100 YEARS AT SELBOURNE ROAD

from Ruyton Reporter Autumn 2020

ALUMNAE

To move house is quite an undertaking. To move a whole school with boarders, day girls, live-in staff and all, must have been something else entirely. Yet this is what Principal Hilda Daniell decided to do in late 1919, when she announced that Ruyton would move across Kew, from its premises in A’Beckett Street, toTarring in Selbourne Road during 1920. 1 Hilda Daniell may have been anxious about how the School community would respond to the change, given that the A’Beckett Street premises were regarded with great affection. However, she felt that she had no choice but to undergo such a move despite its attendant chaos and upheaval. Student numbers had rapidly built up since 1914, and by 1919 the A’Beckett Street premises (leased from the Bromby family) were full. With sport a growing priority, Hilda Daniell wanted more playing space for her students. When the Hentys’ old family home and nearly four acres of grounds came up for sale on the other side of Kew, Hilda Daniell saw it as an ideal solution to her twin problems. 2

In The Ruytonian of April 1928, Hilda Daniell described the appeal of ‘the new Ruyton.’ It was ‘beautifully situated in a quiet, secluded street, close to trams yet protected from their noise. It had a lovely old garden, and plenty of space for tennis courts and playing fields. The old home furnished a large and dignified house for boarders. To Tarring therefore, Ruyton migrated in May, 1920.’ 3 Though the new property may have been beautiful, it was not ready when the staff and 170 students arrived. It was still to undergo the changes needed to convert it from a home into a school, and the work would be done during the first three months that the girls and teachers were there. In 1928 Hilda Daniell wrote frankly about this period: ‘The first term was a hideous nightmare. Till the new schoolrooms were finished, classes had to be carried on in the house, both upstairs and down. The noise of the builders made teaching very difficult.’ To make matters worse, the muchwanted extra playing space was inaccessible as it was being levelled. 4 The Senior girls didn’t seem to mind – a little upheaval was a small price to pay in exchange for the interesting goings-on of the carpenters and bricklayers, especially those who weren’t restrained in their swearing by the genteel surrounds of a girls’ school. 5

Hilda Daniell, c.1910, before she became Principal ofRuyton in 1913

Purpose built for Ruyton in 1888. By 1919, the School had outgrown the A’Beckett Street premises

Sheila Cooke (Summons, ‘32) was a young Ruyton student in the early 1920s. Her memories, recorded in 1984, provide a glimpse of how ‘the new Ruyton’ settled into Selbourne Road. She noted that most of the classes were in a new classroom block roughly in the location of today’s Foundation Building. The youngest girls were located in the newly extended ground floor section of Henty House (later used as the gymnasium and now the staff room). Due to the shortage of space, each morning this room doubled as the Assembly Hall for daily prayers. 6 The remainder of Henty House accommodated the boarders and live-in staff, including a flat for Hilda Daniell. Today in 2020, it’s 100 years on from Hilda Daniell’s brave leap to move Ruyton to a new site. With the clarity of hindsight, it’s evident that Hilda Daniell’s decision gave the School the space to flourish, and stood it in good stead as the education landscape shifted and changed. However, one wonders whether it was with confidence or trepidation, or a tumultuous mixture of both, that she shut the gates at A’Beckett Street for the final time and turned towards Ruyton’s future at Selbourne Road. Cathy Dodson School Archivist

footnotes 1 Marjorie Theobald, Ruyton Remembers, p109 2 Marjorie Theobald, Ruyton Remembers, p110 3 The Ruytonian, Apr 1928, p10 4 The Ruytonian, Apr 1928, p11 5 The Ruytonian, Dec 1920, p2 6 Memories of Sheila Cooke (Summons, 1932)

Ruyton Heritage Collection. Teachers found the construction of a new classroom block at Selbourne Road disruptive to lessons

Here the extra outdoor space at Selbourne Road is used to practise exercise drills, c.1920

12 Selbourne Road purchased ‘Tarring’ renamed ‘Henty House’ 1920

Royce Hall opened. Newlyacquired ‘Mount View’ named Derham House 1960

‘Craft House’ opens. Used today for the Early Learning Centre 1977

The John Bate P.E. Centre opens after a successful fundraising campaign 1992

1953–1958 The three-stage development of the Hilda Daniell Wing commenced in 1953, and was completed in 1958 (Ruyton’s 80th anniversary) after significant fundraising efforts