Watford doesn’t have many architectural features, but the one building of any merit it does have is its college. Erected in the 1930s it as good a building as you’ll find in the town. Significant too that is was, for over half a century, home to one of the best schools of printing in the country. But now the school has closed, and developers are coming in to well, ‘develop’ the site.
Watford loses a good building; printing loses a bit of its past; and I am losing a part of my own, very personal history. I spent years of my life inside the Watford school of printing – my dad taught composition there from the 1950s-80s and I grew-up in the school surrounded by metal type, and printing presses, and ink and paper. In redeveloping the site a little bit of me is lost: but that, of course, is progress.
Despite its large and vibrant printing industry, it was not until 1950 that a printing school was established at Watford with the purpose of providing a skilled workforce to local industry. Evening classes in printing subjects had been held in the School of Art during the 1930s and Hertfordshire County Council’s plans for a technical college at Watford had been drawn up in 1937, but the war intervened and construction of the printing school was delayed. Three principle factors brought about its development: the 1944 Education Act, which required local authorities to provide adequate facilities for further education for industry; the 1945 Report on Recruitment and Training for the Printing Industry, which encourage growing support from local Master Printers’ Associations and from Trade Unions; and the 1950 Interim Report on Printing Education by the London and Home Counties Regional Advisory Council, which drew attention to the growth of the printing industry in the Watford area, and stressed the need to develop education on a regional basis.
The official opening of Watford Technical College took place in 1953, by which time the printing school had been running for nearly three years and comprised specialist rooms for bookbinding and warehouse work; compositors’ work (including mechanical composition); machine printing; process engraving; photogravure; and typographic design. However, the support of local industry was so great that these facilities rapidly became strained and the accommodation had to be extended to house the school which offered a full-time diploma course in printing technology for potential executives, as well as part-time courses for apprentices and journeymen. Part-time day courses were also offered for the executive or administrative student, while a variety of evening courses were provided for those employed in various capacities within the industry, including ink technology and paper merchanting. In ten years, the number of individuals enrolled on print-related courses doubled from 367 in 1950 to 740 students in 1959; over half the students were on day-release, sent to the college from in excess of 60 local businesses.
The School of Printing—under the direction of T J Cowley—had an international reputation, attracted students from around the world, boasted excellent links with industry and was one of the most progressive, vibrant and best-equipped departments in the UK.
I for one am sad to see it go.