The Board School

[kensei]

I do understand that Mary Ann wasn't found directly at the base of the Board School but in front of the stables, though I thought I remembered reading that the "stables" was actually a place where horses were slaughtered. But that spot today is at the end of a brick wall extending out from the Board School, which is the only surviving landmark today, so it is only natural to associate that building with the murder.

[Monty]

Kensi,

A small point, Nichols wasnt killed at the base of the Board School, she was murdered a some yards to the east, across the railway lines at the entrance to Brown's stable yard.

Board Schools were an early set up of todays state school. Prior to that, only 'raggged' (for the poor and wretched) and Church Schools existed. These ragged and church schools gave little more than a basic education and focused mainly on the practical.

By around 1870 many industriallists and politicians saw the need for a higher education and thus The Elemantary Educational act was passed in the August of that year, creating the Board Schooling system for children aged between 5 and 11 years of age. It was not compulsorary to attend these schools and most families prefered their children to work and obtain money for the family.

In 1881 it does become compulsory for children to attend (though the most needy of families flaunt this ruling for obvious reasons).

The Offices of the London School Boards were situated on the Embankment, I dont know if they still remain.

As far as Im aware, they were not like elite boarding schools, were the pupils stay overnight. Therefore the premises would be empty for they evening.

Though Im willing to be corrected on that.

Monty


PS Sorry Paula, our posted crossed.

[Paula Thomas]

The simplified version:-

The school boards were set up to run compulsory elementary education in England and Wales by the Education Act 1870. They ran education in their area and to do this they set up elementary schools to educate children from 5-12. The schools set up by them were known as Board Schools.

They were day schools so there would not have been any children or adults (other than a possible live-in caretaker).

<hairsplitting mode>
However Polly was found in the gateway to the stables next to the school not at the school itself.
</hairsplitting mode>

Paula

[kensei]

As we all know, Mary Ann was killed at the base of a 5-story building known as the Board School on Buck's Row, which is still there today on Durward Street. I'm going to be vacationing in England in just about a month, and plan to take a private Ripper walk beginning there. I've read how the building was once slated for demolition like all those around it but was saved and is now an apartment building (one book even describing it as "luxury apartments"). But I have one question I've never seen answered in any books- just exactly what kind of school did it used to be? And I guess as a secondary question- if it was a school, would there have been any people inside at night at the time of the murder?