From the Archives: An Afternoon in Detention

Saturday Afternoon Detentions in the 1950s

They were held following the last morning period of regular curriculum tuition and could extend, I think, for one or two hours - dependant on the gravity and/or number of the offences committed.

For the pupils so detained (not great in number, single figures as I recall) it was intended to be a punishment, through the loss of ones limited free time away from school, the confinement to the Library, the enforced silence and relative solitude, and of the activity imposed (study and/or set written work); in other words, a corrective deterrent to poor behaviour by errant schoolboys.

Bearing in mind the post-war austerity and widespread deprivation in many areas of South London at the time, access to any form of pleasure activity was extremely limited. It was usually the case that young boys were left to their own devices to find amusement in and around their local streets and open spaces (often ‘bomb sites’) – that obviously were not the most suitable environments to find or provide easy and rewarding fun activities.

Certainly, the wide-open green spaces around the School and playing fields, and the many and varied sporting events going on there and at the nearby Clubhouse and grounds in Burbage Road, offered far greater opportunities for amusement than my home neighbourhood did. True to say also that parents could be reassured of the safety of their offspring whilst spending time at School in detention, rather than being elsewhere outside of their sight and control on Saturday afternoons. The reasons for such situations arising may not have been quite so reassuring nor acceptable! However, I can’t say it was particularly problematic for me on the occasions (not infrequent as a younger boy) when I was subjected to these sanctions.

Therein lies the paradox: for me, a great and lifetime lover of everything Alleyn’s, the Saturday Afternoon Detention and what followed after, was never an Imposition – it was an enhancement of my Leisure!

Anon (Cribb’s 1954-61)

Image used with kind permission of Photo-Reportage Ltd.