The first issue contained a call for support from the editor, Charles Lane, to the boys of the College. The support was to be twofold – firstly, to send in contributions and not to be down-hearted if their piece did not appear in print. Secondly, to support the magazine by buying copies. Lane saw the magazine as a place to publicise ‘matters of interest in the school’ and something to be kept by pupils as a record of ‘events which happened during boyhood’. To this end poetry, essays and creative writing were printed alongside school news. Journals other than The Alleynian have come and gone from very soon after the first edition of The Alleynian in February 1873. The first editorial lays the parameters for the College magazine, it was to be ‘devoted to the interests and well-being of our College’ and ‘encourage a healthy esprit de corps’. Some years later, it appears The Alleynian was not sufficient to cover all the interests of the College and a separate magazine, The Alleynian Naturalist , was born. Only issues from the second volume of 1893 survive in the Archive. It covered the natural sciences and was apparently encouraged and supported by the staff. It was printed with similar livery and quality to The Alleynian . Some journals have heralded from different parts of the College: the Junior School has produced JAM ~ the Junior Alleynian Magazine and The College Chipper , while the Lower School has been represented by various short-lived form or class publications until The Dulwich Despatch , which has now
Many Alleynians who cut their teeth on College newspapers, magazines and journals have gone on to have careers as published authors or journalists and among the illustrators we can equally trace the early beginnings of successful careers as illustrators, graphic artists or photographers. Fred Rowson (2000-2007) illustrated The Dulwich Despatch with his cartoons and is now making films. Andrew Liddle (2000-2007), who helped found The Dulwich Despatch , now writes for The Dundee Courier . The Literary Society Magazine, published in the early 1980s, included a poem by Tom McCarthy (1978-1986), now better known for his prose. His 2010 novel C was short listed for the Booker prize and his most recent novel Satin Island was published in February 2015 to rave reviews. The historians Alec Ryrie (1982-1989) and Richard Scholar (1985-1992) both wrote articles in unofficial magazines while at the College, Alec in Not The Alleynian and Richard in Semantron . On the production side, Bernard Battley (1948-1955) went from helping to produce The Carverian – the newspaper of Carver House – to running the family printing business Battley Brothers – now Cantate, who print The Alleynian . The earliest ‘unofficial’ publications were handwritten but reproduced using various mechanical techniques. Some were individually hand coloured when the reproductive method was only available in one colour. Issues of The Orchardian are clearly hand sewn, using bookbinding thread. Semantron was printed and bound in-house by Miss Lynn Stepp in the Print Room, but Dr Piggott made all the covers and stuck on the labels himself.
The most common reproduction machines were the Gesetner, which used ink forced through a wax stencil, and the Banda or Roneo, which was a spirit duplicator, where the spirit transferred the ink impregnated wax from the ‘master’ to each sheet. Both allowed the reproduction of handwritten as well as typed documents. The College certainly had at least one Banda machine, as BC Evans wrote an ode to it, published in his 1983 memoir Dulwich Collage . The publications with the longest history and perseverance tend to be those overseen or driven by a particular department or member of staff. But it is also interesting to note how some pupils and members of staff keep reappearing in various guises. Lucasz Strozek (2000-2002) not only helped start DC Mathematica within the Mathematics Department but also wrote for The Dulwich Tribune and created the front cover of The Alleynian in 2002. Dr Jan Piggott, who started to teach at the College in 1972, is another figure who re-occurs in different publications. His greatest claim to fame in the story of non-Alleynian journals is as the creator of Semantron founded in 1992 and still going strong. But he features in an interview in The Perfect Pizza , an undated publication from the 1980s, and in Fish, another undated publication, but probably from the 1990s. Many unofficial journals have come and gone and in various timescales, while others have enjoyed a renaissance, often with a gap of years. But the one that has survived through thick and thin, not surprisingly and as it should, is the official journal of record, The Alleynian .
been running for 15 years. The Middle School has a more chequered history in the production of magazines and does not currently have an independent voice. Likewise, the Boarding Houses have in the past produced journals but none are currently in production. However, apart from The Alleynian Naturalist , the earliest example of a magazine other than The Alleynian is The Orchardian , the in-house journal of the Orchard boarding house that first appeared in 1901. Then there are the publications that spring from co- curricular activities such as the Scouts or societies of the Union and journals that record the varied interests and pursuits of the boys. In this category, ‘literary’ journals are by far and away the most common. By its very nature, creative writing craves an audience through publication. Like all the others, they have gone in waves, some like those awaited eagerly by the surfer: longer and stronger than others and often reflecting the world outside the school. One of the most interesting is Muse , which came out of a literary society. Currently creative writing has outlets online in keeping with modern times in the form of the ‘Wordsmiths’ blog and the print journal 17 , produced by the Remove. Some of the literary journals even had contributions from pupils not at the College, the product of creative writing courses followed in Liberal Studies Classes, which were attended by pupils from local schools.
*The title for this exhibition comes from a magazine called Not the Alleynian , which was produced by 1A in the early 1980s. It was inspired by Form Tutor Mr Barry Adalian, who had previously produced 1D Times circa 1977/78, and in Lent 1988 1A Excelsior . It is also the classification used in the Archives to distinguish these publications from the official College magazine.
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