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St. Andrew's Primary School

The first St Andrew's School (also known as The North End School)

This picture is of the second St Andrew's School taken in 1964 as it was being demolished

This is our school today

The History

There has been a St Andrew's School in Kettering since 1859. The first St Andrew's School (also known as The North End School) was situated in Northall Street. It was designed by Edmund Law and built by William Henson in 1859 to accommodate 200 primary children. The building was L shaped with a 30ft bell tower and a double arched entrance.

In 1884 a new St Andrew's School was built at a cost of £1200.00.

The architect was a Mr R. W. Johnson, the school was built by Mr G. V. Henson of Kettering. It was built in a Gothic style, fronted with Glendon stone with Mansfield stone dressings.

The building was pulled down in 1964 to accommodate the then new Kettering inner ring road.

The school moved to its present location in 1962 after it had been vacated by its previous tenants, The Kettering Central School.

This school building was first opened in 1902. The architect was Mr J. A. Gotch. It was built at a cost of £9.250.00. At the time of opening it was known as The Spencer Street Infant and Mixed School. The school accommodated 476 children in the Mixed School and 238 in the Infant School.

In 1920 the school changed hands and became The Kettering Central School which occupied the building until 1962 when it was taken over by St Andrew's

This page was added by Maria Farey on 03/05/2008.

Comments about this page

Thanks for reply. Having browsed the site I would like to add a couple of points I think need clarification,

I am surprised to see the old Central School has survived and is still an educational establishment. I was a pupil at the Central School from 1940 until 1943.

I would want to comment about the 'theatres' section. It is correct that the Paynes ran the Gaff and that the building of the Victoria Hall hit them. It is a matter of conjecture about the Victoria Hall being theatre as such as it was build as an assembly and concert hall specifically and not as a theatre.

The contributor seems to have missed the fact that the Paynes built the Avenue Theatre in Russell Street opening on August Bank Holiday 1903. It was a fine theatre and attracted many London shows. There was however another meeting. entertainment hall in existence at the same time - The Corn Market Hall on the Market Place as was staging plays and Music Hall entertainment prior to that. I think that in this section should go details about the Savoy (ex Avenue/Coliseum) as that theatre staged first rate live entertainment for over 60 years.

On the subject of cinemas I find your site bereft of cinema history of Kettering. The only mention is of the Odeon 8-screem in Pegasus Place except for a few interesting snippets about the Regal/Granada (at which I worked for a number of years). I don't understand this as I some years ago with a reprint last year written a book about Kettering Cinemas and place where film was shown such as the old Working Mens Club and Wicjsteed Park etc. The reprint is titled 'When The Lights Go Down' the original was titled 'Lets Go To The Pictures - a history of Kettering Cinemas' of which there should be a copy in the Public Library and the Museum. I will send you a copy of the reprint Should you wish I would be willing to write a shorter extract about the individual cinemas, I really think that this would be an essential section of Project Kettering as we are losing so much. Please let me know what you think.

Maurice Thornton

By Maurice Thornton
On 23/07/2016

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St. Andrew's Primary