Location
Within a gated doorway on the west facade of the Sainsbury's store on Clarence Street.
Plaque 2
Bell School Facade
THE SCHOOL STARTED LIFE AS THE PORT BECK INSTITUTION IN 1812. IT WAS LATER CALLED THE BELL SCHOOL AFTER CANON ANDREW BELL WHO WAS A FOUNDER OF THE MONITORIAL SYSTEM AND ONE OF THE PIONEERS OF EDUCATION IN ENGLAND. THERE IS AN ANDREW BELL STREET TO THE SOUTH OF THIS BUILDING. THE SCHOOL RECEIVED A GRANT FROM THE NATIONAL SOCIETY IN 1842(?). THE NATIONAL SOCIETY CELEBRATED ITS 175TH ANNIVERSARY IN 1936(?).
THE BELL SCHOOL WAS CLOSED IN THE 1850's. IT WAS LATER RESURRECTED AND RE-OPENED BY ONE FATHER DOLLING WHO RENAMED IT ST. AGATHA'S SCHOOL THE SCHOOL CONTINUED AS ST. AGATHA'S UNTIL IT SUFFERED SERIOUS BOMB DAMAGE EARLY IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR AND WAS CLOSED IN 1947. THE BUILDING WAS AGAIN REFURBISHED AND RE-OPENED TO HOUSE ST. LUKES GIRLS SCHOOL FROM THE BOMBED ST. LUKES CHURCH. THE BUILDING REALLY REACHED THE END OF ITS WORKING LIFE IN 1968 WHEN BOTH THE BOYS AND GIRLS SCHOOLS COMBINED TO FORM THE CURRENT CO-EDUCATIONAL SCHOOL.
IN THE EARLY DAYS OF THE SCHOOL PUPILS WOULD SHARPEN THEIR SLATE PENCILS ON THE WALL. THIS FORMED GROOVES IN THE BRICKWORK WHICH CAN STILL BE SEEN.
THE BELL SCHOOL IS OF THE PEDIMENTED CLASSICAL STYLE WHICH PRE-DATES THE GOTHIC REVIVAL. VERY FEW EARLY NATIONAL SCHOOLS HAVE SURVIVED IN THIS COUNTRY;- OTHER EXAMPLES ARE AT CAMBRIDGE (1810), WISBECH (1814) AND KETTERING (1820). THE FACADE OF THE BELL SCHOOL IS THEREFORE AN IMPORTANT REMINDER OF THE EARLY DAYS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE EDUCATION SYSTEM IN THIS COUNTRY.
Further Information
The Andrew Bell School was built between 1812-1814 and enlarged in 1894. The National Society paid for the construction and the land was conveyed by Mrs Mary Fitzherbert in trust for use as a school and, if these trusts failed, then to use as a chapel of ease for the Portsea parish. In the 1850s the buildings were declared unfit and condemned. A well known local priest, Father Dolling who had built a church nearby decided to open a day school and so the property was acquired and refurbished to open as St. Agatha's. Dolling was the author of "Ten Years in a Portsmouth Slum" which included an account of the purchase of the school, though not once does he mention it's earlier history. He also refers to the raising of money, by continuous prayer, for the purchase of schools, in the plural, which may simply have meant a boys and a girls school as the only other school in the immediate vicinity was next to St. Agatha's Church which was at the centre of Dolling's parish. Regrettably Dolling's account is somewhat light on detail, focused as he was on the rituals of the High Church, the culmination of which can be seen at St. Agatha's church itself.
Dolling's schools stayed in use long past his departure from Portsmouth until serious bomb damage early in the Second World War caused it to close, never re-opening again under that charge.
In 1947 the buildings were refurbished and opened to house St. Luke's Girls School, which had been established near St Luke's Church but had also suffered bomb damage. It was an inadequate secondary school and work to rebuild on the old St Luke's site got under way. This was completed in 1968 and the former Bell school finally closed shortly afterwards. The building was included on the Statutory List as a Grade II listed building in May 1970. The Bishop of Portsmouth sold the site to the Council in 1971 who
used it as a store until 1978 since when it became vacant. The Marketway road proposals threatened its demolition, but ultimately it was to be the redevelopment of the adjacent hospital that resulted in its demise. The facade to Clarence Street was retained as this element created the most architectural interest.
Dr. Andrew Bell had no personal connection to Portsmouth. He was a Scot who entered the Church of England as a deacon in 1784. Three years later he embarked for India where he spent ten years in Madras, securing in the process the chaplaincy to nine regiments of the East India Company. When he returned to England he had amassed a fortune of some £25,000 and a pension of £200. Whilst in India he had also acquired an understanding of what was to become the Madras system of education in which older pupils were used to teach younger ones, the theory being that more would be learned in small groups run by their peers rather than large assemblages under an adult. This monitorial system was promoted by Bell on his return to England where his cause was taken up by Joseph Lancaster who adopted a more extreme version to the alarm of some members of the establishment.
There were two other schools that adopted the Bell principles in Portsmouth, one on White Swan Fields, opposite what is now the Theatre Royal which followed the Lancastrian principles and one in Green Row, now part of Pembroke Road, Old Portsmouth which adopted Bell's more libertarian stance. Both were also endowed in 1812, though the former did not open until 1814.
A short road on the south side of Sainsbury's has been named "Andrew Bell Street"
