As part of their transformation works, College Hall has been raised and will be replaced by a much larger new building that covers the previous footprint and that of the old rear car park. Thankfully the clock tower was preserved, as you can see.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thanks to Aidan for the pics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.runnymedecampus.com\/tours\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/4-1-1024x731.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.runnymedecampus.com\/tours\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/8-1024x546.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.runnymedecampus.com\/tours\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/7-1024x662.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.runnymedecampus.com\/tours\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/6-1024x575.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.runnymedecampus.com\/tours\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/5-1024x601.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.runnymedecampus.com\/tours\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/3-1024x661.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.runnymedecampus.com\/tours\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/2-1024x601.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.runnymedecampus.com\/tours\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/1-1024x597.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nPhyllis Taylor \u2013 class of \u201946<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
February 7, 2017
<\/h6>\n\n\n\nFirst update to this website in a very long time \u2026 much has happened since I last posted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As many of you will know, the campus has undergone a lot of change, with work now well underway in the latest redevelopment of the Coopers Hill site. It\u2019s been a while since I personally last ventured there, but reports from others cite that all of the \u2018new\u2019 accommodation blocks, workshops and gymnasiums have all been cleared and demolished.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.runnymedecampus.com\/tours\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/cleared_runnymede_2015-1024x570-1024x570.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nThis is to make way for the next chapter in the campus\u2019 story \u2013 it\u2019s transformation into (drumroll please!) Magna Carta Park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sad face ;-(<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More on that another time\u2026 the reason for dusting off the blog and writing this update was to share with the world an amazing set of photos and memories from a very special campus resident \u2013 one Phyllis Taylor \u2013 later to become Phyllis Enlund after her marriage to Jeffery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Phyllis, or Phyl as she likes to be known, left a comment on the website a couple of years ago which caught my attention. Rather than coming from someone who studied on campus \u2013 either during the Shoreditch College years, or the Brunel years \u2013 Phyllis lived and worked on campus from 1946 when it was Cooper\u2019s Hill Emergency Training College \u2013 which makes Phyl the oldest (in residency terms) commentator to date!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you remember, Cooper\u2019s Hill Emergency Training College was setup by London County Council (LCC) to quickly address the lack of teachers following the second world war (you can read more about the history of the campus here). During wartime, the LCC had used Cooper\u2019s Hill as an administrative centre to protect vital civic functions from bombing. It\u2019s is also the period when Piccadilly\u2019s famous Eros statue was stored for safe-keeping in the President Hall cellars!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To address the acute shortage of trained teachers, a heavily compressed syllabus was used to train handcraft teachers in under 18 months, many of whom were soldiers demobbed and returning from the war. It was this influx of students that led cause to setup kitchens to provide meals, and Phyl\u2019s first job. The College closed in name in 1951, when it was agreed the Shoreditch College of Education (also under LCC control) would expand and relocate from their Pitfield Street campus in Hoxton, London to the Cooper\u2019s Hill site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now, it\u2019s impolite to ask a lady her age, but i\u2019m guessing she must be in her late 80\u2019s now \u2026 alive and well and living now in Australia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.runnymedecampus.com\/tours\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Phylis001a-1024x601.jpg\")
<\/a>The Dining Room Staff with the Wraysbury Reservoirs behind<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li> ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.runnymedecampus.com\/tours\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Phylis001c-1024x1019.jpg\")
<\/a>\u201cMy Chum\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li> ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.runnymedecampus.com\/tours\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Phylis001d-1024x755.jpg\")
<\/a>Dining Room Staff on Ballroom steps<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li> ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.runnymedecampus.com\/tours\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Phylis001b-1-702x1024.jpg\")
<\/a>Phyl and friend in front of President Hall<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li> ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.runnymedecampus.com\/tours\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Phylis002a-736x1024.jpg\")
<\/a>Betty and Ann<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li> ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.runnymedecampus.com\/tours\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Phylis002b-1024x746.jpg\")
<\/a>Marion, Ethel & Phyl<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li> ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.runnymedecampus.com\/tours\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Phylis003a-700x1024.jpg\")
<\/a>Phyl<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li> ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.runnymedecampus.com\/tours\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Phylis003b-687x1024.jpg\")
<\/a>Ann<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li> ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.runnymedecampus.com\/tours\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Phylis003c-1024x659.jpg\")
<\/a>The 1947 Rugby team, coached by Mr Pacey<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li> ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.runnymedecampus.com\/tours\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Phylis004a-1024x786.jpg\")
<\/a>Girls at Ella\u2019s wedding<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li> ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.runnymedecampus.com\/tours\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Phylis004b-714x1024.jpg\")
<\/a>Phyl, Iris, Yvonne<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li> ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.runnymedecampus.com\/tours\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Phylis006a-630x1024.jpg\")
<\/a>Cliff, the Head Porter and Chum<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li> ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.runnymedecampus.com\/tours\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Phylis006b-1024x643.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.runnymedecampus.com\/tours\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Phylis007a-732x1024.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.runnymedecampus.com\/tours\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Phylis007c-704x1024.jpg\")
<\/a>Phyl and her father<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n According to the many emails we have exchanged, Phyl was born in Strood, Rochester on the north Kent coast. She grew up and went to school in nearby Rainham where a neighbour, who worked in another Teachers College kitchen, told Phyl about the job openings in the kitchens at the newly opened Cooper\u2019s Hill Emergency Training College in Surrey. She applied and took up a job as an assistant vegetable cook in October 1946.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She lived in College Hall, above the kitchens, with a view of the Chapel. Every morning she rose at 5.30 and and prepared meals for upwards of 370 resident students every day. She remembers the food being very good by post-war standards \u2013 bacon, eggs & toast for breakfast from 6.30, and sometimes grilled herrings too. A less fond memory was chopping frozen cabbages in the winter months!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On days her off, she remembers fondly going to dances in Windsor, Staines, Egham and even as far away as Kingston. There were plenty of dances held on the campus \u2013 presumably in the Pillar or College Halls \u2013 as well as visits to the Barley Mow in Englefield Green, and to \u2018the pictures\u2019 in Egham!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Phyl was kind enough to share the photos above from her personal collection, which I can\u2019t thank her enough for. Not surprisingly the campus looks almost identical to the much later years we\u2019ll all recognise, but the real delight is in seeing folk posing for the same kinds of photographs in the same kinds of places \u2013 in from of President Hall, on the Pillar Hall Ballroom steps, by the Pillar Hall garden urns etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A timeless place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thank-you Phyl \u2013 it\u2019s been wonderful corresponding these past few years, and i\u2019m sure many people will enjoy your photos and memories of Coopers Hill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\nSome more movie appearances
<\/h3>\n\n\n\nMarch 3, 2012
<\/h6>\n\n\n\nMinor update to the TV &\u00a0movie locations<\/a>\u00a0page, adding The Wrong Box from 1966, and two appearances on the small screen in 2010 and 2011 in Lewis and Downton Abbey no less! Tip of the hat to Jill Sandwell for spotting the latter two outings for the campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\nWhat\u2019s next?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
February 27, 2012<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
The site has been live for a little over a week now, and the positive reactions i\u2019ve received have been lovely! Certainly makes all the hard work worthwhile now, and confirms my suspicion that the campus really ignited a unique set of feelings in whomever, and whenever they stayed here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There\u2019s been some great site feedback too \u2013 thanks to all who\u2019ve submitted wonky links. There are some immediate observations I\u2019ve made:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. Folk really want a photo gallery option to view personal photos.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m fully supportive of this, and i\u2019m looking into options. Whilst I don\u2019t mind hosting photos per se, over time this could get quite onerous, and I wonder if a shared photo repository (eg Flickr<\/a>, Picasa<\/a>) might be a better solution. If you have strong opinions, let me know<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. Visits from smartphones<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
I really shouldn\u2019t be surprised about this, doing what I do, but over half of site visits are coming from Smartphones \u2013 principally iPhones \u2013 and i\u2019m aware that the panoramic photography isn\u2019t supported on these devices. I\u2019m working on a solution for this, though it will require all of the photography viewpoints being re-made. When I embarked on this project 3 years ago and made some technology choices, smartphones had a much smaller market share and there wasn\u2019t a robust solution to panoramic photography on those platforms, so I opted for the QuickTime route. Times have changed, and thankfully there are modern HTML5 techniques available now. Before embarking on the internal shots (some 600 views!!) i\u2019ll make the jump to a new plug-in free technology that supports the widest set of devices possible. Watch this space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3. Changing building names<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The chaps from the STC days are understandly unfamilair with the building names Brunel adopted \u2013 even though they generally commemorate the STC faculty staff (Williams, Scrivens, Marshall et al). A couple of helpful alumni are trying to provide an alternative building nomenclature to me, so I can provide both names where possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Keep the feedback coming in \u2013 and do please leave your thoughts in the Guestbook<\/a>. It\u2019s these personal stories that breathe life into the site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\nA glimpse \u2026
<\/h3>\n\n\n\nFebruary 19, 2012<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
Some lovely comments coming in already \u2013 thank you!\u00a0Jason\u2019s inaugural note in the\u00a0Guestbook<\/a>\u00a0was exactly the reaction I hoped this site would provoke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lots of interest in the \u201caccess all areas\u201d photography I alluded to from the lesser-seen parts of the campus \u2013 like the President Hall cellars and the College Hall Top floor. Publishing the buildings will take some time to complete, but to wet the appetite, here\u2019s a glimpse from inside one of the\u00a0Clock Tower rooms<\/a>\u00a0overlooking President Hall, and here\u2019s a couple showing the epic views from up there:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.runnymedecampus.com\/tours\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/DSC_0017_small.jpg\")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.runnymedecampus.com\/tours\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/DSC_0012_small.jpg\")
<\/a>