The Willesden School of Art

North London

The Willesden School of Art at the Technical College in Denzil Road, Willesden, was an incredible place. Both Terry Frost and Elizabeth Frink one of our greatest sculptors, taught there. As mostly working class kids we were very priviledged to have had some of the best tutors around at the time. It was a very painterly institution and the Campden School was a very strong influence along with the French Impressionists, as evidenced by the two gouache life paintings I have included here. If you look hard at the above you will see the artist reflected in a background mirror!

I passed my technical school exam in 1954 and first went to the Secondary Art School where we were taught an intensive mixture of art and general education. The method was based on Bauhaus principles where learning was through doing. Oddly, we took no exams and at the age of 16 I went on to the further education Art School with the intention of becoming an art teacher. There, we took our GCEs and the Intermediate exams in arts and crafts as a prerequesite to the National Diploma in Art and Design (NDD).

Sadly, in 1958 the Conservative government closed this amazingly successful school down as part of its rather stupid rationalisation proposals for art training in London and it was merged with the Harrow School of Art. By then, my folks had left London for the Home Counties so I was left stranded out of Middlesex and had no choice but to go to work. Luckily, after a spell in factories I joined Bucks County Council in Amersham as a junior planning assistant and eventually became a chartered town planner working in the Home Counties, North Wales and the East Midlands.

Link to some more of my work and other known artists who were former students

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