The Building of St Edward's School: A Chronology (1870 - 2020)

P AGE N O : 15 In a note left in Simeon’s hand, dated after he left the School, he stated: ‘The buildings have been erected from funds as follows - £20,000 (£f3,480,000 today) from the bank, £6,000 (£1,044,000 today) from private funds ( his own ) plus a (further) bank loan of £1,500 (£261,000 today) toward ‘the Baths’. The rest, amounting to £25,000 (£4,350,000 today), accrued from profits while I was Warden 1870-1892’. This total amount then would reach a staggering £52,500 (£9,135,000 today). 1887 - After the Reverend Dalton’s departure from the School in 1883 for Winchester College, the Reverend C. Olive and his wife take over the running of the New Buildings and lodged there. When Olive in turn left shortly afterwards, the building becomes less of a personal dwelling and more of a School facility. Its original Dining Room is altered to become the first Laboratory (later a dormitory and then Menzies House Junior Room in the 1930s) (Cowell, December 1931 Chronicle). 1888 - First Laboratory (in New Buildings) opens in January. The New Buildings also now houses the third School Sanatorium or Sick-house on the two upper floors The indoor Swimming Bath ( William Hanson design ) along the north wall perimeter opens on Easter Day, ‘when the whole School lined the sides and dived in at a signal’ (Cowell, December 1931 Chronicle). Costs for the Indoor Bath, including the design, amounted to £62 (£11,036 today - Box 12) ‘While the Indoor Bath was being excavated there was a curious accident, which just missed being a tragedy. The high wall along South Parade had been skinned inside for re-facing, and a long stretch of it had fallen into the bath. Close to the inside wall of the bath was a workman with a barrow. The ruin fell right over him, just clearing his head. I remember how we admired the two clever Italians who laid the mosaic at the bottom of the Bath’ (Cowell, December 1931 Chronicle) A list of the buildings then considered ‘St. Edward’s School’ is divided thus according to Harold Rogers (O.S.E. and School Architect) written some years later - The Quadrangle – including The School Buildings and Warden’s House (completed 1873), The Chapel (completed 1877), The Lodge (completed 1880), The Big School (completed 1881), The New Buildings (completed 1882), additions to the Warden’s House (completed 1886) and The Outdoor and Indoor Swimming Baths and the Gymnasium (completed 1887). Of the above buildings, Big School had since been altered to incorporate a gallery and outside staircase and both the School Building and New Buildings had had ‘many additions and internal rearrangements’. ‘The School Buildings were entered from the main door at the east end and from the door beneath the Arches on the south side. At the right hand side of the door as one entered from the east end was the Lower Third Form Room, on the blank wall on the north side was the principal notice board ‘whereon were posted Warden’s notices, Games and Library Lists and other announcements of general interest, another notice board was added later on the south side of this entrance vestibule, with Form Lists and Masters’ notices about work’. Directly opposite, as one entered, was the long corridor leading right through the building from east to west, and connecting at the far end with the Warden’s House. On the left was the Upper Third Form Room and south of it were two more Form Rooms, which had been formed soon after 1881 by partitioning the original Schoolroom (about 60-foot-long) wherein several classes were held simultaneously. On the left side past the Upper Third Form Room was the staircase and passage with a door to the Quadrangle known as ‘The Short Way’ and whose use was limited to Masters, Prefects and the Sixth Form’ and would only be used by other boys by Prefects’ leave. Left of this door was a narrow passage into the ‘Beehive’, with the door to the Fourth Form on the left. The ‘Beehive’ was semi-circular and one storey in height, with a picturesque curved roof and lantern light and which contained six Studies for Prefects arranged fan-wise, the inner end of each Study being just wide enough for a narrow door, the curved outer wall long enough for a couch and on which the owner