Sir John Lillie Primary School, Established 1893

The late 1800's was a period of great growth for the local area. In 1880 the district line had reached as far as Putney Bridge. There were large factories in the area owned by Osram Lamps and J. Lyons which itself employed up to 30,000 people. By 1901 the population of the area had increased to 250,000 people from only 10,000 in 1801.  Of course this increase in population led to the need for new schools in the area and in 1893, Sir John Lillie Primary School was built.

In over a century the school building remains very much unchanged from the original plans and there are still many internal features such as the Victorian tiles and remnants of fireplaces which still remain. We also have a number of artefacts that are on display within the school, amongst them being the books which held details about punishments given out to the less well behaved children! From time to time we even get requests to see our old paper registers from pupils who were at the school over 50 years ago.

During its lifetime the school has educated thousands of pupils. If you are one of them and have any interesting tales to tell or even some old photographs that we could publish on the web please let us know as the current children are always keen to hear about the past!

A History of Sir John Lillie Primary.