Back to Open Air School
SIR: I was most interested to read Doris Thompson’s Memory Lane letter (November issue) about her Open Air School.
I grew up in Cambridge and lived opposite the Open Air School in Ascham Road. Each day, the children would arrive, either on double-decker buses or in taxis. The more mobile children, also with their legs in irons, would help to push the wheelchairs of the children who could not walk.
The classrooms certainly were distinctive, with their roll-up sides.
Having read Doris Thompson’s letter, I decided to go back to Cambridge and take a photo of the school [ above right]. Owing to present-day security, I couldn’t go inside the gate – so had to be content with a less adequate view from outside the railings. As you can see from the vans, the premises are now used by the Cambridge library service and the original sliding classroom ‘walls’ have been replaced with windows. Margaret Pearson, Reading, Berkshire