St Jude’s Schools, Turk’s Row, Upper Chelsea

CHELSEA - School and class rooms for 250 boys and girls have been completed and opened, behind St. Jude's Church, in Turk's-row, Upper Chelsea. Additional space was obtained by building the new walls upon the old ones, previously strengthening the latter for this purpose, by introducing brick piers, in cement, every 15 feet along the inside of each side wall. The old roof was then raised intact by means of a dozen screw-jacks placed beneath the four main trusses, and a couple of extra ones introduced, temporarily, at each gable end. The operation was performed without the displacement of a single slate, or the smallest injury to the plastering beneath the rafters. The partition that originally divided the ground floor into two school. rooms for boys and girls, 29 ft. 3 in. by 27 ft. 9 in., respectively, has been removed, forming one large infants' school-room, 58 ft. 9 in. by 27 ft. 9 in., while the old class-room adjoining forms a babies' room, 27 ft. 9 in. by 14 ft. 6 in. The new upper floor, which is supported by wrought-iron girders above a single row of east-iron columns, consists of two school-rooms, 29 ft. 6 in. by 27 ft. 9 in. each, for boys and girls respectively; a class-room for each, 14 ft. 3 in by 13 ft. 8in, being placed between them. The height of this floor, which is open to the ridge, is about 18 feet in the centre, and 11 feet at the sides, while that of the ground floor is 14 feet. Penfold's warm air and ventilating grates are fixed in all the school-rooms. The gas-lighting is arranged to form circlets round the iron columns in the infants' school-room (which will be used for parochial meetings). Two galleries have been fixed in the infants' school, and another in the babies' room, while reversible desks have been supplied for the upstairs rooms. The cost per head for the original contract-work came to something less than £3 4s. Entrance gateways, tar paving, and drains for playground, some additional fittings for the schools, and a few other matters have raised it to about £4 4s. The works have been carried out by Mr John High; Mr. E. H. Lingen Barker being the architect. [Builder 11 April 1874 page 304]

ROOF “RAISING” - At St. Jude's Schools, Upper Chelsea, the main roof, measuring about 27 yards one way and 10 yards the other, covered with slates, lined internally with plaster, and containing several skylights, has been lifted by Mr. J. High, under the direction of the architect, Mr. E. H. Lingen Barker. After being poised for several weeks mid-air, during sundry gales, on the fine points of a few ordinary screw-jacks, whilst a lofty story was in course of erection beneath, it was finally lowered and fixed in its raised position, no disturbance of the slates or cracking of the plaster or glass having occurred. [Builder 4 April 1874 page 296]

Reference    Builder 11 April 1874 page 304
Reference    Builder 4 April 1874 page 296