| Description | Scope and content
Frederick W. Oliver attended Glengall Road Boys School and Millwall Central School, c.1915-1919, before becoming a student of the School of Engineering and Navigation in Poplar High Street between 1928 and 1935.
The School of Marine Engineering (as it was first known) was opened in Poplar High Street by the Technical Education Board of the London County Council in 1906. Will Crooks and the Poplar Labour League were a force behind this but it was also part of a growing awareness among statesmen, teachers and industrialists of the need for technical education. By 1930 the number of courses had so increased that an extension became necessary. This was opened in 1931 and the work of the School was then distributed between the Navigation Department and Marine, Mechanical and Electrical Engineering Departments and a Junior Technical School having navigation and engineering sections. Further expansion got underway in the late 1930's but were suspended on the outbreak of war and this extension suffered a direct hit from a flying bomb in August 1944.
With the removal of the Navigation Department elsewhere, the name of the School was changed to the Poplar Technical Institute in 1949. Further enlargement took place in the 1950s, but with the loss of London's shipping industry the Institute ceased to be concerned with marine engineering and navigation. The buildings now form part of Tower Hamlets College.
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| AdminHistory | Frederick W Oliver attended Glengall Road Boys School and Millwall Central School, c.1915-1919, before becoming a student of the School of Engineering and Navigation in Poplar High Street btween 1928 and 1935.
The School of Marine Engineering (as it was first known) was opened in Poplar High Street by the Technical Education Board of the London County Council in 1906. Will Crooks and the Poplar Labour League were a force behind this but it was also part of a growing awareness among statesmen, teachers and industrialists of the need for technical education. By 1930 the number of courses had so increased that an extension became necessary. This was opened in 1931 and the work of the School was then distributed between the Navigation Department and Marine, Mechanical and Electrical Engineering Departments and a Junior Technical School having navigation and engineering sections. Further expansion got underway in the late 1930's but were suspended on the outbreak of war and this extension suffered a direct hit from a flying bomb in August 1944.
With the removal of the Navigation Department elsewhere, the name of the School was changed to the Poplar Technical Institute in 1949. Further enlargement took place in the 1950s, but with the loss of London's shipping industry the Institute ceased to be concerned with marine engineering and navigation. The buildings now form part of Tower Hamlets College. |