EDUCATION.
John Bishop, curate of Kingsbury,
kept a school there c. 1530, (fn. 12) but there is no further
evidence of schooling in the parish before the 19th
century. In 1819 about 35 children were clothed and
educated and a mistress was paid by annual
subscriptions, (fn. 13) perhaps at the Sunday school to
which George Worrall contributed £10. (fn. 14) A dayschool, opened in 1822, had 30 children in 1833. It
was supported by subscriptions, collections, and
school pence at the rate of 1d. a week for each
child: (fn. 15) from 1827 the National Society made an
annual grant of £20. (fn. 16) The school, which was
situated on waste land near the junction of Roe
Green and Kingsbury Road, was owned by the
vicar. (fn. 17) In 1846-7 there was one mistress and one
schoolroom, accommodating 17 boys, 14 girls, and
13 infants. (fn. 18) The school was still in use in 1872 but
had closed by 1876. (fn. 19) The school-house, converted
into a private dwelling, still stood in 1937. (fn. 20)
In 1846-7 it was stated that nearly all the children
in Kingsbury attended some school. Some boys
went to Hendon and 6 boys and 20 girls attended a
dame's school at the Hyde, supported by school
pence. (fn. 21) In 1851, however, there were some Irish
Catholic children at the Hyde and 'no school in the
district'. (fn. 22) In 1865 a Roman Catholic school was
established in a schoolroom attached to the stable
of the Revd. George Ballard at the Hyde, where it
was attended by about 36 children. (fn. 23)
The dame school at the Hyde was apparently
short-lived and in 1861 an infants' school was built
north of the Congregational chapel in Edgware
Road. (fn. 24) The infants' school was replaced in 1870 by
a British school at the Hyde end of Kingsbury Road,
where about 40 boys, girls, and infants were taught
by a mistress. The school was financed by voluntary
contributions, school pence, (fn. 25) and, from 1870,
regular parliamentary grants. The schools' inspector
was dissatisfied, apparently because of the cramped
premises, and Kingsbury school board, formed in
1875, replaced it with a board school with accommodation for 120 children in 1876. (fn. 26)
The board school, after 1903 called Kingsbury
council school, (fn. 27) became a senior mixed school
after infants had been transferred to a new school
in Kenton Lane in 1922. (fn. 28) When Kenton Lane
council school at Kingsbury Green was opened as a
senior school in 1928, its juniors and infants were
transferred to the old board school where they
remained until it was bombed in the Second World
War. In 1948 Kenton Lane council school, renamed
Kingsbury Green school, opened for juniors and
infants. (fn. 29)
Among primary schools built between the World
Wars were Fryent, opened in Church Lane in 1931,
Roe Green, opened in Princes Avenue in 1932, and
Oliver Goldsmith, opened at the corner of Kingsbury Road and Coniston Gardens in 1938. Glenwood
primary school in south-east Kingsbury existed
from 1954 until 1959. Blessed Robert Southwell
Roman Catholic primary school was opened in
Slough Lane in 1967 and Chalkhill infants' school
was opened to serve the new Chalkhill estate in
1970. (fn. 30)
A mixed secondary school, Kingsbury county,
was housed in a building once belonging to the
Aircraft Manufacturing Co. and adapted to take
380 pupils from 1925 until 1931, when a new
school was built in Princes Road. Extensions were
made in 1954. (fn. 31) Building started on a second mixed
secondary school at a site in Bacon Lane in 1939 but
it was not until 1952 that Tyler's Croft county
secondary schools, redesigned as separate boys' and
girls' secondary modern schools, were opened.
Under the comprehensive scheme for education,
which was adopted by Brent L.B. in 1967, Kingsbury county and Tyler's Croft schools were
amalgamated as Kingsbury high school. (fn. 32)
There were several private schools in Kingsbury,
mostly in large private houses. In 1851 49 girls,
some drawn from Bombay, Australia, and the
West Indies, and seven mistresses, in addition to
the proprietor and his wife, were boarded at
Kingsbury House, where subjects included French,
English, and music. (fn. 33) The school had closed by
1861 (fn. 34) but another ladies' seminary had been
opened, at Redhill, by 1872. (fn. 35) At the turn of the
century two members of the Wyand family ran
schools, Halvergate preparatory school in Edgware
Road and a boarding-school, (fn. 36) possibly the school
in Kingsbury Lane mentioned by the medical
officer of health in 1902. (fn. 37) There was a boys'
preparatory school in Grove Park in the 1920s and
1930s and another preparatory school in Valley
Drive in 1937. (fn. 38) Chalkhill House housed a girls'
school in 1930 (fn. 39) and a mixed preparatory school
from 1946 until 1961. The latter had started as
Kingsgate school in Salmon Street in 1932. (fn. 40)
There were two special schools in 1969. Woodfield
school for educationally sub-normal children was
opened in 1959 in premises formerly occupied by
Glenwood primary school. (fn. 41) A school for physically
handicapped children was transferred from Harlesden to Grove Park in 1968. (fn. 42)
An annexe for Kilburn Polytechnic was opened
in 1950 in the building in Edgware Road formerly
occupied by Kingsbury county school. (fn. 43)