IN PIAM MEMORIAM
EDUARDI LATYMER
CUIUS EX BENEFICIIS A.C. MDCXXIV ACCEPTIS
HAEC SCHOLA CONDITA EST
ITEM
ISAACHI LE GOOCH
NICHOLAE GOODWYN
RADULFI GRIGG
QUI ALII ALIAS CONDITAM
MUNERIBUS DONAVERUNT
{translates as:}
In affectionate memory of Edward Latymer. This school was established by the support received from him in the year 1624. Also of Isaac Le Gooch, Nicholas Goodwyn and Ralph Grigg, who also contributed to the building via gifts.
With thanks to our tireless Latin consultant, David Hopkins, who transcribed the plaque and provided the translation. David writes "Since the date intended is clearly 1624 AD, I’m not sure why they’ve written A.C. instead of the more usual A.D. (Anno Domini). A.C. would normally mean 'Ante Christum' ('Before Christ', or 'BC'). It could possibly stand for 'Anno Christi' ('in the year of Christ') or it could just be a typo."
Researching (in a government report) the names on this plaque we came across some other people who also contributed to the school through gift in their wills: Thomas Goudge - will dated 1712; Peter Brushell - will dated 1767; George Lewis - will dated 1788. Presumably there was a reason for not including these three on the plaque but we don't know it.
Site: Edward Latymer School (1 memorial)
W6, King Street, 237, Latymer Upper School
The school began in 1627 when the first 8 'poore boyes' were selected. But the school choses to date its founding from the drawing up of Edward Latymer's will in 1624.
The Latymerian January 2015 has "The first eight boys were selected in July 1627 and taught first by James Clewett in a room over the porch of All Saints' Church Fulham {the current church has this war memorial}, numbers increased constantly. They moved to a school next to St Paul's Church in Hammersmith {on the west side of the gyratory} in 1756 and were joined by girls in the Female Charity School in the 18th and early 19th Centuries. In 1863 the Governors opened the new Foundation School in Hammersmith Road, and then, in response to the developing educational needs of London, they opened the Upper School {where this plaque is} in January 1895."
This 1895 map shows a 'School - Girls' just north of St Paul's Church, about where the westbound carriageway of Hammersmith Bridge Road now joins the gyratory. That same map shows 'Lower School (Latymer Foundation) Boys' set back from Hammersmith Road, opposite Wolverton Gardens. That entire area was redeveloped into massive blocks of offices by the 1960s.
We find this boundary wall very odd, with the parade of large grilled arched openings. The earliest image we can find is a 1977 photo. We want to know: has it always been like this? Is this how it was designed? And if not, what happened that this was the result? But then we remembered that the Royal Courts of Justice has a quite similar boundary wall on Strand. The RCJ Listing entry describes this as a 'screen wall' and dates the whole building to 1874-83. So perhaps the Laytmer architect liked the idea and copied it 20-odd years later.
Credit for this entry to: Alan Patient of plaquesoflondon.co.uk
