| Description | Harwood Road School, on the corner of Harwood and New Kings Roads, was the first school to be built in Fulham by the School Board for London. It was also the first school in Fulham to be rebuilt by the London County Council.
The management committee for Harwood Road School was established on 27 May 1873. A temporary school was opened on 4 July 1873 on Eelbrook Common. This was for boys but some girls were also admitted for a short time. The first committee meetings were held in the library of St Mark's College, Chelsea, until the opening of the permanent school on 27 October 1873.
By 1909 the school premises were reported to be "the most unsatisfactory in the district" (ref: DD/1027/20 p128). The
buildings were bounded by two main thoroughfares, Harwood and New Kings Roads, and the increasing volume of traffic was both noisy and dangerous. Harwood Road School was closed on 4 April 1928 and the pupils transferred that month to a newly built London County Council school in Britannia Road, named The Harwood School. The school was officially opened on 22 November 1928. It had two departments, Senior Mixed and Junior Mixed and Infants, each with its own head teacher. The school was reorganised in April 1931 to form Junior Mixed and Infants departments.
The old buildings in Harwood Road were demolished in 1929 and the site was developed by the London County Council for a housing scheme, Broxholme House, which opened in 1931.
At the outbreak of the Second World War the school was evacuated to villages near Ware, Hertfordshire. The school in Britannia Road reopened on 8 June 1942 and shared the building with the Londoners' Meals Service, which maintained a public restaurant there until 1947.
On 8 January 1946 the headmaster took charge of the whole school, combining the Junior Mixed and Infants departments to become The Harwood Primary School.
On 1 April 1990 the responsibility for education in London passed from the defunct Inner London Education Authority to the boroughs. Plans to merge The Harwood School with Halford School were vigorously opposed by Harwood parents and governors but the school closed at the end of December 1991. The combined schools were located in the Halford Road building and renamed Fulham Primary School. The premises in Britannia Road were demolished and the site was developed for housing. |