11/01/2024
John Pounds Workshop, Highbury Street, Old Portsmouth / reconstruction of John Pounds Workshop in John Pounds Church, High Street, Old Portsmouth. Circa early 1900s and 2023. 📖✍️🌸
This isn’t quite a regular then and now but thought it a nice way to shed light on John Pound’s story as although the original workshop no longer exists, a lovely reconstruction of his workshop sits splendidly in the memorial garden of John Pounds Church. The building, built to original size, is tiny, only 7 feet wide and sixteen feet deep and it has just two rooms, one upstairs a bedroom and one downstairs, which was the workshop, schoolroom and living room all in one. The workshop can be visited via the church. A memorial stone also sits in the garden to honour John Pounds.
John Pounds (June 17, 1766 – January 1, 1839) was a teacher and altruist born in Portsmouth, and the man most responsible for the creation of the concept of Ragged schools. After Pounds' death, Thomas Guthrie (often credited with the creation of Ragged Schools) wrote his Plea and proclaimed John Pounds as the originator of this idea.
John Pounds was crippled after falling into a dry dock at Portsmouth Dockyard in his teens, and thereafter made a living as a cobbler. He taught poor and homeless children Reading, Writing and Arithmetic at his small shop located in Highbury Street. Revered for his altruism and as a result, numerous places in Portsmouth are named after him.
Link to view image on our website: https://bygone.co.uk/archive/unknown-man-outside-john-pounds-shop-highbury-street-old-portsmouth.149/
ID: Image 1: A man wearing an apron and hat stands outside a small, thin two storey workshop building on a street. Image 2: A reconstruction of the same building, the first floor shows red brick whilst the second floor has wooden beams. There are large square lattice windows and pots brimming with plants and flowers outside.
