McGregor Williams and his pupils traveled the country wearing swastika armbands which they had been given by members of the Hitler Youth movement. Crittall's Corner: 1935–1954 The old building at 27 Station Road had always been intended as a temporary site for the school, with a larger, purpose-built building planned for construction at Crittall's Corner, just south of the town. The first wing of the new building opened on 11 November 1935 and for a while the school remained divided between the two sites, with students' often having to travel across Sidcup to get to different lessons. Construction of the building only came to an end in 1938, when the school was moved in its entirety to the new site. The new building, designed by John Poltock – who would later design Cairo's Victoria College – was a modernist construct known for its prominent use of large metal-framed windows that allowed the building to be filled with natural light. Designed to house 660 students, more than were currently enrolled in the school, it was widely acclaimed both in architectural journals and in the popular press. It was also in 1935 that the school introduced purple blazers for uniforms, although the majority of students continued to wear their grey blazers; it would only be in the 1950s that the school's students had gone entirely over to purple. In 1938, the school was renamed Chislehurst and Sidcup County School; this was because the Sidcup Urban District Council had been abolished in 1934, its role being adopted by the newly created Chislehurst and Sidcup Urban District Council. In 1939, Britain entered the Second World War and a number of the school's teachers were called up to fight in the British Army. Headmaster McGregor Williams meanwhile joined the Home Guard, eventually becoming the head of the Chislehurst platoon. At the school, the students set about digging out trenches to use as bomb shelters and assemblies were cancelled. Students were expected to carry their gas masks around with them in case of chemical attack and during the ensuing Blitz – in which the German Luftwaffe began bombing London and the areas around it – the school was affected by a nearby landmine on 17 September 1940, destroying the glass of all the windows on one side. On 16 June 1944, the school was once more struck, this time by a V-1 flying bomb which destroyed