Dick Sheppard School was a large school, originally for girls, at

Tulse Hill Tulse Hill is a district in the London Borough of Lambeth in South London that sits on Brockwell Park. It is approximately five miles from Charing Cross and is bordered by Brixton, Dulwich, Herne Hill, Streatham and West Norwood. History The a ...

in the

London Borough of Lambeth Lambeth () is a London borough in South London, England, which forms part of Inner London. Its name was recorded in 1062 as ''Lambehitha'' ("landing place for lambs") and in 1255 as ''Lambeth''. The geographical centre of London is at Frazi ...

. It was founded as the sister establishment to

Tulse Hill School Tulse Hill School was a large comprehensive school for boys in Tulse Hill, Upper Tulse Hill, in the London Borough of Lambeth, England. The school building had eight floors and served almost two thousand pupils. It opened in 1956 and closed in 19 ...

for boys and as the Comprehensive alternative to St Martin-In-The-Fields High School for Girls. In the late 1970s it absorbed the remaining male pupils of nearby

Strand School Strand School was a boys' grammar school in the Tulse Hill area of South London. It moved there in 1913 from its original location at King's College in London's Strand. Distinguished in its heyday for its contribution of young men to the ci ...

and continued as a co-educational school until its closure in 1994.

History

The school was established by the

London County Council The London County Council (LCC) was the principal local government body for the County of London throughout its existence from 1889 to 1965, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today ...

in 1955.London County Council, (1962), Secondary Schools in Bermondsey, Lambeth and Southwark, Division 8 It was named after the

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

clergyman, Dick Sheppard, noted for turning

St Martin-in-the-Fields St Martin-in-the-Fields is a Church of England parish church at the north-east corner of Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, London. Dedicated to Saint Martin of Tours, there has been a church on the site since at least the medieval pe ...

church into a social centre for the needy and destitute of central London. The name thus resonated with that of the local girls’ grammar school, St Martin-In-The-Fields High School. The school was at its inception well equipped and, like Tulse Hill School, was seen at the time as in the vanguard of comprehensive education. In 1972 the

Inner London Education Authority The Inner London Education Authority (ILEA) was the local education authority for the City of London and the 12 Inner London boroughs from 1965 until its abolition in 1990. From 1965 to 1986 it was an ad hoc committee of the Greater London Co ...

proposed that Strand School be closed and its pupils transferred to Dick Sheppard. The Strand and Tulse Hill buildings, within close proximity of each other, were to form a single new comprehensive school.

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013), was a British stateswoman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of th ...

, at the time the

Secretary of State for Education The secretary of state for education, also referred to as the education secretary, is a Secretary of State (United Kingdom), secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, responsible for the work of the Department for Education. ...

, approved the closure but not the alterations to Tulse Hill, or the proposed extensions to Dick Sheppard. Parents of Strand pupils chose to contest the closure in the courts. As a result, an injunction forbidding closure was granted in May 1972; and a second application to the minister, in July 1972, was turned down in January of the following year.House of Commons Speech by Margaret Thatcher (Secondary Education (Opposition motion)), (1 February 1973), (Hansard HC 49/1639-68 Noting the objections of those who were particularly concerned to retain a local comprehensive school for girls, Thatcher stated in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

that to make the school a co-educational establishment would be to go against those wishes. By the late 1970s, however, Strand School was closed down. Its remnants were merged with Dick Sheppard, resulting in its becoming a co-educational school after all. In January 1982 there was a visit by The

Prince A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. The ...

and

Princess of Wales Princess of Wales (; ) is a title used since the 14th century by the wife of the Prince of Wales. The Princess is the apparent future queen consort, as "Prince of Wales" is a title reserved by custom for the heir apparent to the Monarchy of the ...

. However the 1980s soon brought controversy. Janet Boateng, the first black chairman of governors within the ILEA, when ousted by her own Labour Party group in 1983, accused the school of "deep seated racism". In 1984 Dick Sheppard was one of four schools in the country featured in a ''Daily Express'' enquiry into "Britain's failing comprehensive schools", and was later in the vanguard of schools engaged in 'non-competitive sport' which attracted national varied interest. An unofficial walk-out by the staff in support of Cherry Groce produced the headline in ''The Daily Telegraph:'' Children 'ran wild in NUT walk-out', an occasion when discipline was described by Inner London Education Authority member Anne Sofer as "completely out of hand". The incident also featured in a House of Lords debate on 5 February 1986 by Lord Ritchie of Dundee (Hansard cc 1175). By 1987 ''The Observer'' described the school as a "ray of hope...now making strenuous efforts to improve itself, not without success", while The London Evening Standard in a 'fact file' on the area listed the school as "one of the best".6 May 1987, pg 24 The school continued as such until it was itself closed down in 1994.

Lambeth Council Lambeth London Borough Council, which styles itself Lambeth Council, is the local authority for the London Borough of Lambeth in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, one of the 32 in London. The council has been under Labour ...

was quoted as saying that Dick Sheppard was closed because "like many other schools in the area, it was failing." The supposed "near bankruptcy" of the local education authority has also been suggested.Guardian Unlimited, Filling The Gap, Friday April 15, 2005
/ref> The site was sold by

in 1997 for £10 million to make way for luxury housing.

Head Teachers

* Mrs Margaret Solan * Miss Jessie Edwards * Mrs Margaret Broadley * Paul S Farmer MBE (1983–87 – Deputy Head from 1981) * Norma Gibbes (1987–1989 – Deputy from 1985) * Philip Lawrence QGM * Doreen Hall (1991-closure)

Alumni

Paulette Randall Paulette Randall, MBE (born 1961) is a British theatre director of Jamaican descent.

, actor and producer. *

Tim Roth Timothy Simon Roth (; born 14 May 1961) is an English actor. He was among a group of prominent British actors known as the " Brit Pack". After garnering attention in television productions '' Made in Britain'' (1982) and '' Meantime'' (1983), ...

, actor, who joined Dick Sheppard on the closure of Strand School (see above). * Nicola Armstrong Edgar, nee MacPherson, international diplomat and global chief executive. * Douglas Ankrah, inventor of the porn star martini and owner of the LAB bar in Soho in 1999, and Townhouse in Knightsbridge

References

{{Schools and colleges in Lambeth Defunct schools in the London Borough of Lambeth Educational institutions established in 1955 1955 establishments in England Educational institutions disestablished in 1994 1994 disestablishments in England