City of London School
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The City of London School (CLS) is a boys' public school on the banks of the River Thames in the City of London in London, England. It is the brother school of the City of London School for Girls (a girls' school within the Barbican) and of the co-educational City of London Freemen's School. Intake is from age 10 to 18, although many of its pupils enter at age 11 and somewhat fewer at age 13.
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[edit] History
The City of London School traces its origins to a bequest of land by John Carpenter town clerk of London in 1442, "for the finding and bringing up of four poor men's children with meat, drink, apparel, learning at the schools, in the universities, etc., until they be preferred, and then others in their places for ever." (Stow's Survey of London). This bequest was administered by the Corporation of London.
Over the centuries, the value of the bequest vastly exceeded the expenses of the boys' education and it was in order to make fuller use of the endowment that the City of London School was founded by a private Act of Parliament in 1834. It has always been under the governance of the Corporation of London (the governing body of the City of London headed by the Lord Mayor of London, as opposed to Greater London).
[edit] Establishment at Milk Street
The foundation stone of the new school was laid by Lord Brougham at premises in Milk Street, in the City of London near Cheapside, on the site of the old Honey Lane Market, in 1835. The school was remarkable for its time in three respects.
First, it did not discriminate against pupils on the grounds of religious persuasion (at a time when most public schools had an Anglican emphasis): it included many pupils from non-conformist and Jewish families. Second, unlike other public schools, it was a day school (although there were in early days a handful of boarders, no boarding department ever became established). Third, and most importantly, it promoted a rigorously practical and progressive scheme of education which was well ahead of its time.
It was the first school in England to include science on the curriculum and to include scientific experiments as part of its teaching; it was also the first school to teach English literature (and not just classical literature). It also offered education in commercial subjects. This did not, however, diminish the excellence of its teaching in the subjects traditionally favoured by public schools, and it sent many brilliant classical and mathematical scholars to Oxford and Cambridge throughout the nineteenth century. These included the mathematician Edwin Abbott (whose exploration of a world in other than three dimensions, "Flatland", is still in print and who returned to the school as headmaster) and, among classical scholars, H H Asquith, who went on to become the British Prime Minster.
[edit] Move to Blackfriars
The school rapidly outgrew its original site and, by a further Act of Parliament (the City of London School Act 1879), it was empowered to move to a new site at Blackfriars on the Victoria Embankment overlooking the Thames (still in the City of London). A grand building said to be in the Italian Renaissance style (but actually in a high Victorian style with a steep pitched roof resembling that of a French chateau) was constructed at a cost exceeding £100,000 - a colossal sum in modern values.
On the front are statues of Shakespeare, Milton, Bacon, Newton and Sir Thomas More, the first four apparently nodding to its literary and scientific traditions, the last being a religious martyr, a famous lawyer, and the author of Utopia. This building still stands and is now protected by a preservation order; it is presently occupied by the investment bank JPMorgan and appears on the left of the famous Thames Television ident.
The Victoria Embankment building remained the home of the City of London School for the next hundred years, although the site expanded to include, not only the original building on the Victoria Embankment itself, but a range of buildings at right angles along the whole of John Carpenter Street (which was named after the founder of the school) and further buildings constructed at the back along Tudor Street, with the school playground, Fives courts and cloisters enclosed within this island site. (All but the original Victoria Embankment building were demolished when the school left the site).
In this position, it was next door to the City of London School for Girls (which was founded by the Corporation of London as a sister school in 1894 and moved in 1969 to its present site in the Barbican) and to the Guildhall School of Music (which has also since moved to the Barbican). It was also next to the traditional home of the British newspaper industry in Fleet Street.
The musical excellence of the school was fostered by an arrangement whereby all the boy choristers of the Temple Church (the church serving the barristers and judges of the Inner and Middle Temple Inns of Court, which are two blocks west of the old Victoria Embankment site of the school) and all the boy choristers of the Chapel Royal at St. James's Palace, were given scholarships at the City of London School. They included Ernest Lough whose recording of Mendelssohn's "O for the Wings of a Dove" with the Temple Choir in 1927 made him world famous; it was the first classical record to sell (by 1962) more than a million copies. Other musicians educated at the City of London School include the cellist Stephen Isserlis.
[edit] Current premises
In 1986, the City of London School moved to its present site in purpose-built facilities facing on to Queen Victoria Street (where it is opposite the College of Arms and just below St Paul's Cathedral) on one side and facing onto the banks of the River Thames on the other side. The Millennium Bridge (a footbridge opened in 2000) is next to the school buildings. It is a wholly modern building, although some of the stained glass and sculpture from the Victoria Embankment building has been relocated to this new building.
[edit] School life
[edit] Houses
City of London School has six Houses, named after important Old Citizens or school benefactors: Abbott, Beaufoy, Carpenter, Hale, Mortimer and Seeley. Boys are assigned to a House in the 3rd Form, which they stay in throughout their school career.
[edit] School uniforms
The school requires school uniforms [1] for all pupils up to the fifth form. Sixth formers do not have to wear uniforms, but they have to wear suits and school ties.
[edit] Curriculum
City of London School offers a number of academic subjects, these include: Geography, History and Politics, Economics , Mathematics, Language and Literature, Modern Languages, Chemistry, Biology, Physics, Drama and theatre, Classical Languages/Studies, Design and Visual Arts, Religious Education, Information Technology and Physical Education. Full staff listing can be found at the CLSB website.
Some popular subjects not offered at any level, for various reasons, include Business Studies, Philosophy, Sociology, Psychology, Geology, General Studies and Human Biology.
In 2005, the Daily Telegraph placed the school 34th (the second school in its "First Division") in its League Table of Independent School A-level results, with 89.6% of pupils gaining A or B grades at A-level. [2]
[edit] School fees
Although the City of London School has always charged fees to most of its pupils, those fees have been moderate relative to other independent schools, and it has always offered many scholarships, both on the basis of academic and musical ability. In addition, due to the withdrawal of the Government Assisted Places scheme in 1998, the school has been able to offer full-fee bursaries (or Sponsored Awards) to pupils from families on lower incomes.
For the 2005-06 academic year, school fees are £10,845.
[edit] Trivia
The pedestrian crossing of busy Queen Victoria Street near the entrance to the school is monitored by Sheila Gallagher MBE, who has performed this daily duty since 1991 and is the only "lollipop lady" in the City of London.
[edit] Headmasters
- 1837-1840: J A Giles (first head)
- 1840-1865: Rev Dr G. F. Mortimer
- 1865-1889: Edwin Abbott Abbott
- 1889-1905: Arthur Pollard
- 1905–1929: Rev Dr Arthur Chilton
- 1929–1950: F. R. Dale
- 1950–1965: Dr Arthur Willoughby Barton
- 1965–1984: James Ashley Boyes
- 1984–1990: Martin Hammond
- 1990–1995: Bryan G Bass
- 1995–1998: Roger J Dancey
- 1998–1999: David J Grossel (acting)
- 1999–date: David Levin
[edit] Notable current pupils
- Actor Skandar Keynes of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe film, played Edmund,
- Actor Harry Michell of various television series, such as Tom Brown's Schooldays and Feather Boy.
Information about these current pupils can be found in a publicly available school newsletter and has also been reported on in the national press [3].
[edit] Notable Old Citizens (old boys)
- Edwin Abbott Abbott - Headmaster of the school (after whom Abbot house is named), theologian and author
- Kingsley Amis - Writer
- Herbert Henry Asquith - Prime Minister 1908-1916
- Julian Barnes - Novelist
- Aaron Barschak - Comedian
- Henry Charles Beeching - Poet
- Artem Berezovsky - Son of Boris Berezovsky
- Mike Brearley - Cricketer (whose father Horace Brearley taught at CLS)
- Suma Chakrabarti - Senior Civil Servant
- Philip Dawid - Statistician
- Stewart Farrar - Author
- Leo Genn - Stage and film actor
- Frederick Hopkins - Nobel prize winner
- Joseph Oscar Irwin - Statistician
- Steven Isserlis - Cellist
- Anthony Julius - Lawyer
- Ralph Knott - Architect
- Peter Levene - Chairman of Lloyd's of London and Lord Mayor of London 1998 1999
- David M. Lewis - Professor of Ancient History, Oxford University
- Ernest Lough - Boy soprano
- Victor Mishcon, Baron Mishcon - Lawyer
- Luke McShane - Chess Grandmaster
- George Newnes - publisher and editor
- Denis Norden - writer and comedian
- Richard Packer - Senior Civil Servant
- Henry Thomas Herbert Piaggio - Physicist
- Arthur Rackham - Illustrator
- Daniel Radcliffe - Actor of the Harry Potter series of films
- Charles Thomson Ritchie - Chancellor of the Exchequer 1902-1903
- John Robert Seeley - Historian and essayist
- Derek Taunt - Mathematician and cryptologist
- David Walker - Master of the Household of the Royal Household
See also Category:Old Citizens
[edit] Further reading
- Carpenter's Children: History of the City of London School, T. Hinde (1995).
- The City of London School, A. E. Douglas-Smith (1st edition 1937, 2nd edition 1965)
