An old brick building stands amongst the new-build. The paint on its window frames is flaking, and its brickwork is dark from the smoke of a previous age, yet it retains its dignity: a grandmother of a building.
This is the former St Joseph’s School, built in 1901, which ceased operation as a school in 1977. On its roof you can see the wire netting which once must have surrounded a playground or netball court.
St Joseph’s Church is in the basement, accessed by the porch you can just see to the right of my drawing behind the furthest lamppost.
The area in front of the building is a quiet garden, in memory of Basil Hume, an English Catholic bishop. Sometimes the gate is open and you can go in. It has been arranged so that, even in this tiny space, it is possible to walk some kind of small pilgrimage, along a path, across a ditch, past a tree, and so round a corner to rest in the shaded hut. On the way you encounter a splendid birch tree with white bark, which I have seen grow from a sapling.
BE
STILL
AND
KNOW
THAT
I AM
GOD
This quiet garden
is dedicated to the
memory of BASIL HUME
monk and shepherd
1923-1999
Number 15 Lamb’s Buildings hosts several organisations now. The City Photographic Society uses the Church Hall in this building. It is also the registered office of the Catholic Herald. I have often heard music as I pass by, so it might also be used as a rehearsal space. There is ballroom dancing on Mondays. The smaller building to the south, on the left of my drawing, hosts a pregnancy advice centre. So this is a set of buildings is in use, actively serving the community despite the flaking paint.
I made this drawing quickly as the light faded on a cold and windy evening. After the pen, I retreated back to my desk to apply the colour.
The musician Andrew Pink has written in detail about this building, including a description of the organ in the basement church. His piece is here: https://andrewpink.org/lambs-buildings/. The church website is here: https://parish.rcdow.org.uk/bunhillrow/about-the-parish
Here are some more photos of the building:
Jane Sketching 
I can’t believe this building is still standing. I went to school here leaving in 1958 aged 11.
The are where the little garden is was probably the infants playground. The outside toilets were there also.
The roof with the netting around was the junior girls playground. The junior boys playground entrance was around the corner a bit.
I remember one whole side of the school had white tiles on it , I think, with a cross picked out with black tiles.
I always presumed that the school had been bombed. All around it certainly was and we used to go across to the bomb site to play rounders.
Because of the lack of space we used to have to walk every lunchtime to a school in Bath Street for school dinners.
We sat separately from the other pupils and my abiding memory is having a boiled egg, half a tomato and a bit of lettuce on Fridays because being Catholic meant we couldn’t eat meat. Don’t know how we got through the day!
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How wonderful! I am thrilled that you remember this building. Thank you so much for providing some details.
It is indeed extraordinary that it is still standing. I’m just amazed that it has not been knocked down and the site redeveloped. Every time I walk past it, I am happy that it is still there.
I have uploaded more photographs at the end of the blog post, try this link: https://janesketching.com/2024/01/08/15-lambs-passage-ec1/#St-Joseph
There is still a white tiled wall, but the cross in black tiles is not there.
To the west of the building there is a space which has been mysteriously empty for many years, and is now a car park. It must be one of the few remaining undeveloped bombsites in the area.
As you see from the images I uploaded, the building is overshadowed on the east by a high rise office building called “HYLO”.
Your recollections of the walk to a school in Bath St are interesting. I shall go and have a look and see what schools are still there. The walk is about 10-15 minutes, so that must have taken a large part of your lunch break.
Many thanks again for your comments.
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Thank you for the photos.
The school in Bath Street was Moorfields Junior I think. On the left as you walk up from Old Street.
I’ve looked on Google and the garden area is in part of what was the junior boys playground not the infants.
I don’t know what was where the car park is. It can only have been a bomb site as across the road certainly was and the area to the right of the passageway running along the de La Rue printworks up to the cemetery.
I wonder who it belongs to. Very interesting area. Thank you for featuring it.
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