View allAll Photos Tagged wapping
As part of London Docklands Regeneration plans, St John's Wharf was converted into flats. They now cost £1,500,000.
New Crane Place, Wapping. Built in 1873 but re-built in 1885 after a fire. They were converted into shops and flats in 1989-90.
Description: Flyer issued by SOGAT82 detailing issues raised by the Wapping Dispute and asking members not to buy the Sun, Times, News of the World and the Sunday Times.
Accession Number: SH.2009.225.8
SOGAT became an industrial union in 1783 when three London based craft societies came together and decided to take action to achieve a reduction of the working week from 78 hours. Five of the leaders were sent to prison for two years but victory was ultimately achieved. The union grew and amalgamated with many other print unions. By 1983 SOGAT was a combination of 39 unions.
Further Notes: In January 1986 after a long period of negotiation 6,000 trade unionists went on strike in support of members who worked at News International and the Times Group Newspapers. The company were seeking a binding agreement with print unions which incorporated flexible working, a non-strike agreement, new technology and the abolishment of the closed shop. As soon as the strike was announced News International issued dismissal notices to all those taking part in industrial action. The company replaced the workforce and transferred four of its titles (The Times, The Sunday Times, The Sun and the News of the World) to the Wapping Plant. This began the Wapping Dispute. Print Unions rallied and urged members to boycott the four papers involved and demonstrated at the plant. In 1987 the strike collapsed and the restrictive practices enforced by unions collapsed too.
Edinburgh City of Print is a joint project between City of Edinburgh Museums and the Scottish Archive of Print and Publishing History Records (SAPPHIRE). The project aims to catalogue and make accessible the wealth of printing collections held by City of Edinburgh Museums. For more information about the project please visit www.edinburghcityofprint.org
iPhone 11 Pro & HDR shots of Wapping Road First School & Swimming Pool & next door (on the same site) Wapping Road Boarding School, Wapping Road, Bradford.
Wapping First School was the country's first school with a swimming pool & the pool is (argued to be) the first swimming pool to be built in the country (if this is not the case, it’s certainly one of the first 5). Wapping Road School opened in 1877. The historic pool, which can still be seen fully intact today, although in the basement of an extremely derelict site, measures 14 metres x 5 metres, shallow end 2ft 6 & deep end 3ft 6- so not very long & incredibly shallow, (as can be seen in my photos) & was used by children from schools across the Bradford district who were bussed into Wapping to learn to swim. Wapping School aimed to cater for the educational needs of a close-knit but poor neighbourhood and went on to receive commendation from HM Inspector of Schools.
The school created national & international headlines with the help of education campaigner Margaret McMillan & her partner (LGBTQ+ friendly here!) & her push to improve the life of children in the education & state system. (I believe she was also the person who helped to begin free school meals, as well as kickstart the kind of scholarships that are available for students from families with smaller incomes, to enable them to attend a grammar/ boarding/ elitist school/ college/ university, without having to pay their massive fees).
The Grade II listed building closed as a school in August 2000 & was badly hit by vandalism including a series of fires, with the roof being damaged & most of the interior features destroyed over the years. Many floors are completely destroyed, the roof is non- existent over most of the building & much of the building is now a shell, where there were once multiple floors (basement/ pool, teaching areas & (depending on which building) dorms (for boarding) or storage areas, all the floors are fully exposed, ie, stand at the exterior looking in, you can look down through the ground level to the basement & look up to the sky with nothing but interior walls (some places not even that) between. Much of the main timber support beams have fallen & the interior brickwork warped at terrible (& dangerous angles), existing floors are either support beam only, concrete or just have a few warped floorboards only. It seems only the external stone still exists in much of the building, but to my (non expert) opinion, this is now heavily at risk. Sadly there has been much drug use in the area & especially the area around the exterior & interior of the pool are littered by used needles. (Being disabled I am always very careful, as well as dressing bright clothing, park directly outside & go in there in daylight & never alone, like to prove I am not adding to any antisocial activity in the property, nor do I want to come across any antisocial behaviour myself, especially not at night) I felt unsafe to enter most of this building. Now although I could’ve gone into to the swimming pool area, which being in the basement seemed intact floor wise (concrete & the tiles remained, for what I could see) unfortunately there were so many needles I don’t want to risk it, with it being so dark. There is also the upper floor caving into the pool badly & 1 massive wooden support beam that’s already fallen into the pool area- I don’t want to be in a building collapse! It looks like it would’ve been a terrifying place to learn to swim, with it being in the basement, so dark, narrow, shallow, no doubt freezing in winter & no doubt very echoey, as well as possibly being able to hear the active school day going on above your head! I just hope it was well lit!.
In 2004 plans to convert the building into apartments were approved, but work never began, being Grade II listed but then so badly damaged, most want to demolish & rebuild on the site. I’m led to believe it’s now owned by the neighbouring Life Centre (formerly known as the Abundant Life Church) who would love to make it into teaching areas & accommodation for their ever- growing college education centre, for pastoral studies.
The school building is a big part of Bradford’s Victorian heritage, it was also one of the earliest Board Schools after the 1870 Act. So I do hope they at least managed to save the exterior & the pool areas, there aren’t many pools now that are in basements (or with anything built overhead), but this could work for apartment or a halls of residence type building & the basement location & it’s small size would be more relative to a pool for this purpose & not get overcrowded. I drive by this location twice daily, 6 days per week, (taking Andy to work & bringing him home) so any changes & I can keep you all updated!