St Mary's Town and Country School

St. Mary's Town and Country School was an independent, non-denominational, co-educational progressive day and boarding school, founded in Belsize Park, London in 1937. It closed at the end of 1982.

The school was owned and run by Mrs Elisabeth Paul PhD (née Selver), assisted by her husband Henry Paul, Elisabeth Paul's father David was a former rabbi in Darmstadt, Heinz Paul was a German Protestant. Both emigrated in 1936 from Berlin to London where in 1937 they bought the school, originally called St. Mary's School, at 1 Belsize Avenue. The school curriculum was biased toward the learning of languages and the arts from an early age, and the pupils, aged 4 to 18 years, were primarily the children of artists, musicians, writers, film producers and actors.

The school, as St. Mary's School, was run by Mrs A. Geary from 1932 at 1 Belsize Avenue until taken over by Mrs Paul.

At the onset of the war the school moved a short distance to 16 Wedderburn Road, where Mrs Paul and Mrs Ena Curry (of Dartington Hall School) were joint principals, but soon the school was evacuated to a house on the south Devon coast at Beesands. Many of the pupils then were from Jewish refugee families which had escaped from Germany.

When France surrendered, with the threat of a German invasion, the school was moved inland to Yarkhill Court near Hereford, and stayed there until the end of the war. Yarkhill Court was a small Victorian manor house attached to a working mixed farm, and next to the river Frome. Accommodation was on three floors, but there was only one bathroom. Pupils could volunteer to cultivate the kitchen garden, they could go hop-picking, and there were pottery classes. The barn was used to stage school plays in French and German. Pupils were allowed to camp "wild" on the local common at half-term weekends. Mr Paul, in London, joined the Home Guard.

After the war was the most successful period for the school: in 1946 the day school restarted at two large houses at 38-40 Eton Avenue.

The next year the country branch moved to Stanford Hall near Rugby, with Mr. and Mrs. Paul as principals. In this period academic teaching became more rigorous, with more science subjects being introduced; advantage was taken of the large picturesque grounds, and there were more sports: horse-riding, tennis, football and athletics were introduced; advantage was taken of the large ballroom to provide facilities for music and dancing. The two schools were run in close conjunction, with exchanges of pupils and staff. In 1949 the school left Stanford Hall, which was in serious need of repair, but continued at Eton Avenue when it was still called St. Mary's Town and Country School. Mrs Paul's residence and a boarding house was established at 87 Belsize Park Gardens.

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