Today is a very special day for our school as it is the feast day of St. Vincent de Paul. To commemorate this special occasion, we started the day by celebrating Mass together. It was lovely to have so many parents join us for the first Mass of the academic year, the first Mass with our current Nursery and new pupils present. As well as thinking about the life of St. Vincent de Paul and why he is so special, Father Christopher helped us to remember the history of our school.
St Vincent’s Catholic Primary School has been educating children on the present site since opening in January 1938 just prior to the outbreak of the Second World War. In those days and until July 2005, the school was a much different place to now as it was guided under the trusteeship of the Daughters of Charity. It was they who originally opened the school in Beaumont Street W1 in 1868 as a day nursery for the benefit of poor milk women, and it is from the Daughters of Charity that our school takes its name.
St. Vincent de Paul was their founder and they, like him, dedicated their lives to serving the poor.
In 1870, the school moved to a new address on Bulstrode Street W1, which coincided with the formation of an orphanage for girls. In 1893, the school was on the move yet again, this time to premises on Wigmore Street W1 as a day school for girls was established. The current building, where we celebrated Mass today, was begun in 1935 and completed in time for its opening in January 1938 when there were fifty orphans in residence.
Some eighteen months later in September 1939 and with the outbreak of World War Two, the school was evacuated to Bristol. The building survived and was used during that period as a communal meals service, as emergency accommodation and as a public shelter. After the war had ended, the school reopened, minus the orphanage.
At some point in history, Little Barlow Street became St. Vincent Street in keeping with the school’s name. You can see the original street name today painted on the wall on the corner of St. Vincent Street and Marylebone High Street.
With numbers in the order falling, the Daughters of Charity sold their convent on Blandford Street and the school building in July 2005 to Westminster Council. The sisters are now located around the country, and the school is managed by the Diocese of Westminster in partnership with Westminster Local Authority.
Following demolition of part of the former convent, a new building opened in the autumn of 2009 to serve as the Sixth Form Centre for St. Marylebone School. The adjoining original dormitories building was converted into office and teaching space for the Sixth Form Centre, with the original Chapel on the ground floor now occupied by St. Vincent’s Foundation Stage (Nursery and Reception classes).
We are very proud of the heritage of our school and enjoyed celebrating the works of St.Vincent de Paul, whose mission we try to continue.
Together, through Christ, we grow and learn