Description:Floodgate Street Board School opened in 1891 in the heart of what was regarded as the worst slum area in Birmingham. It accommodated 1,115 children between the ages of 5 and 13. The area around the school was one of factories, railway lines, warehouses and dense back-to-back houses. On the ground floor where the infants were there was frosted glass in the lower panels of windows to stop children being distracted. The noise and dirt in the air from nearby manufacturing meant that the windows in the school remained closed.