THE SCHOOL

Blue Coat Schools

There are numerous Blue Coat Schools throughout the country: the earliest and most famous being Christ's Hospital, in the City of London (now removed to Horsham, Surrey), which was founded in 1563.

It is often presumed that Blue Coat Schools are a uniquely English idea, yet John Evelyn (1620 - 1698) records visiting a Blue Coat School in Rome.

Hence we went to see…Christ's Hospital... and there is a school; the children wear blew like ours in London at an Hospital of the same appellation... children, 450 in number, ... are taught letters. In another (quarter, there are), 500 girles under the tuition of divers religious matrons, in a Monastry, as it were by itselfe. - Diary 1644.

Samuel Pepys (1633 - 1703) also records on several occasions coming across the Blue Coat School, this time in London:

I went this Evening to see the order of the Boys & children at Christs hospital, there was neere 800 of them, Boys & Girles: so decently clad, cleanely lodged, so wholesomly fed, so admirably taught, some the Mathematics... They sung a Psalme before they sat downe to supper in the greate hall, to an Organ which played all the time, & sung with that cherefull harmony, as seem'd to me a vision of heavenly Angels: & I came from the place with infinite Satisfaction, having never in my life seene a more noble, pious, & admirable Charity. - Diary March 1687.

Other links in this section:

• A Brief History of the School
• The School's Headmasters
• Subject Departments
• Clubs And Societies
• Governors
• Location
• Old Blues