Stage by stage- Part 2
This was the Kenton School stage that never was- the West Hall. The school was planned as two single sex schools but opened as one large comprehensive. This hall was converted into a lecture theatre with the seats generally arranged away from the stage. The proscenium was filled in and the actual stage itself was turned into two classrooms, one above the other. The stage side wall was knocked through to make a stairwell and windows were inserted. Whilst it wasn’t used as a stage, there was still a fair bit of playing to the gallery here though.
The room is now the school library, the shape of the proscenium is plainly visible.
Back to the classrooms, the upper room was used for RE in my first year, the lessons ran by an old biddy type (who looked like Hinge & Bracket rolled into one) that you typically find in church halls smiling at everyone.
By the time I had turned sixteen, it had been converted into the Sixth Form Centre. Upstairs was the lower Sixth common room which consisted of undulating padded benches round three sides with a counter and sink on the fourth wall (the stage back wall). Here lived the tea urn and the old valve radio.
The downstairs room was the upper sixth, lined with two rows of built in lockers either side and various tables suitable for playing cards on.
My last recollection of this staircase was that it was plain speckled magnolia walls- with heavy fog cascading over the lintel and down the stairs. I had this spare block of dry ice, a boiled tea urn, a free period and a curiosity as to how high it would fill the room.
(About eighteen inches, before we opened the door…)
