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So great was the increase in the number attending the classes dealing with the
cabinet-making industry, that the Committee resolved to take another building and
so increase the accommodation, but finding the Vestry were about to purchase the
old Fire Station and that when bought it would not be used by them for some time, they
were approached for permission to use the ground floor. The Vestry acquiesced most
heartily, and this increased accommodation put three rooms at our disposal, which
were immediately used for lecture, drawing and dressmaking purposes.
These rooms being all lit with electric light, a much greater benefit was derived,
as the light is much brighter and much more diffusive than gas and therefore better
for the purposes required.
This additional room enabled us to arrange that all technical work should be
carried on at the Fire Station while the practical work was confined to the schools in
Hoxton Street.
Perhaps one of the greatest advantages derived was that we were able to alter
the position of our workshops. The cabinet and carpenter's shops were transferred
from the top to the first floor; this being a much larger room enabled us to have
five additional benches and thus we were able at once to cope with the greatly
increased numbers attending these classes.
This again enabled us to classify our students and provide for an advanced and
elementary class, and I feel sure this has been the means of imparting a better tone
to the school and is in a great measure answerable for our phenomenal success.
That we are still doing good work and carrying out our scheme in a most
commendable manner may be seen by the Report of the London County Council
Technical Board, which testifies to the fact that our students are especially successful
in gaining the Board's valuable artisan scholarships, and the Vestry should feel
proud in having initiated such a school in a district so congested with a population
depending almost entirely on the cabinet industry for its support.
I may add that many of the manufacturers of the district have visited, and are
continually visiting, the School, thus evincing a keen interest in the work carried on
in their midst, and the high eulogies they pass, both on the system used and the
work produced, all tend to show that the work we are doing is in the direction most
beneficial to the interests of the Artisan.
Should any further testimony be needed to point out the proficiency of the
School and its high state of excellence, I need only refer to the public remarks of
such eminent Educationists as Professor Stuart and Dr. Garnett.
The first of these gentlemen characterises the work as " The finest thing done
in Technical Education," while Dr. Garnet, speaking at a recent distribution of
prizes at the Shoreditch Town Hall, assured his audience that so thorough was the