Reflecting on Judaism

By February/March 1970 the Managers were quite frustrated by the ongoing delay in completing the school and nursery. Their plans to show off the new building to prospective donors were being continually delayed and worse, the logistical problem concerning the children’s intake was upsetting to parents, children, Managers and teaching staff. Finally Raymond wrote the following letters to the architect and builder.

2nd April 1970

R. Duncan Scott, Esq.,

Messrs. Scott, Brownrigg and Turner,

32 London Road,

Guildford,Surrey.

Dear Mr. Scott,

lford Jewish Primary School

          The Managers wish to place on record their profound dissatisfaction with the way in which this work has been carried out. For the fourth time the contractors have failed to keep their repeated promises that the School would be ready for occupation on 31st March and for the opening on 6th April.

          First., we were assured that the building would be ready for 'the Autumn term last September. Secondly, on assurances given we made a11 arrangements to open at the beginning of January and then we reluctantly postponed it for one month. Finally, the building is not ready now. The Local Education Authority will not permit the School to open and the Managers are bound to agree that they right. The chi1dren have therefore been prevented from attending school for a further three weeks. The building is in no fit state to receive its pupils and as we have repeatedly said we require to occupy it in its finished state at least one week before school actua11y commences in it.

          The Managers feel that there is no adequate excuse for the present situation and must ask you please to ensure that energetic steps are taken to make absolutely certain that this is the final postponement.

In particular the Managers call your attention to the following points:

1. The site is still ‘dirty’. In our view the approaches should have been cleared long ago before the final interna1 stages were reached. We now understand that it is necessary to excavate the road to a greater depth and that this necessitates obtaining Local Authority and Ministry approval of a fresh specification owing to increased cost. We feel that this should have been ascertained long ago and would ask to please ensure that the formalities are completed at once so that the road can be laid before the opening of the School on 29th April.
2. After the carpet has been laid there is still work going on which should have been completed before and because of the dirty approach much mud is being trampled in.
3. The cloakroom floors have still not been laid and some of them still require painting.
4. We asked for completion of the schoolkeeper’s house to be ready for occupation by 16th March. A week later it was still not ready to be taken over and it is still not reasonably accessible.
5. The partitions are not yet delivered.
6. The van bringing furniture and equipment from Stepney on Tuesday 31st March, could not approach near enough to unload and had to return.
7. Electricity is still not connected and therefore the heating and ventilation plant has not been tested.
8. The drains are not yet connected.
9. There has been a lack of organization, co-ordination and control and this in our view has been the main cause of the delays.
10. You yourself have not warned us not to continue our arrangements to open the School on 6th April and you were aware of our intention to take possession on 31st March. On 30th March we inspected the building and it was obvious to us that it was nothing like ready but in spite of this the Site Agent continued to promise that by the next day all would be well.

          This state of affairs has put us to great inconvenience and has caused much annoyance and frustration not only to ourselves but to the parents of the children.

          We shall hold the Contractor responsible for any monetary loss we may have suffered and if the carpet or any part of it cannot be properly cleaned we shall refuse to accept it. Similarly, if there is any damage to equipment and furniture we shall look to the Contractor to make good as it is through their fault that we have not been able to install the schoolkeeper to take responsibility on our behalf. The opening of the School has been postponed until 29th April and it must be understood that the Headmaster and his staff must be in possession of a practically finished building from now on. They have much preparation to do. We require the approach to the main entrance to be cleared immediately and call your particular attention to Point No.1 above. We shall also expect that work on the rest of the site is started and the playgrounds and car park prepared.

          We hope that you will give these matters your urgent attention, pass on our views to the Contractor and make it clear that there are to be no further delays.

Yours sincerely,

The Contracts Manager,

A.E. Symes Ltd.

2nd April, 1970

Dear Sir

Ilford Jewish Primary School

          Once again the Managers feel that they have been let down.

As you are aware, the School was first promised for September 1969, then the beginning of January and now, although promised as ready for occupation on 31st March and for opening on 6th Apri1, it is still not ready. 1t appears to us quite monstrous that the School promised for September 1969 is still not ready some seven months later.

          When the site was viewed yesterday together with the representatives of' the Local Authority it. was clear that­ the School would not be ready for occupation on 6th Apri1 and the Managers are therefore being compe11ed to write to all the parents of the children notifying them that again the opening date has had to be deferred.

          I am writing to the Architects expressing our extreme dissatisfaction with the position and no doubt were you in the position of the Managers you too would have the same sentiments.

          Yours faithfully,

          Although building work was still continuing the school opened on Wednesday 29th April 1970 with 251 pupils although the numbers on roll was 275 made up of 109 girls and 166 boys. After a very difficult period the school kitchen eventually functioned properly and was serving 250 meals a day. There were six dinner helpers. A large number of visitors from all over the country had been to the school and it was felt that special time be made for such visitors

          At the Managers’ meeting held on 7th July 1970 it was reported that Mr. David Wolfson had declined our invitation to open the school but had given an outright donation of £5,000. He also made a loan to the school of a further £5,000 to be repaid, interest free, over five years. The Building committee reported a number of semi-serious faults with the building which required attention. Lady Brodie felt that the time had come for her to resign as a Manager and the Chair expressed a sincere vote of thanks for her many years of service.

          Bearing in mind the eminent persons who comprised the Management and Committee of the Stepney Jewish School at that time the only significant donation which we received was from Mr. David Wolfson. Although Mr. Birn was well connected and although he and Tom Philips approached many other Jewish philanthropists it was obvious that none thought our project worth while supporting. In spite of the gallant work of our local fund raising committee we were eventually obliged to borrow £30,000 from a Government department repayable over30 years with interest.

          I will end this part of the history on a personal note. When the land was eventually acquired, Harry Goldner, Evelyn, my two children and I went to visit the site in order to ‘Shlap Nuchas’. I saw my son digging a hole in the ground into which he put a small coin. I asked him what he was doing. He replied that when the school was built he wanted to tell people that it was built on his money. Jewish philanthropists, please emulate.

Woolf Abrahams

November 2003