The History
The original Bishops Stortford High School was located in London Road Bishops Stortford. Building work commenced in the early 1950’s and the school finally opened in September 1957.
From the 1980s onwards the school extensively added to its original buildings; a dedicated Sixth Form Centre was built and the Turing Suite (an extensive computing and ICT facility, named after Alan Turing) was constructed. A drama studio named 'Broadway' and an on-site sports pavilion were also added to the school, in addition to the set of playing fields at Jobber's Wood. The school site also has 'Newton', a combined Design technology, Science and Languages block] named after Sir Isaac Newton, which opened in 1995.
After 2 decades, finally in October 2021 the new school development officially started on the new site at St. James' Park. The original plan in place was for the school to be completed by November 2022 and opening in January 2023.
Originally an all-boys school, the school saw more than 10,000 boys (and later girls) through its doors in its 67-year history, the school closed in July 2024.
With continuous delays, the new school 'topped out' in October 2023 and finally opened in September 2024 welcoming its first students on Friday 6 September 2024. Development on the new school is still underway with the new sports hall facility set to be completed in 2025.
The Explore
Bit of a chance find this one, I’d been nearby estimating a job for work and noticed the explorers favourite, a row of Heras fencing. Oooooo I couldn’t stop as I was heading to meet a customer so made a mental note to have a google when I got home and find out what was there.
Low and behold it was a decent 1950’s school, so I made plans to visit it a few days later and roped @KPUrban_ in to keep me company.
We parked up, walked around the Heras and in we went.
After grabbing some externals
We started our adventure with this rather large building which we assumed was a swimming pool, but upon entrance found it to be a large sports hall.
After leaving here we walked across to another large looking building which turned out to be a smaller sports hall, I guess you could call it a gymnasium.
The gymnasium led into the schools main hall, which doubled as a drama studio judging by the stage and lighting rig
The drama studio led onto what for the size of the school was a small canteen
