Item RSP/7/k/23 - Photograph: School of Tailoring

Photograph showing Peter West measuring clothes on his wife, as his two daughers work and the table.

Labelled on reverse 'Central Office of Information Photograph. Crown Copyright reserved (See Feature Set Into No.210 The Working Man's University: The First Polytechnic. The demand for evening education in Britain far exceeds facilities. After a full day's work a large proportion of the adult population hurry to evening institutes and polytechnics to learn, at a very low cost, the 'know-how' that modern industry and commerce insists of its workers. More than 11,000 people in the evenings, and 2,500 during the day attend courses for further education at the regent Street Polytechnic, where the twelve departments and three craft courses are designed almost exclusively for the vocational student who has reached the age of seventeen (there is no maximum age) and has passed Matriculation or an equivalent University entrance examination.'

Separately labelled 'D.47589 (15) At his home in Sidcup, Kent, Peter West spends all his spare time tailoring. Since before the war he has been making suits for himself and his wife. Now he has orders from outside, a sheaf of which are hanging on the wall on the left. During the day he works for a tailoring firm, and in the evenings he is studying at the Polytechnic.'