Skip to content ↓

100 years ago......

This laboratory was started to be constructed in 1905 as part of a desperate attempt in modernisation, and was left unfurnished when the school went bankrupt in 1906.

Furnished in late 1906, it lasted as a laboratory for 50 years or so when the fittings were stripped out and it became the history department.  For the last 20 years or more it has been the music recital room.

Notable features in 1920 include the strange lighting (left over from being gas-lit?), the easy access to boys of all the bottles, the apparent lack of any Bunsen burners, the breath-powered water bottle (on the left), the complete lack of stools - and no blackboard.  A couple of balances can be seen, too - I believe that the area between the two laboratories was a balance room.  On the right would be the "chemistry lab boy's" domain - Mr Arthur Skelsey (later Tuck Shop Manager), who worked at the school from 1920 to 1970.  The laboratory in the foreground was for juniors, with the senior laboratory behind the partition.

Chemistry has been taught at Warwick School right from the start of the move to its present site in 1879. 
It is believed that the first laboratory was set up in what is now known as the Portcullis Room.  Pupils were charged for the chemicals that they used, and, in external practical examinations, had to supply their own chemicals.

Chemistry lab Jan 2020
Chemistry lab Jan 2020