Borough Street: St Stephen's National Schools

Revd George Wagner (1818 - 1857)

St Stephen's National Schools c. 1860

This fine knapped flint building, now Grade II listed and converted to apartments, was designed by London and Gloucester-based architect Samuel Whitfield Daukes, and opened in November 1855 as St Stephen’s National Schools.  Originally single storey, it was enlarged in 1895.

The Schools were established by Revd George Wagner (GW) who, at the invitation of his uncle, Henry Michell Wagner, in 1851 accepted the perpetual curacy of St Stephen’s church, Montpelier Place.

Before Brighton

Like his uncle, GW already knew something about teaching before commencing educational projects in Brighton. His experience had, however, been with far less privileged youngsters, largely the offspring of agricultural labourers. 

In 1842, he had been appointed curate in charge at Dallington, a village near Burwash in East Sussex, where he had hit the ground running. Within two weeks, he had resurrected the abandoned Sunday school and within two months started a boys’ day school in the vicarage.  A few months later (inevitably later!), a girls school was added. To teach the boys, he took in a pupil teacher, tutoring him each evening, gratis, alongside several other local boys.  An infant school followed.  A shoe club for the children was also introduced. This was a self-help initiative, most likely funded by small but regular subscriptions from participating pupils combined with donations from wealthier villagers. In addition, GW set up an association of schoolmasters for Dallington and the neighbouring parishes.

Six years later, when Dallington’s absent vicar died and a new one who intended to live amongst his flock was appointed, GW reluctantly left.  However, working flat out for so long in every aspect of his ministry while virtually ignoring chronic ill health had left him so exhausted that a break of nearly three years was required. 

St Stephen's National Schools

By the time GW moved to Brighton in 1851, his uncle had been building both churches and schools in the town for a quarter of a century.  Even so, the Religious Census of that year recorded over two-thirds of the town’s 38 places of worship as non-conformist. Establishing a National School associated with St Stephen’s was therefore a high priority for GW.

 Although few records of the workings of St Stephen’s schools survive from these earliest years, it is likely that children of families supplying services to the more affluent of the area were the initial ‘target market’ for pupils.  However, as a site had to be found and finance raised, the project took several years to realise. Although a government grant was available to help fund the building of elementary school buildings for children of the working classes, additional support from voluntary contributions was required. Contributions were only forthcoming in fits and starts, and there was still a considerable debt to be cleared on the church.  In the end, GW covered the deficit himself and the schools - one for boys and the other for girls - were finally opened on November 5th 1855.

During the early years of St Stephen’s schools, most of the teaching took place in two spacious rooms, the boys occupying the north side of the building, the girls the south side. Each school had a small classroom at the far end designated for small group teaching. This would generally have been conducted by apprenticed pupil teachers, who could have been as young as 13. Between the two classrooms were toilets and a small yard. 

GW took Bible classes at both schools - two each week for the boys, mysteriously just one for the girls. He also dropped in at the schools every day to encourage the teachers and play with the children, as attested by the first mistress of the girls’ school:

Early one very cold morning in January, I found him playing with the children, clapping their hands, and stamping their feet; his merry laugh being the loudest of all.

Children, GW believed, should be taught to gain intrinsic satisfaction from their personal achievements. For this reason, he shunned the prevailing system of rewards for good work which, he argued, also “excited considerable jealousy among parents”. On the other hand, he did favour treats, which would have certainly included outings and half day holidays.  

Sadly GW’s personal association with the schools was not to last. His health further deteriorated and he died in February 1857 at the age of 39. The schools he had founded and supported so liberally merged with nearby Christ Church school in 1922, and the Borough Street building was in commercial use by 1930. It has since been converted to flats.