New growth for an old establishment - Christs Hospital, founded by Edward the Sixth in 1552 as a hospital for founding. The hospital was soon to become a school, which at the beginning of this century was transferred to Horsham in Sussex. Parts of the original London building were incorporated in the new.

The ??? distinctive uniform led to its being better known as the Bluecoats School. As the average age of pupils has gone up - today more than half are over sixteen - more room has become needed for private studies, and the school has now been split into senior and junior houses.

Desks in the day room - for removed from the austere lidded variety - are among the features designed by Doctor Barnes Wallis the school treasurer and famous aircraft designer. And, on the sports side, better changing facilities. To mark the completion of the development and the School's foundation, Westminster Abbey was the rendezvous today for a service of thanksgiving and the dedication of a memorial tablet commemorating the burial place of Edward the Sixth.

While the boys go marching by, we quote without prejudice a letter that recently came to hand. "The time has come for people to realize that there are three-hundred female pupils of Christs Hospital, who are heartily tired of being pushed into the background. We may not wear long dresses but we're infinitely more beautiful."
Thank you, Marion Greenwood. For those not in the know - the boys and girls schools, founded together, were split only in 1901, when the girls went to Hertford.