Catalogue description Records of the National Society's Training College of Domestic Science, Berridge House. Fortune Green Road, Hampstead NW6

SUMMARY OF CONTENTS:

Minutes of Governing Body and House Committee

Other administrative records (mainly relating to building work)

Plans and drawings

Financial records

Records of staff, and syllabuses

Records of students (includes registers)

Publications, Printing Blocks and Photographs

For a more detailed history of the Training College see:

1. College of All Saints - An Informal History of One Hundred Years by Graham Handley, 1978. This has a chapter on Berridge House. It is available for consultation in the London Metropolitan Archives Library, reference 22.41 (ALL).

2. Berridge House 'Who's Who', 1893-1957 by Helen M. Kelsall, July 1957, London Metropolitan Archives, reference Acc 900/257. A copy can also be found in the London Metropolitan Archives Library, reference 22.41 (BER).

3. Booklet to commemorate the jubilee, 1893-1943, of the National Society's Training College of Domestic Subjects, 1947 with 1951 amendment. London Metropolitan Archives, reference Acc 900/261.

Further records can be found at LMA/4061.

National Society's Training College of Domestic Science, Berridge House, Fortune Green Road, Hampstead NW6

28 July 1965 (Acc 900), 2 February 1966 (Acc 900 addnl) and 16 August 1982 (Acc 1764)

The College was founded in 1893 by the National Society in the disused Brew House of the Archbishop of Canterbury at Lambeth Palace. Here, training was provided for teachers of Cookery and Laundry. Housewifery was added to the curriculum in the first decade of the twentieth century after the College had acquired additional premises in Charles Street, Southwark.

In 1902, under the will of the late Mr Richard Berridge, a large sum of money became available for technical education and in 1904 the Board of Education approved a scheme submitted by the National Society for building a new college. Land was acquired in Hampstead, a Governing Body set up and in 1908 the specially planned building, Berridge House, was completed.

After the move to Hampstead, the curriculum was expanded to include technical courses, and later on, a three year course leading to the Teacher's Certificate of the University of London Institute of Education was offered.

As the College continued to expand, the following premises were also used to provide teaching rooms and accommodation : 54 Fortune Green Road (from October 1913), 52 Fortune Green Road (from September 1915), 13 Parsifal Road (from June 1927), 15 Parsifal Road (from 1929), 6 Parsifal Road (from October 1929) and "the annex", a former church hall, in Fortune Green Road (from September 1930). In 1932 the Field Lane School and its land adjoining the College was bought and adapted. This formed the 'West Wing' which was later re-named Maughan House. In 1937 Holland House was built in the grounds of Maughan House.

During World War I Berridge House was occupied by the WRAF and used as a school for instruction. It re-opened in September 1919. In World War II the college buildings were requisitioned, and the staff and students moved to Bournemouth. Princes Hotel, Bournemouth, became the college headquarters, Pokesdown Technical Institute at Boscombe provided facilities for teaching cookery, and science and laundry lessons were held in Bournemouth Municipal College. Further accommodation for teaching and residence was found in the hotels in the City.

In March 1945 the National Society requested the Council of the Church Training Colleges to accept Berridge House into its federation. Sixteen years later it was decided that Berridge House should be amalgamated with another church training college, and in 1964 it joined St. Katherine's College, Tottenham, to form the College of All Saints, White Hart Lane, Tottenham. Berridge House continued in use for Home Economics until September 1965.

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