“On the gallery floor it is absolutely necessary to inspect the lecture-room and laboratory. The former can seat about a hundred and fifty girls, and is provided with a proper lecture-table for experiments, and also with a lantern and screen. The laboratory is fitted with working benches for twenty-four girls at a time. In the little room between is a really good balance for the use of the more advanced students.
“A plunge into the basement must follow, for the care with which provision has been made for cloak-rooms, lavatories, kitchen, dining-room, and drying-room for wet clothes in winter, is very striking. Also a long passage, floored with wooden bricks, leads to the gymnasium, a splendid room a hundred feet long, and about forty feet high. This offers a certain amount of compensation for a very moderate playground behind the school. The playground, such as it is, is immensely prized for rounders, skipping, etc., while competition is very keen for the three fives courts which open on it at one side. The gymnasium is in constant use all the morning, for every class goes down there for a gymnastic lesson, on Miss Chreimann’s system, twice a week, besides a daily short drill directed by the form mistresses. A special class is held on one afternoon for additional gymnastic exercises, and another for medical drill, when girls with a tendency to some special defect are put through special exercises recommended by the doctor mentioned above, who examines all the girls of the school at certain intervals.
“Visitors may very well be glad to rest before leaving. The main library will probably contain sixth-form girls studying under a strict silence rule. Not to set a bad example, we will pass through to the museum to do any talking. The teachers’ library is beyond again, a pretty room with several sofas, and a window-seat under the stained-glass window which decorates this wing.
“There are many details one would like to comment upon, such as the fountains on each floor supplied with filtered water, the special taps to be used in case of fire, with directions as to the best method of procedure hung up beside them, the plans displayed for reference of the whole system of gas- and water-pipes. All these are very eloquent of her whose dream—realized as all dreams are not—has borne the translation into a reality which can never be truly prosaic, and stands here in solid brick, the North London Collegiate School for Girls, Sandall Road, Camden Road, N.W.”
On July 18, 1879, the whole of St. Pancras was astir with the unwonted excitement of a Royal visit, and the crowds that for miles lined the streets showed their loyalty by hearty acclamations.
The Prince and Princess, accompanied by the Countess of Macclesfield and Baron Colville of Culross, with Mr. Holzmann and Lieut. Clarke, were met at the door of the new building by Miss Buss and the Bishop of Rochester—then chairman of the Board—passing through a double line of governors on their way to the library, where Miss Aitkin, the winner of a Girton Scholarship, presented a bouquet of Malmaison roses. The whole party then proceeded to the tent erected in the playground, where the Camden Street pupils waited to receive their prizes from the gracious lady whose coming had been so ardently desired.
THE GREAT HALL, NORTH LONDON COLLEGIATE SCHOOL FOR GIRLS.
Adjournment to the great hall followed, when the girls of the Upper School had their turn, a hundred and fifty being made happy possessors of prizes from the same kind hand. Songs and speeches came next, and the Prince certainly looked as if his words were no empty compliment, as he said that none of their many functions had given greater pleasure either to the Princess or himself than their visit to these schools.