell the deputy head taught accounts, Miss Naylor art,Mrs. Allan also taught typewriting which amongst a number of others I joined to avoid woodwork/metalwork. In the third year you had to choose between technical and commercial, part of commercial involved cookery classes which our unlikely group unenthusiastically became involved in, obviously nobody took it seriously but we somehow with the teachers help ended up baking a cake for Bullets retirement I think a photo ended up in the Fulham Chronicle.
Saw the school was demolished and replaced with an expensive housing plot.

I started in '54, so I would have known you only by sight.
Boys having the option of cookery to evade woodwork/metalwork was not an option for us.....the woodwork teacher - a man called Thornycroft - was quite an unpleasant character!
So Sewell became deputy head?
A funny little man!
RIP Chelsea Central School.

Thorneycroft was extremely sarcastic and unpleasant he was one of the reasons to opt for the commercial choice, another was Carter the technical drawing teacher rumour had it he later ended up in a lunatic asylum. Fenton was another one he taught metalwork and Rogers science.
When I was in the third year we heard one of the fifth year boys had tried to harpoon Thorneycrofts foot with a chisel.
The PE teacher Mr. Fuce was a character who was well like also remember a gay music teacher Mr. Edwards who tried to get us singing along to Abdul Abulbul Amir.

Rogers was sarcastic, but, he was not viciously so and he seemed to genuinely want to impart knowledge.
Fenton was characterless!
Fuce? If he was the same teacher that I remember, he often seemed punchdrunk...he would walk into the hall/gym whatever....make a loud noise, then seem confused and walk off!
Edwards was an unsuccessful fandango dancer and was openly gay at a time when it inevitablly invited derision from both pupils and staff!
He was shouted at and abused as he walked through open areas and insults were carved into the wooden frame of his piano.
He did not have a pleasant experience!
Carter? I remember a teacher of technical drawing who had a little moustache and a big dandruff problem...he was also a sarcastic and an otherwise insignificant person.
Somebody not mentioned so far is Jones, a Welshman who taught English and French.....I always remember his efforts to explain "clause analysis"....he used to lose his temper and blame our lack of cerebral capacity, when it was obvious that the problem was his own inability to fully understand the concept!

Fuce often seemed miles away but was quite fun and amusing when he snapped into action.
Miss Leahy seemed very stern at first but she was a very good teacher and wanted us to progress.
Edwards as far as I can remember didn't receive the same amount of abuse he was one who did not try bullying tactics.
Jones was bad tempered I remember seeing him whacking boys round the head for pushing when going into he's classroom, he taught English and for French there was a guy who called himself Mr. Parry
The syllabus was pretty far reaching for the school near the gasworks some of the teachers really wanted us to succeed I have some happy memories and some lifelong friends.

Well, Edwsrds may have weathered the initial storm by the time you encountered him. He had appeared on television doing his fandango thing, but obviously couldn't make a living at it. The boys in our year gave him such a hard time that he resorted to caning whole classes - until Woodlands put a stop to it.
Jones was more qualified to teach French than English...he claimed to be a graduate of Paris University and his wife was French. He was rather dismissive of Parry's qualifications as a teacher of French!
Jones main feature was bis Welsh nationalism and his working class background....I think that he secretely hated the English. He had good discipline as a result of his mercurial Celtic temperament....nobody knew when he would fly off the handle!
He was good friends with a Miss Doran - a kindly oldish woman who was in charge of the library.
The aspirations of a school hard by the gasworks? Hmm....a state school which was not quite a grammar school.
Well, the students were rather a mixed bunch...it was more a case of low expectations than any generalised lack of cerebral capacity.
Glad that you made friends and kept them....I doubt that many in my year's intake could say the same.

I never thought of it as a grammar school, was it a secondary modern or a central being something between a grammar and a secondary modern.
You are right I don't think much was expected of the students but there was a wide range of subjects they tried to teach us, if anyone absorbed them fair enough if not fair enough.
You mention Jones working class background you would have thought he would have been more at home with the pupils who were mainly if not overall from working class backgrounds, maybe the Welsh heritage kicked in.

The elementary school teachers tended to tell ther pupils that a Central school was "officially" mid-way between a grammar and a modern. However, many years ago I looked quite extensively at all available books and articles on the provision of education in the UK and could find no mention of it! So, either they lied or they were confused....confused is the more likely!
Jones considered himself to be a well educated man of Bohemian temperament and like many of his Celtic contemporaries, he tended to identify with European, epecially French, intellectuals....rather them than the English who beat the Welsh children if they spoke Gaelic at school etc!
Working class background of the students?
Many it is true, but there were also a sprinkling of middle class children of white collar workers and other similar groups. Don't forget that the 1950s was still a period of post war austerity and for many in the higher social brackets, private education was not an affordable option!

My father, Alec Fuce, was a PE teacher at Chelsea Central School in the 1960’s. I remember he ran a badminton club after school which my older sister and I came along although we were only primary age. We all used to have tea in the science lab with Mr. Rogers.