Published in Windlesora 24 (2008)
© WLHG
Many residents of Windsor will remember going to Alma Road in the 1950s and 60s to visit Kipling Building to have their baby weighed, claim their milk tokens, collect their cod liver oil and orange juice entitlements, or perhaps to pay their rent or rates. At that time Kipling Building was where the Royal Borough of Windsor Council had its main offices and clinics. But why Kipling? Did the famous writer, Rudyard Kipling, who received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1907, come from Windsor? What was his connection with the town?
Rudyard Kipling was born in India. His father, a Yorkshireman, was a skilful sculptor, artist and a talented writer. In 1865 he sailed to Bombay with his wife to take up an appointment in a newly formed school of art in Bombay, and in December of that year Rudyard was born there. He stayed with his family in India until at the age of five and a half he was sent to England with his younger sister, Alice. They did not live with family relatives but were put into the care of strangers, not always happily. In January 1878, at the age of thirteen, it was decided that he should begin his formal education and he was sent to the United Services College at Westward Ho!. The college had been founded in 1874 and was run on public school lines. Most of the boys were sons of army or navy officers but some were like Rudyard, with parents in India.
This school is Kipling’s only known link with Windsor as in the 1900s, many years after Rudyard had left the college, the school moved to the town and combined with St Mark’s School. St Mark’s, which had been founded in 1845 by Reverend Stephen Hawtrey, was originally situated on the corner of Goswell and Oxford Roads but within 20 years it had outgrown the site and moved to premises behind what is now the Frogmore Hotel. Queen Victoria, Prince Albert and the Duchess of Kent all contributed to the subscription list to raise money for St Mark’s. In 1870 boarders were accepted and several buildings were erected in the town to house the boys. These were named Camperdown, Lawrence, Alexander, Roberts and Connaught. Lawrence, Roberts and Alexander houses have since been demolished. Upton House School now occupies Connaught House and Camperdown House has been converted into flats. The name of Lawrence is preserved in a block of flats on the original site of the house on the opposite side of Alma Road. The retirement apartments being built on the site of the Magistrates Court are to be named Connaught Court so that name will also be commemorated in the future.
The United Services College at Westward Ho!. that had been founded in 1874, only four years before Kipling was a pupil there, seems to have had a precarious existence. In 1903 it ran into financial difficulties and failed. Following collaborations with two other schools, the boys from the USC arrived in Windsor in 1906 to amalgamate with St Mark’s and the resultant establishment became known as United Services College, St Mark’s, Windsor. This school however was no more successful in its move to Windsor, as in 1911 approaches were made to the Imperial Service College Trust and the school changed its name yet again, this time to the Imperial Services College.
Finances still seemed far from secure and the school had to rely on benefactors such as Patrick Alexander, an aviation pioneer, and a Windsor landowner, F E McCormick-Goodhart. Mr McCormick-Goodhart donated money to the school from the sale of land where College Crescent was subsequently built. In 1926 HRH the Duke of Connaught and Strathearn laid a foundation stone for the Goodhart Gates, which were erected at the school entrance in Alma Road in memory of Mr McCormick-Goodhart. Another benefactor was F C Macaskie who funded a classroom block that was named after him. Also by contributing a large cheque he made it possible for the Trustees of the King Edward Horse Hall to make over their funds to the school. This hall had been built in 1931 as a memorial to those in the regiment who had died in the First World War. As the Regiment disbanded the Trustees wanted to pass on the funds for the benefit of sons and descendants of commissioned officers. The Hall was then used as the school hall. Later it became a public hall and was demolished together with the Macaskie block to make way for Goslar Way.
Kipling died on 18th January 1936. On his death a memorial fund was set-up in his honour. One of the Trustees of the fund was Stanley Baldwin, Prime Minister at the time of the abdication of Edward VIII, and Kipling’s first cousin. Others included several old boys from the United Services College days such as Major-General L C Dunsterville (the Stalky in Stalky & Co, – loosely based on Kipling’s school days at Westward Ho!). The original aim was to raise £250,000. This was to build a memorial at Westward Ho! and possibly also at Windsor. The Trustees also planned to build a library named after Kipling in the grounds of the ISC and to endow bursaries for the sons of those in ‘the service of the Empire’. Towards this end a banquet was held at Grosvenor House, Park Lane on 17th November 1937. Over 900 guests were present including Dunsterville and another of Kipling’s friends from the days of the United Services College, G C Beresford (also immortalised in Stalky and Co as M’Turk). Another of the distinguished guests was Winston Churchill who made a speech praising Kipling and stressing the gratitude that Britons owed to his inspiration ‘or the homage which English-speaking peoples would render to his genius’. The dinner itself raised nearly £10,000 towards the fund, which then stood at £45,000. Eventually the Trust decided that rather than a library, they would construct a building that would house boys, who up to that time still lived in the boarding houses spread around the town. The foundation stone was duly laid in March 1939 by Princess Alice. The building, designed by Clyde Young and Bernard Engel, was completed a few days after the start of the Second World War and was then occupied by the school. A plaque was incorporated in the centre of the building depicting animals from Kipling’s The Jungle Book.
Despite these fund-raising efforts, three years later in 1942 the school decided to move to Hertford and merge with Haileybury. In a sense this was coming home as the first headmaster of the United Services College had been a master at Haileybury and had had the idea of founding the USC when on a school visit to Westward Ho!.
The land and buildings which were now no longer required, were offered for sale in London in 1943. Lot | of the sale included the Kipling Memorial Building, King Edward Horse Hall, a classroom block and other houses standing in approximately 11 acres. It was stated that the buildings were in an excellent state of repair, particularly the Kipling Memorial Building which of course had only recently been completed. Windsor Council immediately saw an opportunity to solve many of its accommodation problems. It was felt that the purchase of the site and buildings would be ideal as it would give them the opportunity to centralise all the municipal departments that at that time were scattered around the town. In the Minutes it is stated that the Council considered the King Edward Horse Hall could serve as a public hall whilst school, medical and dental services could be based in the Kipling Memorial Building along with infant welfare and ante-natal and post-natal clinics. It was also thought at that time that it might be possible to incorporate a swimming pool and public hot-water baths in the complex with the gardens laid out and opened to the public. There were also large kitchens and it was felt that these would provide facilities for communal feeding if it became necessary ‘with the termination of hostilities’. The need for more accommodation for ‘cultural activities’ was also important, as a number of letters were received from local residents stressing this. As a result it was recommended that an offer of £37,500 should be made for the property and the Town Clerk was authorised to sign a contract for the purchase. However, in the Minutes of the Town Council it is stated that after discussion the purchase price was agreed at £37,250. As well as the buildings and land, the Council paid £326 for the fixtures and fittings, a very modest amount by today’s standards. It was also noted that owing to the war, the Borough Accountant was to submit details as to the method of permanent finance to be put in place at the end of hostilities. At the time the War Office was occupying the property, so the Council would receive an income from rent which could then be put aside to reduce the amount of any permanent loan that would have to be arranged later.
The War Office was not the only Government Department with an eye on the site. In January 1944 the Council approved the allocation of some of the buildings for the training of teachers. This decision was later rescinded as there was a worry that if the training college needed to include the Kipling Memorial Building in its plans the Borough would not then have sufficient space at its disposal to accommodate its own staff. Although the Ministry of Education was adamant that they would still be interested even without the use of the Kipling Building, the Council refused to change its mind and eventually, despite several approaches from the Ministry, the scheme came to nothing.
The end of the war did not see the release of the property by the War Office and understandably the Council was getting impatient. It desperately needed the space and used the waiting time to plan the new offices which were to include a Council Chamber with a public gallery. Despite many approaches, the War Office refused to de-requisition the property and Windsor MP Major Charles Mott-Radclyffe was asked to raise the matter in the House. To try and speed things up the Council offered the use of both Clewer Park and Clewer Mead to provide alternative accommodation for the War Office but it was several months before any decision was made. The demand in the town for extra space was acute. The Territorial Association stated that if they were not allowed room in the former college buildings they would have to go back to their High Street premises which in turn would leave the Youth Club homeless. From the Council Minutes one gets the impression that at that time the needs of the Youth Club were seen as very important. On top of this, yet another Government Department, this time the Ministry of Works and National Insurance, also wanted space and the Council said they would try and house them once they got control of the buildings. Numerous other local organisations were also interested but they were told that they could only be considered once the Council’s needs were met.
By 1948 the Council’s patience was wearing thin and a public meeting attended by nearly 1000 local people was held at the King Edward Horse Hall. The Under Secretary of State for War and Major Mott-Radclyffe had a private conference immediately before the public meeting and a solution was put forward. The War Office was adamant that they needed the ISC premises for expansion of the Household Cavalry until the Combermere Barracks were rebuilt. As a preliminary though they were prepared to release half of the Kipling Building and the whole of the King Edward Horse Hall by the end of March 1948. It was stated that the accommodation in the hall could then be used by the Youth Club. In return they asked for a 15-year lease to tide them over until the new barracks were completed. The Council was not happy with this but eventually agreed to accept the proposal providing that by the end of 1948, the War Office vacated the instruction block, the Kipling Building, the King Edward Horse Hall and Clewer Mead. The Council would then be prepared to discuss the erection of huts in the grounds to accommodate the members of the Household Cavalry. An agreement was eventually reached with concessions on both sides and in the autumn of 1949 the Council finally got possession of the building and could set about realising its plans.
The Council’s main consideration was now to provide suitable accommodation for its administration departments, committee rooms and the Council Chamber. In 1948 the National Health Service had been set up and it was now responsible for providing a chest clinic in the town, while the maternity and child welfare clinics would be run by the County Council, so these services were no longer the concern of the Windsor Council. It was decided that these clinics would be housed on the ground floor with the Council departments occupying the upper floors and at last having all their offices under one roof.
For over 20 years Town Hall business was carried out at Kipling Building, but by 1971 accommodation was becoming cramped. However, because of the uncertainty caused by the Government’s White Paper on Local Government Reform it was decided to defer any decisions until the conclusions reached on this were known. When in 1974 Windsor and Maidenhead Borough Council was formed, many departments moved to Maidenhead and the offices at Kipling Building were no longer needed. The building and the land were put up for sale and were bought by the Rank Hovis MacDougall Company, the makers of Mr Kipling’s ‘exceedingly good cakes’, as a site for their head office. In 1981 construction for a new up-to-date building was begun around the previous council offices and in due course Kipling Building was demolished.
A chapter of Windsor history had come to an end and an enterprise that had started with such high hopes as a lasting memorial to Rudyard Kipling was no more.
Barbara Mitch
Sources
http://www.thamesweb.co.uk/windsor/windsorhistory/kiplingbuilding.html
Royal Borough of Windsor Minutes and Reports
Kipling — An introduction — Geoff Hutchinson.
Photographs supplied by The Royal Windsor Website
Windsor Local History Group 