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View Full Version : Archived: Wapping Street First School, March 2010



elwinvsschools
04-04-2010, 01:13 PM
History - The school is a grade II listed building, and was set on fire in may 2009 :( It was the first school in the UK to have it's own swimming pool. The council say they have done everything they could to protect it but it has been completely twatted. There are plans to develop it into apartments, but they are being methodically delayed by Sphinx Commercial Ltd, who, I imagine, are waiting for it to fall down more so they can bulldoze the remains. Everyone say 'awwwww'.

On with the report.

This place has been done before by Boxfrenzy and others, but I bet none of you lot had an excitable child run up and give you a guided tour. I think he may have been slightly mentally deficient in some way or another (awww), and he also made me panicky about being in bradford and being seen walking into an abandoned building with cameras and a child :secret however, he was invaluable as a tour guide and offered amazing insight and wisdom into the site, which I will relay back to you along with the pictures. *spoiler alert* he knew who started the fire!

As always, this was a joint venture between myself and the lovely schools, who should really be acknowledged more in these posts. She took all the photos on this occasion, while I constantly whinged about 'there are going to be smackheads' etc.

Oh and the photo's are edited ever so slightly so as to enhance the mood ;)

Some exterior shots

http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z260/general_elwin/urbex%20day%20out/25826_380063866721_632941721_427862.jpg

http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z260/general_elwin/urbex%20day%20out/25826_380063571721_632941721_427-1.jpg

http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z260/general_elwin/urbex%20day%20out/25826_380061651721_632941721_427849.jpg

This is the remains of the top floor of the janitors house

http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z260/general_elwin/urbex%20day%20out/25826_380063491721_632941721_427-1.jpg

Theres a cool mural on the playground wall.

http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z260/general_elwin/urbex%20day%20out/25826_380063551721_632941721_427-1.jpg

Arty version

http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z260/general_elwin/urbex%20day%20out/25826_380063526721_632941721_427-1.jpg

It was around this point our guide arrived on the scene. I began to panic. More.

http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z260/general_elwin/urbex%20day%20out/25826_380061681721_632941721_427849.jpg

Apparently, it would be unethical to show the photo he wandered into, so you'll have to make do with an artists impression.

http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z260/general_elwin/urbex%20day%20out/25826_380063621721_632941721_427-1.jpg

This is the first thing he wanted to show us :s

http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z260/general_elwin/urbex%20day%20out/25826_380061626721_632941721_427848.jpg

He showed us a few bits of sweet graffitti

http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z260/general_elwin/urbex%20day%20out/25826_380063146721_632941721_427857.jpg

http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z260/general_elwin/urbex%20day%20out/25826_380063161721_632941721_427-1.jpg

This was my favourite piece, shame there was a massive gash right through it.

http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z260/general_elwin/urbex%20day%20out/25826_380063696721_632941721_427861.jpg

The halls were disgusting :)

http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z260/general_elwin/urbex%20day%20out/25826_380061736721_632941721_427849.jpg

http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z260/general_elwin/urbex%20day%20out/25826_380063236721_632941721_427-1.jpg

There was loads of gubbins (technical term) hanging from the ceilings

http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z260/general_elwin/urbex%20day%20out/25826_380063301721_632941721_427-1.jpg

http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z260/general_elwin/urbex%20day%20out/25826_380063271721_632941721_427-1.jpg

And the floors? Our guide said they were cool to walk on, but he was tiny.

http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z260/general_elwin/urbex%20day%20out/25826_380063821721_632941721_427862.jpg

We were big fans of the pool, and I spent a while walking sideways around the edges, pretending to be a Ninja

http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z260/general_elwin/urbex%20day%20out/25826_380061616721_632941721_427-1.jpg

And it had some simple but effective graffitti

http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z260/general_elwin/urbex%20day%20out/25826_380063886721_632941721_427862.jpg

http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z260/general_elwin/urbex%20day%20out/25826_380063921721_632941721_427862.jpg

Now, the kid pointed out who set the fire, and we managed to capture a picture of this devious arsonist.



Obviously, he was somehow fused to the building itself while he set the fire. Serves him right.


True story.

http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z260/general_elwin/urbex%20day%20out/25826_380063356721_632941721_427-1.jpg

Ta to Boxfrenzy, who helped us out with some info for this and for a couple more places, reports on which will be up soon

Rochester
04-04-2010, 01:27 PM
Nice collection of images..

http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff74/silverstealth_bucket/wapping%20school/wappingbathssm.jpg

Here is a shot of the original baths..

I think Converse first visited this spot back in 2007ish.

Lot of history here for sure..

Wapping Road School, built in 1877, was a ‘Board School’ under Bradford's very own W.E. Forster's Education Act of 1870.

The school’s distinguished 123-year history saw it play a leading role in the development of state education. More than a century ago, the school created national and international headlines with the help of education campaigners Margaret and Rachel McMillan and their push to improve the lot of children in the state system. Their influence helped bring the country’s first school swimming pool to Wapping Road school and nearby Green Lane School in 1899.

Bradford was a grim place for the poor in the 19th Century, with a lot of extreme poverty. Children suffered in spite of the sacrifice by their parents. Also at this time, children were brought up from London workhouses to work in the mills. This is how the area of Wapping in Bradford got it’s name. Dirt and disease was a problem.

Right up to the early part of this century some children were ‘sewn up’ for the winter – wrapped in flannel which was then sewn into place and not removed until the warm weather came. Some parents thought that this was necessary because there was not enough food to keep a child warm otherwise.

Margaret McMillan

"The condition of the poorer children was worse than anything that was described or painted. It was a thing that this generation is glad to forget. The neglect of infants, the utter neglect almost of toddlers and older children, the blight of early labour, all combined to make of a once vigorous people a race of undergrown and spoiled adolescents; and just as people looked on at the torture two hundred years ago and less, without any great indignation, so in the 1890s people saw the misery of poor children without perturbation."

http://silverstealth.fotopic.net/c1555597.html

More on my site here.