The City of London School, also known as CLS and City, is a
private
Private or privates may refer to:
Music
* "In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation''
* Private (band), a Denmark-based band
* "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorded ...
day school
A day school — as opposed to a boarding school — is an educational institution where children are given instruction during the day, after which the students return to their homes. A day school has full-day programs when compared to a regular s ...
for
boys in the
City of London
The City of London, also known as ''the City'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and Districts of England, local government district with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in England. It is the Old town, his ...
, England, on the banks of the
River Thames
The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, s ...
next to the
Millennium Bridge, opposite
Tate Modern
Tate Modern is an art gallery in London, housing the United Kingdom's national collection of international Modern art, modern and contemporary art (created from or after 1900). It forms part of the Tate group together with Tate Britain, Tate Live ...
. It is a partner school of the
City of London School for Girls and the
City of London Freemen's School. All three schools receive funding from the
City's Cash.
It is a member of the
Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference
The Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference (HMC), formerly known as the Headmasters' Conference and now branded HMC (The Heads' Conference), is an association of the head teachers of 351 private fee-charging schools (both boarding schools ...
(HMC). It is one of the most academically selective and successful schools in the country.
The school was founded by a private
act of Parliament, the Establishment of Honey Lane Market School Act 1834 (
4 & 5 Will. 4. c. ''35'' ), following a bequest of land in 1442 for poor children in the City of London. The original school was established at
Milk Street, moving first to the
Victoria Embankment
Victoria Embankment is part of the Thames Embankment (the other section is the Chelsea Embankment), a road and river-walk along the north bank of the River Thames in London, England. Built in the 1860s, it runs from the Palace of Westminster to ...
in 1879 and subsequently to its present site on
Queen Victoria Street in 1986.
Former pupils, known as
Old Citizens, who have attained eminence in various fields are former
UK Prime Minister H. H. Asquith
Herbert Henry Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith (12 September 1852 – 15 February 1928) was a British statesman and Liberal Party (UK), Liberal politician who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1908 to 1916. He was the last ...
, First World War hero
Theodore Bayley Hardy, Nobel Prize–winning scientists
Frederick Gowland Hopkins
Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins (20 June 1861 – 16 May 1947) was an English biochemist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1929, with Christiaan Eijkman, for the discovery of vitamins. He also discovered the amino ...
and
Peter Higgs
Peter Ware Higgs (29 May 1929 – 8 April 2024) was a British theoretical physicist, professor at the University of Edinburgh,Griggs, Jessica (Summer 2008The Missing Piece ''Edit'' the University of Edinburgh Alumni Magazine, p. 17 and Nobel ...
, Justice of the Supreme Court
Lawrence Collins, Historian
John Robert Seeley
Sir John Robert Seeley, Order of St. Michael and St. George, KCMG (10 September 1834 – 13 January 1895) was an English Liberal Party (UK), Liberal historian and political essayist. A founder of British imperial history, he was a prominent adv ...
, England cricket captain
Mike Brearley, chemist and entrepreneur
William Henry Perkin,
Booker Prize
The Booker Prize, formerly the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a prestigious literary award conferred each year for the best single work of sustained fiction written in the English language, wh ...
-winning authors
Kingsley Amis
Sir Kingsley William Amis (16 April 1922 – 22 October 1995) was an English novelist, poet, critic and teacher. He wrote more than 20 novels, six volumes of poetry, a memoir, short stories, radio and television scripts, and works of social crit ...
and
Julian Barnes
Julian Patrick Barnes (born 19 January 1946) is an English writer. He won the Man Booker Prize in 2011 with ''The Sense of an Ending'', having been shortlisted three times previously with ''Flaubert's Parrot'', ''England, England'', and ''Arthu ...
, film director
Michael Apted
Michael David Apted (10 February 1941 – 7 January 2021) was an English television and film director and producer.
Apted began working in television and directed the ''Up (film series), Up'' documentary series from 1970 to 2019). He later di ...
, and actor
Daniel Radcliffe
Daniel Jacob Radcliffe (born 23 July 1989) is an English actor. Radcliffe rose to fame at age twelve for portraying the title character in the ''Harry Potter'' film series. He starred in all eight films in the series, from '' Harry Potter a ...
.
The school provides day education to about 1,000 boys aged 11 to 18 and employs approximately 100 teaching staff and around another 100 non-teaching staff.
The majority of pupils enter at 11, some at 13 and some at 16 into the
Sixth Form
In the education systems of Barbados, England, Jamaica, Northern Ireland, Trinidad and Tobago, Wales, and some other Commonwealth countries, sixth form represents the final two years of secondary education, ages 16 to 18. Pupils typically prepa ...
. Admissions are based on an entrance examination and an interview, with the exception of pupils educated at the City Junior School, who are given an automatic place at 11+.
History

The City of London School traces its origins to a bequest of land by
John Carpenter, town clerk of London. On his death in 1442, it was found that Carpenter had listed many bequests, most to his relatives but some to charitable causes. There were no bequests listed to directly support the education of boys in the City of London. However, a bequest of land was left to two trusted friends who were aware that Carpenter desired a legacy which would support children, and in turn the land was passed on to John Don, an influential man in the City of London. On his death, Don left his own will incorporating the words used in Carpenter's bequest of land and his intentions for the land, that it be "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."
The four boys became known as Carpenter's Children.
Little is known of the early years of the legacy. This bequest was administered by the
Corporation of London
The City of London Corporation, officially and legally the Mayor and Commonalty and Citizens of the City of London, is the local authority of the City of London, the historic centre of London and the location of much of the United Kingdom's fi ...
in around 1460 and a small college was founded next to Guildhall Chapel, also using the library facilities in the chapel. Despite the fact that this continued for over 70 years, the earliest certain evidence of the existence of Carpenter's Children can only be traced back to 1536, and thus it is not clear who these boys were, what they were taught and where they lived. In 1547, under the
Chantries Act the Guildhall Chapel and Library were forfeited. The funding for the four boys was also discontinued. The Corporation of London remained in control of Carpenter's estate and accounts from the next 300 years show that the money continued to be spent on children's benefits such as providing new coats to every child or providing them with access to education.
In 1823, a report published by the
Charity Commission
The Charity Commission for England and Wales is a non-ministerial department of His Majesty's Government that regulates registered charities in England and Wales and maintains the Central Register of Charities. Its counterparts in Scotland and ...
revealed that over the centuries, the income from the bequest vastly exceeded the expenses of the boys' education. In response to the report, the Corporation of London indicated that it had taken, "great pains...by searching in the archives of the corporation and other places for the will of John Carpenter, without effect". Had the Corporation instead looked for the will of John Don, it would have received guidance in what to do with the money.
Lacking that guidance, discussions began on how the bequest money should be spent. The City Lands Committee suggested in a report that the bequest should be spent on educating a larger number of boys and this approach was adopted in 1826. A number of people including Richard Taylor, a printer and an assistant to the founding of
University College London
University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...
, urged the Corporation of London to spend the bequest on creating a day school for the largest possible number of boys. In 1830, they proposed that the City of London Corporation School should be founded with Taylor as a governor and that the school to be established on the site of the disused London Workhouse. In the meantime, a small number of boys, who became known as Carpenter's scholars, were sent to
Tonbridge School
Tonbridge School is a public school (English fee-charging boarding and day school for boys aged 13–18) in Tonbridge, Kent, England, founded in 1553 by Sir Andrew Judde (sometimes spelt Judd). It is a member of the Eton Group and has clo ...
. An
act of Parliament, the
Estate of the London Workhouse Act 1829 (
10 Geo. 4. c. ''43''), was passed to transform the
workhouse
In Britain and Ireland, a workhouse (, lit. "poor-house") was a total institution where those unable to support themselves financially were offered accommodation and employment. In Scotland, they were usually known as Scottish poorhouse, poorh ...
into a school and governors were appointed. Conditions at the workhouse site had deteriorated and much money was needed for its maintenance. The only funds available, though, were the same £300 (about £30,000 in 2016)
a year budget the workhouse had received.
Over the next few years, the workhouse proposal was seen by the City of London Lord Mayor's
deputation and the City Lands Committee (Taylor was a member of both), as impractical, and other schemes were proposed. In 1832,
Warren Stormes Hale, who believed that the workhouse proposal was not the best use of Carpenter's legacy, was appointed to the City Lands Committee. He became chairman of the committee in 1833, and would come to be considered the second founder of the City of London School, after Carpenter.
At this point, the City Lands Committee started to search for better locations for a school. They selected Honey Lane Market, a site on Milk Street, as their preferred location. However, this proposal faced the same funding difficulties as the workhouse proposal: only £300 per year was available, insufficient to build and maintain a school. This problem was not recognised until the bill to found the school reached the
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...
. An altered bill was finalised in 1834, removing any references to the London Workhouse and addressing the Lords' objections.
The altered bill was passed as an act of Parliament, the (
4 & 5 Will. 4. c. ''35'' ). It was this act which founded the City of London School, which initially had around 400 pupils. The act gave the Corporation of London a duty to maintain a school on the
Honey Lane Market site and so gave control over almost every aspect of the school's running to the corporation. A committee was also set up to manage the school, with Hale as chairman. Although the committee's powers were initially limited, they gained more control over time as they made important decisions for the school.
The act gave the new school an annual budget of £900 (around £107,000 in 2016)
from the bequest while the governors of the City of London Corporation School, who still wanted to implement their original idea, gained nothing, only retaining the old workhouse income.
Both Hale and the Corporation of London were also eager to create this second school, which the governors of the City of London Corporation School had proposed. Despite their efforts, the other school was not founded until 1854, as the Freemen's Orphanage School, in Brixton with Hale as chairman. The Freemen's Orphanage School still exists today as the
City of London Freemen's School in Surrey.
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
Cheapside is a street in the City of London, the historic and modern financial centre of London, England, which forms part of the A40 road, A40 London to Fishguard road. It links St Martin's Le Grand with Poultry, London, Poultry. Near its eas ...
, on part of the site of the old
Honey Lane Market, in 1835 and the school opened its doors in 1837.
The school was remarkable for its time in several respects. It did not discriminate against pupils on the grounds of religious persuasion (at a time when most public schools had an
Anglican
Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...
emphasis); it included pupils from non-conformist and
Jew
Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, religion, and community are highly inte ...
ish families. Also, unlike other established independent schools, it was a day school (although there were in early days a handful of boarders, no boarding department ever became established). It also promoted a 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 also offered education in commercial subjects. This did not, however, diminish its teaching in the subjects traditionally favoured by the traditional public schools, and it sent classical and mathematical scholars to
Oxford and Cambridge throughout the 19th century. These included the classicist, theologian and Shakespearean scholar
Edwin Abbott Abbott
Edwin Abbott Abbott (20 December 1838 – 12 October 1926) was an English schoolmaster, theology, theologian, and Anglican priest, best known as the author of the novella ''Flatland'' (1884).
Early life and education
Edwin Abbott Abbott ...
(whose mathematical exploration of a world in other than three dimensions, ''
Flatland'', is still in print and who returned to the school as headmaster),
John Robert Seeley
Sir John Robert Seeley, Order of St. Michael and St. George, KCMG (10 September 1834 – 13 January 1895) was an English Liberal Party (UK), Liberal historian and political essayist. A founder of British imperial history, he was a prominent adv ...
– a classics scholar who became
Regius Professor of Modern History at
Cambridge University
The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...
and
H. H. Asquith
Herbert Henry Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith (12 September 1852 – 15 February 1928) was a British statesman and Liberal Party (UK), Liberal politician who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1908 to 1916. He was the last ...
, who though educated as a classical scholar went on to become the
British Prime Minister.
Move to Blackfriars
The school eventually outgrew its original site. While some
public schools moved away from Greater London in the late 19th century, the management and committee of City of London jointly decided to stay in the capital, as it was deemed a stimulating environment for education. A City of London School Act 1879 (c.63) empowered the school to move to a new site in the City of London at
Blackfriars on the Victoria Embankment overlooking the Thames. The school moved in 1883 and the new building was opened by the
Prince of Wales
Prince of Wales (, ; ) is a title traditionally given to the male heir apparent to the History of the English monarchy, English, and later, the British throne. The title originated with the Welsh rulers of Kingdom of Gwynedd, Gwynedd who, from ...
, (the future
King Edward VII).
In 1887 the Divisional Court and the Court of Appeal determined that the City of London School was a
public school.
In November 1912, the Education Committee appointed
Cyril Burt
Sir Cyril Lodowic Burt, Fellow of the British Academy, FBA (3 March 1883 – 10 October 1971) was an English educational psychology, educational psychologist and geneticist who also made contributions to statistics. He is known for his studies o ...
as a psychologist in the education officer's department. In Britain, this was the first appointment in a field of psychology outside a university. From 1913 to 1931 Burt examined pupils nominated for admission to special schools. His mandate included selection and research.
In 1920, an arrangement was made whereby all the boy choristers of the
Temple Church
The Temple Church, a royal peculiar in the Church of England, is a church in the Inner Temple, Inner and Middle Temple, Middle Temple, London, Temples located between Fleet Street and the River Thames, built by the Knights Templar for their En ...
were given scholarships at the City of London School. In 1926, this arrangement was extended to the
boy choristers of the Chapel Royal at
St. James's Palace.
[The history of the school](_blank)
City of London School, retrieved 11 July 2009 The choristers 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; by 1962 it became the first classical record to sell more than a million copies. Another musician educated at the school was the cellist
Steven Isserlis
Steven John Isserlis (born 19 December 1958) is a British cellist. An acclaimed soloist, chamber musician, educator, writer and broadcaster, he is widely regarded as one of the leading musicians of his generation. He is also noted for his div ...
.
Second World War
In 1938, the headmaster F.R. Dale made an agreement with George Turner, headmaster of
Marlborough College
Marlborough College is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English private boarding school) for pupils aged 13 to 18 in Marlborough, Wiltshire, England. It was founded as Marlborough School in 1843 by the Dean of Manchester, George ...
, to evacuate the school there, if it became necessary. On 1 September 1939 following the German
invasion of Poland
The invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign, Polish Campaign, and Polish Defensive War of 1939 (1 September – 6 October 1939), was a joint attack on the Second Polish Republic, Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Slovak R ...
and the start of the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, the majority of the school were sent to Marlborough College by train.
Accommodation was not provided in the agreement with Marlborough College and so Turner wrote to the Mayor of Marlborough to request accommodation in town. Many of the accommodation
billets were occupied by soldiers and women working for the
Ministry of Health at the time and so for the first night, the boys slept in the gymnasium of the school, before moving into the town's billets the following night.
When the Marlborough term began, an arrangement was made whereby City of London boys had lessons during games for Marlborough College pupils and vice versa. The difficulties at the Marlborough location ranged from finding a study for Headmaster Dale to finding enough kitchen staff to prepare food for both schools. Resources were limited and outbreaks of
influenza
Influenza, commonly known as the flu, is an infectious disease caused by influenza viruses. Symptoms range from mild to severe and often include fever, runny nose, sore throat, muscle pain, headache, coughing, and fatigue. These sympto ...
and
rubella
Rubella, also known as German measles or three-day measles, is an infection caused by the rubella virus. This disease is often mild, with half of people not realizing that they are infected. A rash may start around two weeks after exposure and ...
were common. Like many other schools evacuated into the countryside, the City of London School's enrolment fell from 700 to 430 during the war, although no pupil was killed or injured as a direct result of enemy fire.
The arrangements at Marlborough College gave pupils the opportunity to strengthen the school's clubs and societies. This included a dramatic society, in which
Kingsley Amis
Sir Kingsley William Amis (16 April 1922 – 22 October 1995) was an English novelist, poet, critic and teacher. He wrote more than 20 novels, six volumes of poetry, a memoir, short stories, radio and television scripts, and works of social crit ...
played a large part.
Marlborough College itself experienced some threat from the war. The
Ministry of Aircraft Production had also relocated there, and in 1942, bombs fell nearby. By 1944, with the war settling down, the City of London School returned to its home on the Victoria Embankment, which had suffered no structural damage during the Blitz. Air raid shelters were built on site as a precautionary measure.
Soon after the building reopened, a bomb fell on the nearby
Law Courts, and the staff sent pupils home for a week. However, some pupils were due to take public exams. After Marlborough College refused them permission to take the exams there, it was decided that boys would take the Higher Certificate papers in the
Guildhall
A guildhall, also known as a guild hall or guild house, is a historical building originally used for tax collecting by municipalities or merchants in Europe, with many surviving today in Great Britain and the Low Countries. These buildings commo ...
Crypt
A crypt (from Greek κρύπτη (kryptē) ''wikt:crypta#Latin, crypta'' "Burial vault (tomb), vault") is a stone chamber beneath the floor of a church or other building. It typically contains coffins, Sarcophagus, sarcophagi, or Relic, religiou ...
.
It took the school over five years to recover from the effects of the war.
Many Old Citizens had been killed in the war. Today, there is a memorial in the school's courtyard (transplanted from the main staircase of the old Blackfriars site) to Old Citizens who were killed in either of the World Wars. An annual remembrance service, involving members of the
Combined Cadet Force, is held on the Friday closest to
Armistice Day
Armistice Day, later known as Remembrance Day in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth and Veterans Day in the United States, is commemorated every year on 11 November to mark Armistice of 11 November 1918, the armistice signed between th ...
in November.
Modernisation and move to Queen Victoria Street
The school underwent many changes during its time on the Victoria Embankment. The curriculum had been consolidated at the turn of the century, the
Combined Cadet Force was modernised, the house system had been reorganised, the "mission", what is now the annual charity appeal, had been started and a Community Service Organisation had been set up as an alternative to the Combined Cadet Force. It was compulsory for a boy, above the third form, to serve in one of these organisations for at least five school terms. This is a tradition which still exists today. In 1925, the school acquired its sports grounds at
Grove Park, Lewisham. This site included a pavilion, containing offices, changing rooms, toilets and showers, which was designed, by Old Citizen Ralph Knott, to also be a memorial to those Old Citizens who had lost their lives in the First World War. When J. A. Boyes became headmaster in 1964, further modernisations were made in the building. As the number of pupils increased over the years, overcrowding became a problem. Headmaster Boyes believed that a new, modern building was needed for the school, and his efforts managed to secure a site on the banks of the River Thames for a new facility.
In 1986, the City of London School moved to its present site in purpose-built facilities in Queen Victoria Street (where it is opposite the College of Arms and just below
St Paul's Cathedral
St Paul's Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of St Paul the Apostle, is an Anglican cathedral in London, England, the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London in the Church of Engl ...
) on one side and facing onto the banks of the River Thames on the other side. School activity transferred to the new premises over the 1986 summer holidays, in time for the 1986–1987 academic year, and a ceremony for the official opening of the building, by the
Princess Anne
Anne, Princess Royal (Anne Elizabeth Alice Louise; born 15 August 1950) is a member of the British royal family. She is the second child and only daughter of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and the only sister of King ...
, was held in 1987. The
Millennium Bridge is next to the school buildings.
Buildings
Milk Street (1837–1883)
The original building at Milk Street was designed by architect
J.B. Bunning, who was the architect to the City of London. The building was designed in a neo-Gothic Tudor style.
Victoria Embankment (1883–1986)
The Victoria Embankment building, 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 designed by Davis and Emanuel and constructed by
John Mowlem & Co. at a cost exceeding £100,000 (about £11,158,064.52 in 2016).
The designers designed the school as "amazingly unscholastic, rather like a permanent Exhibition Palace."
On the front of the building are statues of
Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...
,
Milton,
Bacon
Bacon is a type of Curing (food preservation), salt-cured pork made from various cuts of meat, cuts, typically the pork belly, belly or less fatty parts of the back. It is eaten as a side dish (particularly in breakfasts), used as a central in ...
,
Newton and
Sir Thomas More with "the first four emphasising the school's literary and scientific traditions
ndthe last being a religious martyr, a famous lawyer and the author of Utopia."
The building remained the home of the City of London School for a 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 the site. These other buildings were demolished when the school moved again in 1986. Here the school was adjacent to the City of London School for Girls, which was founded by the City of London Corporation as a sister school in 1894 and moved in 1969 to its present site in the Barbican, and the
Guildhall School of Music and Drama
The Guildhall School of Music and Drama is a music school, music and drama school located in the City of London, England. Established in 1880, the school offers undergraduate and postgraduate training in all aspects of classical music and jazz al ...
which has also since moved to the Barbican. It was also next to the traditional home of the British newspaper industry in
Fleet Street
Fleet Street is a street in Central London, England. It runs west to east from Temple Bar, London, Temple Bar at the boundary of the City of London, Cities of London and City of Westminster, Westminster to Ludgate Circus at the site of the Lo ...
.
This building still stands and is protected by a preservation order; it was occupied by the investment bank
JPMorgan
JPMorgan Chase & Co. (stylized as JPMorganChase) is an American multinational finance corporation headquartered in New York City and incorporated in Delaware. It is the largest bank in the United States, and the world's largest bank by mar ...
, and it appeared on the left of the famous
Thames Television
Thames Television, commonly simplified to just Thames, was a franchise holder for a region of the British ITV television network serving London and surrounding areas from 30 July 1968 until the night of 31 December 1992.
Thames Television broa ...
ident from 1968 to 1989. The building still features the school's name above the door. The auxiliary buildings in John Carpenter Street and Tudor Street, however, were demolished shortly after the school vacated the premises.
Queen Victoria Street (1986–present)
The present building on Queen Victoria Street was designed by City of London architect Thomas Meddings, an Old Citizen of the school as well as a former Temple Church chorister. It is a wholly modern building, although some of the stained glass and sculptures from the Victoria Embankment building has been relocated to this new building. A design and technology block was added to the building in 1990, though in 2008, the block was transformed into a building mainly used by the
ICT and music departments, although some design and technology facilities remain. The building was designed on a structural grid and non-load bearing walls were used so that the internal layout of the building could easily be changed when necessary. The school's design is also slightly unusual in that it was built avoiding a road tunnel in the centre of the premises. This meant that the first and second floors of the building could only be built on either side of the road tunnel. The load on the third floor directly above the road tunnel is also limited and so there is a courtyard which goes up to the fifth floor, surrounded by the building, in that area. The current building is opened to the public annually on one weekend in September as part of the
Open House London event.
In 2020, an international two-stage competition was announced for a £19 million revamp of the present City of London School building. The competition, which has been organised by New London Architecture on behalf of the City of London Corporation, will select the entry that brings an 'innovative and sustainable' upgrade to the building complex. The project represents a part of an overall plan to expand capacity at the school. The contract was won by a joint proposal from
Morris & Co. an
Freehaus
The front view of the building beside the River Thames with
St Paul's Cathedral
St Paul's Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of St Paul the Apostle, is an Anglican cathedral in London, England, the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London in the Church of Engl ...
in the background and the Millennium Bridge on the right is occasionally seen in popular media such as in the
BBC News
BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...
60-second countdown as well as in an early scene of the 2005 movie, ''
The Constant Gardener'' and in the 2009 film ''
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
''Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince'' is a fantasy novel written by British author J. K. Rowling. It is the sixth and penultimate novel in the ''Harry Potter'' series, and takes place during Harry Potter's sixth year at the wizard scho ...
''.
School life
Houses
City of London School has six Houses: Abbott, Beaufoy, Carpenter, Hale, Mortimer, and Seeley. As well as houses named after the founder of the school
John Carpenter
John Howard Carpenter (born January 16, 1948) is an American filmmaker, composer, and actor. Most commonly associated with horror film, horror, action film, action, and science fiction film, science fiction films of the 1970s and 1980s, he is ...
and former headmasters
Edwin Abbott and
George Mortimer, they include houses named after important Old Citizens or school benefactors including Beaufoy, a philanthropist who donated the sum of £10,000 (about £660,000 in 2016
) in the 18th century,
Hale who played a significant role in the school's founding and
Seeley, a famous historian who attended the school. Boys are assigned to a House in the Third Form (13 years old), in which they stay throughout their school career. There are inter-house events (e.g. sports, literature, maths) which contribute points to an overall Interhouse Competition that is decided at the end of the year, of which the reigning 2023-24 champions are Mortimer House.
School uniform
The school requires
school uniform
A school uniform is a uniform worn by students primarily for a school or otherwise an educational institution. They are common in primary school, primary and secondary schools in various countries and are generally widespread in Africa, Asia, O ...
for all pupils up to the fifth form. Sixth formers do not have to wear uniform, but are required to wear suits and the sixth form school tie.
Curriculum
In 2019, ''
The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...
'' placed the school eighth in its League Tables of Independent School
A-level
The A-level (Advanced Level) is a subject-based qualification conferred as part of the General Certificate of Education, as well as a school leaving qualification offered by the educational bodies in the United Kingdom and the educational ...
results, with 81.2% of entries gaining A* or A grades at A-level. The Telegraph also placed it 6th for
GCSE
The General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) is an academic qualification in a range of subjects taken in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, having been introduced in September 1986 and its first exams taken in 1988. State schools ...
results, with 94.62% of papers graded 9-7 (A*-A in the old system). As of 2017 around 35 pupils took up places at
Oxbridge
Oxbridge is a portmanteau of the University of Oxford, Universities of Oxford and University of Cambridge, Cambridge, the two oldest, wealthiest, and most prestigious universities in the United Kingdom. The term is used to refer to them collect ...
each year.
Pupils are required to take a minimum of ten GCSE subjects in the fourth and fifth form of which six,
mathematics
Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...
,
English Language
English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...
,
English literature
English literature is literature written in the English language from the English-speaking world. The English language has developed over more than 1,400 years. The earliest forms of English, a set of Anglo-Frisian languages, Anglo-Frisian d ...
,
biology
Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, History of life, origin, evolution, and ...
,
chemistry
Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...
and
physics
Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...
are chosen for all students. Of the remaining four options, one must be a
humanity and another a modern foreign language. Additionally, one GCSE subject may be dropped in favour of the Higher Project Qualification (HPQ) offered in design, computing and robotics lessons, the GCSE level equivalent of the
Extended Project Qualification (EPQ). Additional subjects and qualifications are taken by some students. In 2007 the school also started offering
IGCSE
The International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) is an English language based secondary qualification similar to the GCSE and is recognised in the United Kingdom as being equivalent to the GCSE for the purposes of recognising ...
in some subjects.
In the sixth form, boys take either three or four subjects at A-level, or three subjects and an
Extended Project Qualification (EPQ). Subjects on offer include Geography, History and Politics, Economics, Mathematics, Language and Literature, Music, Modern Languages, Chemistry, Biology, Physics, Drama and Theatre, Classical Civilization, Latin & Greek, Design and Visual Arts, Religious Education, Information Technology and Physical Education. There is also a programme of
PSHE, and
games
A game is a Structure, structured type of play (activity), play usually undertaken for entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an Educational game, educational tool. Many games are also considered to be Work (human activity), work (such as p ...
at all levels, and an programme for the first and second forms.
Extracurricular activities
The school offers many extracurricular activities. These include over 50 clubs and societies including a
Model United Nations
Model United Nations, also known as Model UN (MUN), is an educational simulation of the United Nations, which teaches students about diplomacy, international relations, global issues, and how the United Nations is run. During a model UN confe ...
, public speaking and debating society which frequently participates in international competitions; the Square Mile Club, which in the past has attracted notable speakers such as
Sir Trevor Macdonald,
Brian Paddick
Brian Leonard Paddick, Baron Paddick (born 24 April 1958), is a British life peer and retired police officer. He was the Liberal Democrat candidate for the London mayoral elections of 2008 and of 2012, and until his retirement in May 2007 wa ...
,
Sir David Pepper and
Ian Livingston; and even a student-founded Star Wars Society. Boys themselves can create and manage clubs, with school funding available for activities. There are also trips, opportunities to carry out
community service
Community service is unpaid work performed by a person or group of people for the benefit and betterment of their community contributing to a noble cause. In many cases, people doing community service are compensated in other ways, such as gettin ...
and a
Combined Cadet Force. The school also gives boys the opportunity to receive instrumental tuition as well as join music groups including orchestras and choirs. The school also offers sports including
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
,
cricket
Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...
, basketball,
water polo
Water polo is a competitive sport, competitive team sport played in water between two teams of seven players each. The game consists of four quarters in which the teams attempt to score goals by throwing the water polo ball, ball into the oppo ...
, swimming, sailing, fencing,
squash, badminton,
fives,
athletics,
cross-country, judo,
karate
(; ; Okinawan language, Okinawan pronunciation: ), also , is a martial arts, martial art developed in the Ryukyu Kingdom. It developed from the Okinawan martial arts, indigenous Ryukyuan martial arts (called , "hand"; ''tī'' in Okinawan) un ...
and
indoor rowing
Indoor(s) may refer to:
*the interior of a building
*Indoor environment, in building science, traditionally includes the study of indoor thermal environment, indoor acoustic environment, indoor light environment, and indoor air quality
*Built envi ...
. Most of these sports take place on school facilities. Sports such as sailing and climbing take place on non-school facilities. Boys also represent the school in competitions at varying levels.
The school has a tradition of supporting a charity, chosen by the boys through a ballot, each academic year. The fundraising activities are coordinated by the boys and events take place throughout the year to raise money for the selected charity. An average of £50,000 is raised each year.
Facilities

The school's sports facilities include a multi-purpose indoor sports hall, a 25-metre swimming pool, a gym, a rooftop AstroTurf football pitch and grass playing fields and athletics tracks at
Grove Park, Lewisham. Music facilities include three ensemble rooms, ten rehearsal rooms and a music technology lab. Other facilities include the Great Hall, a sixth form common room, a bookshop, a library, an archive room, three ICT labs, facilities for the
Combined Cadet Force (including a rifle range), a drama studio, two playgrounds and a drama theatre. The Great Hall houses a
Walker organ which was moved from the previous school building and put into a new casing. The organ has 3 manual departments, 61 notes and a pedal department with 32 notes as well as 43 stops, 4 tremulants and 6 couplers. The drama theatre (Winterflood Theatre) was rebuilt in 2009 at a value of £1.3 million. The project was jointly funded by City entrepreneur
Brian Winterflood and the
City of London Corporation
The City of London Corporation, officially and legally the Mayor and Commonalty and Citizens of the City of London, is the local authority of the City of London, the historic centre of London and the location of much of the United Kingdom's f ...
. The new theatre was designed by architectural firm RHWL and built by Wilmott Dixon Construction.
Traditional events
Some traditional events are held annually, although attendance is no longer compulsory. This includes the annual prize giving ceremony at
Guildhall, London
Guildhall is a municipal building in the City of London, England. It is off Gresham and Basinghall streets, in the wards of Bassishaw and Cheap. The current building dates from the 15th century; however documentary evidence suggests that a ...
and the annual carol service at
Temple Church
The Temple Church, a royal peculiar in the Church of England, is a church in the Inner Temple, Inner and Middle Temple, Middle Temple, London, Temples located between Fleet Street and the River Thames, built by the Knights Templar for their En ...
, among others. The school is also home to the annual London Classical Reading Competition, participated in by schools nationwide. Another traditional event is "muck-up day" celebrated by the leaving year group at the end of formal schooling in their final year at the school. In 2015 this attracted police attention when plans to bring in paint for "raucous" celebrations led to concerns about disruption to the city's financial district. The headmistress barred the year group from school grounds "for their own safety", and told them that any such behaviour would result in their
UCAS
The Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS ) is a charity and private limited company based in Cheltenham, England, which provides educational support services. Formed on 27 July 1993 by the merger of the former university admis ...
forms being "ripped up".
Governance
Today, the City of London School's policies are maintained by a board of governors. It continues to be under the governance of the City of London Corporation (the governing body of the
City of London
The City of London, also known as ''the City'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and Districts of England, local government district with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in England. It is the Old town, his ...
headed by the
Lord Mayor of the City of London
Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the peerage in the United Kingdom, or are ...
, as opposed to
Greater London
Greater London is an administrative area in England, coterminous with the London region, containing most of the continuous urban area of London. It contains 33 local government districts: the 32 London boroughs, which form a Ceremonial count ...
, as well as an independent corporation). The school is under the governance of the City of London Corporation's corporate arm as opposed to its Local Authority arm.
The school is one of the three independent secondary schools owned by the City of London Corporation, the other two being the City of London School for Girls and the
City of London Freemen's School. The City of London School for Girls located in the Barbican is a fifteen-minute walk away from the school and there are joint events, such as social evenings, concerts and plays, with the school throughout the year.
School fees
Although the City of London School has always charged fees to most of its pupils, it has always offered scholarships, both on the basis of academic and musical ability (it educates ten boys selected for the
Choir of Her Majesty's Chapel Royal). In 2008, the school began offering sports scholarships. After the withdrawal of the Government
Assisted Places scheme in 1998, the school has offered full-fee bursaries (or Sponsored Awards) to pupils from families on lower incomes with the help of contributions from parties including private companies, the John Carpenter Club, the City of London Corporation, and parents of current pupils.
In 2014, at a time when 82 boys at the school received bursaries of 100% of the annual fees of £14,313, the previous head Sarah Fletcher said that her decision to take up the position had been influenced by the school's generous bursary schemes, partly because her own grandfather had enjoyed a life-changing opportunity when given an educational bursary many years before.
For the 2024–25 academic year, the annual school fees were £23,655 and lunch was an extra £355 a term (£1,065 a year). Music lessons were an additional £343 a term (£1,029 a year).
Charitable status
The school has six charities registered with the
Charity Commission
The Charity Commission for England and Wales is a non-ministerial department of His Majesty's Government that regulates registered charities in England and Wales and maintains the Central Register of Charities. Its counterparts in Scotland and ...
. These are ''The City of London School Bursary Fund'' which contributes to the funding of the bursary schemes, ''The City of London School Bursary Trust'' which provides bursaries to boys who have gained admission to the school but whose parents cannot afford the fees, ''The City of London School Scholarships and Prize Fund'' which allows the school and other parties to offer scholarships, prizes or sponsored awards to current or former pupils without incurring taxes, ''The City of London School War Memorial Fund'' which was originally established to support boys affected by the World Wars but now supports means-tested bursaries at the School, ''The City of London School Charitable Trust'' which is the annual charity appeal and ''The City of London School Education Trust'' which exempts the school from taxes as an independent school providing education for pupils within the school, as well as providing educational and recreational facilities for children and young people in the surrounding communities.
Notable people

Many distinguished people have been part of the school either as pupils (see
List of Old Citizens) or staff.
Notable recent pupils include the actors
Daniel Radcliffe
Daniel Jacob Radcliffe (born 23 July 1989) is an English actor. Radcliffe rose to fame at age twelve for portraying the title character in the ''Harry Potter'' film series. He starred in all eight films in the series, from '' Harry Potter a ...
from
Harry Potter
''Harry Potter'' is a series of seven Fantasy literature, fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The novels chronicle the lives of a young Magician (fantasy), wizard, Harry Potter (character), Harry Potter, and his friends ...
movies,
Skandar Keynes, of
''The Chronicles of Narnia'' film series,
Joe Alwyn of ''
The Favourite'' and Harry Michell of ''
Tom Brown's Schooldays
''Tom Brown's School Days'' (sometimes written ''Tom Brown's Schooldays'', also published under the titles ''Tom Brown at Rugby'', ''School Days at Rugby'', and ''Tom Brown's School Days at Rugby'') is a novel by Thomas Hughes, published in 18 ...
'' and ''
Feather Boy''.
Jonathan Keates, a prize-winning writer, was an English master at the school. Sheila Gallagher was honoured for her service as a
lollipop lady at the crossing to the school on Queen Victoria Street, in 2002.
[Sawer, Patrick. (31 January 2002) ]Evening Standard
The ''London Standard'', formerly the ''Evening Standard'' (1904–2024) and originally ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), is a long-established regional newspaper published weekly and distributed free newspaper, free of charge in London, Engl ...
.
Millennium Bridge to Test for its Notorious Wobble.
'
Old boys of the City of London School are known as
''Old Citizens''. they may join the ''John Carpenter Club''. Over 140 people listed in the ''
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from History of the British Isles, British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') ...
'' were educated at the City of London School, and that includes only those who were already deceased at the time of writing.
Headmasters
The school has had thirteen headmasters. The first was
John Allen Giles
John Allen Giles (1808–1884) was an English historian. He was primarily known as a scholar of Anglo-Saxon language and history. He revised Stevens' translation of the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' and Bede's '' Ecclesiastical History of the Englis ...
, a scholar of Anglo-Saxon history and a Fellow at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, who also wrote a number of scholarly works, including the 34 volume ''Patres ecclesiæ Anglicanæ''. Giles was however, "temperamentally unsuited" to be headmaster of the school, and was replaced by
George Ferris Whidborne Mortimer,
[
] a liberal who had written an anti-slavery pamphlet. Mortimer's religious tolerance led him to open the school to boys from Jewish families.
[ He was replaced in 1865 by a former boy, ]Edwin Abbott Abbott
Edwin Abbott Abbott (20 December 1838 – 12 October 1926) was an English schoolmaster, theology, theologian, and Anglican priest, best known as the author of the novella ''Flatland'' (1884).
Early life and education
Edwin Abbott Abbott ...
, author of '' Flatland''. Abbott oversaw the education of future prime minister H. H. Asquith, before retiring in 1889 to devote himself to literary and theological pursuits.
Arthur Chilton was appointed headmaster in 1905, an appointment he held for 24 years and throughout World War One, until 1929. In 1950 Arthur W. Barton, a scholar and football referee, took over as headmaster until 1965. Martin Hammond was head from 1984 to 1990. David R. Levin, who was also the chair of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference
The Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference (HMC), formerly known as the Headmasters' Conference and now branded HMC (The Heads' Conference), is an association of the head teachers of 351 private fee-charging schools (both boarding schools ...
for the 2009–2010 academic year, held the position from 1999 to 2014. He left the school in January 2014 to become the managing director of all the independent schools owned by United Learning
United Learning is a group of state-funded schools and fee-paying private schools operating in England. United Learning is the trading name for United Church Schools Trust (UCST) and United Learning Trust (ULT). It is one of the largest 10 char ...
. In May 2014 he was succeeded by Sarah Fletcher, who had been the head of Kingston Grammar School. Gary Griffin had been acting as head in the interim. She left to join St Paul's Girls' School. In January 2018, Alan Bird replaced Sarah Fletcher as head.
See also
*List of the oldest schools in the United Kingdom
This list of the oldest schools in the United Kingdom contains extant schools in the United Kingdom established prior to 1800. The dates refer to the foundation or the earliest documented contemporary reference to the school. In many cases the date ...
* List of Old Citizens of the City of London School
* List of schools in City of London
* List of schools in England
Notes
References
Further reading
*Memoir of the life and times of John Carpenter, Town Clerk of London, Thomas Brewer (1856
(in Internet Archive)
External links
City of London School web site
John Carpenter Club (Old Citizen's Association)
{{DEFAULTSORT:City Of London School
History of the City of London
Private schools in the City of London
Private boys' schools in London
Buildings and structures on the River Thames
1442 establishments in England
People educated at the City of London School
The term "the people" refers to the public or common mass of people of a polity. As such it is a concept of human rights law, international law as well as constitutional law, particularly used for claims of popular sovereignty. In contrast, a ...
Educational institutions established in the 15th century
Member schools of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference
School buildings completed in 1986
Blackfriars, London