Blasts from the Past: An average day at King’s

On Friday afternoons, as part of a Co-Curricular club, seven U6th pupils are helping me to make a short film about an aspect of the school’s history. They have approached the task with enthusiasm. We have delved into boxes full of photographs, leafed through old programmes for plays and music concerts, and tried on blazers and boaters and ties. We have watched films made by the Film Unit in the 1950s and marvelled at the books produced by the Art Society Press. The Union Society minute book from the 1950s and 1960s has made especially interesting reading! While some of the motions, particularly those relating to race, gender and equality, we must hope are subjects which remain in the past, others continue to resonate today. ‘That Scotland should obtain her independence at once’, That Britain should renounce nuclear weapons immediately’ and ‘This house deplores supermarkets’ could all be debated today.

Selecting a topic for the film has proved tricky. Too much choice can be a bad thing! What the pupils really want to know, however, is how did daily life at King’s 40, 50, 60 or 70 years ago compare to today? Finding this out is surprisingly difficult. Judging from a short article about the school published in 1960 in the London Illustrated News, there has been both rupture and continuity: boarders and boxing has gone, cricket and cadets remain. The school magazines are an incredible resource for revealing what happened each term but not every day or every week. We looked at some of the handwritten timetables, but these grids filled with numbers and letters tell us little beyond which subjects were taught and by whom. How long was each lesson? Was there a bell to announce the end of one and the start of another? When was lunch and how long was the break? What was the food like? When did clubs and societies take place?

What do you remember most about daily life at King’s?  How would you describe an average week? Please do get in touch and share your memories at archive@kcs.org.uk.

Lucy Inglis | School Archivist