IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Granville Road, LONDON, SW18 5SE

I was one of those 'children of Southfields', starting school here in the 1950's at the age of five and leaving when I was eleven. So the ethos of the school can't have failed to leave its mark on my 'character' - though whether it succeeded in 'building it up' is not for me to judge. For the most part, our teachers were kindly, forgiving souls - though I couldn't say that of the headmistress (of the infants' school) or the headmaster (of the juniors). They, each of them, knew all about 'the fear of the Lord'. For me, that fear subsided when I became a choirboy at St Michael's Church nearby: I discovered I could keep my eyes open during prayers - without being visited by divine vengeance. This is a zoom shot, taken from Granville Road. For a general view of the school, see Image

It was here that I first started school - back in the 1950's. In those days the school had an extensive garden and we spent many hours - in the warmer months - out of doors. Much of the garden was given over to the growing of vegetables - and so looked much like allotments. There was a fish-pond and an aviary; we kept rabbits and even (for a while) goats. One detail has to be mentioned, as it casts light on mid-20th century expectations: gardening lessons were for boys only - the girls, poor things, spent long hours indoors doing needlework! It saddens me to see that the school building has been extended in almost every possible direction - encroaching on both the playground and (I assume) the garden. In this shot, the portion of the building furthest to the right, set back somewhat from the road, is a fairly recent extension - built in similar style and materials to the original building of 1911. Before the days of Dutch elm disease, there was a great old elm tree in the school playground, near where the lamp-standard now stands. That and another elm have both, of course, gone - but so has a hornbeam, and a Prunus or two. See also: Image

St. Michael's Church in Southfields, in south west London.

The west end of the church of St Michael & All Angels dominates the junction of Granville Road and Wimbledon Park Road.

Grade II listed.

At the junction of Granville Road

This is essentially the same view of the Anglican church of St Michael & All Angels, Granville Road, as seen in 2006 Image But since then a new extension has been built on the south side to provide meeting rooms, office space and toilets, using an unusual Swiss system of prefabricated building.