INTRODUCTION TO CHRIST'S HOSPITAL

The Christ's Hospital web site can be found at www.christs-hospital.org.uk

In 1552 a committee of leading citizens of the City of London, acting upon a command of the boy king, Edward VI, "devysed to take out of the streetes all the fatherless children and other poore men’s children that were not able to kepe them and bringe them to the late dissolved house of the Greie ffryers which they devysed to be a hospitall for them, where they should have meate, drincke and cloths, lodging and learning, and officers to attende uppon them".

Important words in this contemporary account of the founding of Christ’s Hospital are ‘children’ and ‘learning’. Girls and boys were to be received and the new institution was, from the beginning, a school. It is thus the oldest girl’s school in the country. The first children were admitted in November 1552 and, on Christmas day of that year, some 300 of them lined the route taken by the Lord Mayor and Aldermen to St. Paul’s.

On 26 June 1553 the ailing King signed the Charter of the Royal Hospitals of Christ's, Bridewell (a house of correction) and St. Thomas the Apostle (for the sick). The fifteen year old King died ten days later.

The Girls and Boys shared the Old Grey Friars Monastery in Newgate Street for more than two centuries. Though the youngest children were boarded out - "put to nurse" - at branch schools in Hoddesdon, Ware and Hertford.

In 1774 a boy was caught in the girls' dormitory at Newgate Street and a national scandal ensued. This led to an annexing in 1778 of all the girls to a purpose-built School at Hertford. Here they received a modest education which, by the end of the nineteenth century, was as good as any other girls’ school.

In 1902, the School wisely moved from the overcrowded City, to the space and rolling-countryside of West Sussex, just outside Horsham, with the younger boys from Hertford joining the senior boys. The new school became an instant village with its own railway station (still operational) and a Post Office.

Tradition has played a major part in the life of the Religious, Royal and Ancient Foundation ever since its inception four hundred and fifty years ago (this year). The original Tudor dress worn by the boys comprised buckle-shoes, yellow knee-length socks, breeches below the knee, white shirt with small ‘clerical’ type bands which hung over the collar of an ankle-length blue cloak, encircled by a girdle at the waist. There have been minor changes over the years, but the general appearance is the same today. In 1985, when the girls left their Hertford home to join the boys at Horsham, they adopted for the first time, a uniform modelled, with suitable changes, on the same style as the Boys'.

Because of the uniform, the Boys of Christ's Hospital (The Bluecoat School) were known as ‘Bluecoat Boys’, this became shortened to 'Blues' which is also attributed to the Girls by association. So when the boys and girls leave Christ's Hospital they become ‘Old Blues’.

One of the staff appointed in 1552 was a "Schoolemaister for Musicke, a Teacher of prickesonge" and the musical tradition has always been particularly strong. In recent years the School band, one of the many musical groups, has lead the Lord Mayor’s Show and performed during intervals at rugby internationals at Twickenham and cricket Test matches at Lord’s. The links between the school and the City of London Corporation are as close as ever and the Corporation appoints a number of members of the governing body, known as the Council of Almoners. HRH The Duke of Gloucester is the President (ex-officio) of the Council and The Right Hon. The Lord Mayor of London is Vice-President (ex-officio) during his term of office.

Christ’s Hospital is today an independent co-educational boarding school, for about 840 pupils between the ages of 11 and 18 years. It is unique in that it reserves most of its places for low-income families, who have children who would greatly benefit from the excellent educational standards that CH has to offer. It is one of the largest charities in the country and each year it provides more than £6 million worth of care, maintenance and education, with more than 80% of parents and guardians contributing nothing towards the fees.