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Latymer Upper School


Latymer Upper School


Latymer Upper School is a co-educational public school in Hammersmith, London, England, between King Street and the River Thames. It derives from a charity school, part of the same Latymer Foundation, founded in 1624 by the English merchant Edward Latymer. With approximately 1,200 pupils, most students are admitted to the Upper School through examination and interview at the age of eleven, with some entering at 16. The school's academic results place it among the top schools nationally, and it has historically accepted under 10% of applicants.

Having opened on its King Street site in 1895, the school spent a period of time in the mid-20th century as a direct grant grammar school, before becoming independent with the system's abolition in the 1970s. Remaining single-sex until 1996, when Sixth Form admissions were opened to girls, the school transitioned to full co-education in the first decade of the 21st century.

Latymer's alumni include diplomats, former and current members of both Houses of Parliament, winners of Olympic medals, and many figures in the arts and sciences.

History

Foundation

Latymer Upper School has its origins in the will of Edward Latymer, a wealthy lawyer and puritan, who left part of his wealth for the clothing and education of "eight poore boyes" from Hammersmith. This was intended "to keep them from idle and vagrant courses, and also to instruct them in some part of God's true religion". He owned Butterwick Manor and the land round about. Most of Butterwick Manor House was demolished in 1836, except for one wing of the building, Bradmore House. This had been converted into a separate house in 1736; it survives on Queen Caroline Street, Hammersmith.

Latymer split his Butterwick Manor estate three ways, allocating 6 acres of land to provide charity for the poor of St Dunstan-in-the-West in the City of London; 8½ acres for what became The Latymer School in Edmonton; and 28½ acres for the Latymer Foundation at Hammersmith.

Latymer Charity School, St Paul's churchyard, Hammersmith

From 1628 to 1648, with one short interval, the Latymer boys attended a school in Fulham churchyard erected partly at the expense of Dr. Thomas Edwards (d. c. 1618), but in 1648 the boys were transferred to another school lately erected in Hammersmith by Mr. Palmer and Mr. Bull. About 1657 a parochial charity school was established, and it was there that the Latymer boys attended for the next hundred years. A girls' school came into existence at some time before 1689, and it is possible that the three schools were conducted under the same roof but with separate finances.

By 1755 the existing building had become dilapidated, and it was replaced by one of two storeys to accommodate 25 girls on the ground floor and 20 boys above. The cost, however, proved a serious drain on the income of the charity and the numbers were reduced to 15 boys and 15 girls. In 1819 two rooms were added and the numbers increased to 80 boys and 50 girls, who were educated on the 'National' system. Later the income of the girls' charity decreased and it was absorbed into the St. Paul's parochial school, but the Latymer boys' school flourished, having 100 boys but no room for extension.

Latymer School, King Street East

In 1863 a new building for 125 boys was erected between King Street East (now Hammersmith Road) and Great Church Lane, a little to the east of Hammersmith Broadway. Sixteen years later a new scheme was drawn up which diverted the bulk of the income to a new Upper School to provide secondary education for 150 boys; clothing was not provided and fees were to be charged. The existing school was to be conducted as an elementary school to be known as the Latymer Lower School. Under the name of the Latymer Foundation School, this became an L.C.C. school with a roll in 1960 of over 300 boys aged between nine and seventeen. In 1961 the governors decided that a modern education could not be given in the existing building, that it was impossible to rebuild, and that they must therefore close it. The L.C.C. school closed in July 1963.

Latymer Upper School, King Street

In 1878 it was agreed to build a new school in Hammersmith, with three of the governors to be appointed by the local borough council, and two by the London School Board. The new buildings for the Upper School, erected between King Street and the river, were opened by the Bishop of London in 1895. The school taught boys aged up to 16; the fees were £5, and boys from local schools could apply for scholarships. Subjects taught included practical mechanics and experimental chemistry. In less than two years the numbers reached 300; in 1901, accommodation was increased to admit 450 by the addition of five classrooms, laboratories, and a workshop.

In 1930 the main block was extended southward, and in 1934 further additions were made by the acquisition of existing buildings at the corner of King Street and Weltje Road. These were altered for school use, a biology laboratory was added, and a room on the top floor was converted into a chapel, consecrated in 1938. In 1951 the governors bought Rivercourt House on the river bank, and this made it possible to increase the number of boys to over a thousand. Between 1957 and 1961 new physics laboratories were built, largely as a result of a grant from the Industrial Fund for the Advancement of Science in Schools. The total number of boys in the school in 1964 was approximately 1,150.

In the 1950s, the school was a direct grant grammar school, which took large numbers of state school pupils, whose fees were paid by the local authority, solely on the basis of merit. At the same time, it continued to take some fee-paying pupils. The Direct Grant system was abolished from 1975, and the school became fully independent of government funding. The Sixth Form has been co-educational since 1996, and in 2004 the main school started to become co-educational, with the introduction of girls into Year 7. With that year's entry moving into Year 11, the school became fully co-educational by 2008. Each year, the school gathers in the nearby St. Paul's church for "Founder's Day", an annual reflection upon and celebration of Edward Latymer and other benefactors of the school. As a member of the HMC it is a public school.

School

Student body

Pupils come from a wide area of London. A school statement in the Good Schools Guide said: "We attract a real mix from city investors, media types and academics living in leafy streets through to families on the White City estate, which is surely better than just those from a privileged bubble mixing with each other".

Finances

Tuition for 2020 was £21,000 per year, plus other mandatory and optional fees.

Latymer offers a bursary programme, with 176 pupils on means-tested bursaries. For families with incomes unable to pay the fees, Latymer Upper is free. The school has a substantial fund from donations ring-fenced to fund bursaries.

Activities

There are over 140 clubs and societies at Latymer, including the J. S. Mill, Literary and Latymer Societies and clubs for bridge, chess, debating, philosophy and photography. The Drama Society holds several productions each year. The school participates in the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme. The school offers all students a trip every year in 'Activities Week'. Trips cater both for the energetic, including outward bound camping, mountain walking, and sailing, and the cultural with visits to Barcelona, Paris, and Venice; locally-based activities have ranged from visiting London art galleries to producing a pantomime and making a documentary film.

The Latymer Upper School Boat Club has been open for over a century to school pupils, and offers rowing to both genders. The boat house taught Andy Holmes, Olympic gold medal rower (1984 Games and 1988 Games). The Boat Club has gone on to win Henley Royal Regatta, most recently with the win of the Diamond Jubilee Challenge Cup.

Facilities

The Latymer Theatre and Arts Centre, opened in 2000, includes a 300-seat galleried box theatre named the Edward Latymer Theatre and an art gallery. The Latymer Performing Arts Centre, completed in 2009, contains drama studios, rehearsal rooms and a 150-seat recital hall. The Science and Library building, opened in 2010, includes labs for the three sciences and a library with seating for more than 200 pupils which occupies a floor at the base. Van Heyningen and Haward Architects were responsible for the design and delivery of these four buildings during a ten-year working relationship with the school.

The Sports Centre was opened in March 2016; it has a six-lane swimming pool, basketball hoops, badminton markings, cricket nets, a fitness suite, and a rock climbing wall, and serves as an area for pupils to take their examinations.

The school's playing fields are about a mile and a half away, on Wood Lane. The playing fields are used for training by the England Rugby Team.

Coat of arms

The school for many years used the armorial bearings of the founder, Edward Latymer. This included his motto, paulatim ergo certe ("Slowly therefore surely"), which doubled as a pun, including the word "latimer" (spelt thus as there is no letter y in Latin). An intermediate coat of arms was taken from one of the quarters of the original coat of arms which combined that of the Latymer Foundation and of the Latymer School. In 2004, the motto was simplified, before being changed again to its current form in September 2020.

Academic performance

Latymer Upper School is one of the highest academically performing schools in the UK. The school's own on-site prep pupils enter the Upper School automatically at the end of Year 6. Tatler Schools Guide commented in 2016 that 'competition for Latymer places is hotter than ever: 1,100 applicants sat the exam last spring; 400 were interviewed for 168 places'. The examined subjects are in English and Maths; the examination is followed by an interview. There were 33 Oxbridge places in 2017, and an increasing number went to US universities such as Brown, Columbia, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, Pennsylvania and Yale. GCSE & A-Level summaries over five years are summarised in the table.

Old Latymerians and former staff

Politics

  • John Beckett (1894-1964), dissident politician
  • Peter Hendy, Chairman of Network Rail
  • Alan Hunt, High Commissioner
  • John Killick (1919–2004), Ambassador
  • Ian Percival (1921–1998), Solicitor General
  • Joshua Rozenberg, legal affairs correspondent for the Daily Telegraph
  • Andy Slaughter, Labour MP for Hammersmith
  • Keith Vaz, Labour MP for Leicester East
  • Peter Walker (1932–2010), Cabinet Minister
  • Larry Whitty, Labour Party General Secretary
  • George Walden, Education Minister

Film and theatre

  • Lily Cole, actress and model
  • Hugh Grant, actor
  • Martyn Green, actor-singer, comedian
  • Christopher Guard, actor
  • Natalie Abrahami, theatre director
  • Ophelia Lovibond, actress
  • Imogen Poots, actress
  • Augustus Prew, actor
  • Toby Regbo, actor
  • Alan Rickman (1946–2016), actor
  • Mel Smith (1952–2013), actor and film director
  • Sean Teale, actor
  • Rufus Jones, actor
  • Gordon McDougall, theatre director

Music

  • Walter Legge (1906–1979), record producer, founder of the Philharmonia Orchestra
  • Jamie Quinn, known as Matrix
  • Joshua Lloyd-Watson and Tom McFarland, core members of Jungle
  • Charlie Morgan, musician
  • Arlo Parks, singer
  • Jay Sean, singer
  • Cliff Townshend, jazz musician
  • Raphael Wallfisch, cellist

Sport

  • Andy Holmes (1959–2010), Olympic gold medal rower
  • Antony Hooper, cricketer
  • Simon Hughes, cricketer
  • Hugh Jones, athlete
  • Dan Luger, rugby player
  • Dominic Waldouck, rugby player

Other fields

  • Heston Blumenthal, TV chef and owner of The Fat Duck
  • Ajahn Brahm, Buddhist monk
  • Gordon Brook-Shepherd (1918–2004), author
  • Thomas Haller Cooper (1919–1987?), member of the Waffen SS's British Free Corps
  • Peter Farquhar, teacher
  • Richard Jackson, Bishop of Hereford
  • Harold Spencer Jones, Astronomer Royal
  • Philip I. Murray, professor of Ophthalmology
  • John D. Ray, Egyptologist
  • Jerry Roberts (1920–2014), wartime codebreaker at Bletchley Park
  • Jim Smith, biologist
  • Allegra Stratton, journalist
  • David Tress, painter
  • Fred Vine, geologist and co-discoverer of plate tectonics
  • Geoff Whitty (1946–2018), sociologist

Former staff

  • Peter Jacobs, piano
  • Max Kenworthy, music
  • Robert King (conductor), music

See also

  • 1620s in England
  • Gelehrtenschule des Johanneums (twinned school)
  • Godolphin and Latymer School

Notes

References

Bibliography

  • Davis, Sian; Gregg, Christine Letter, eds. (2024). Latymer 400: The Latymer Foundation at Hammersmith 1624–2024. Profile Editions. ISBN 978-1-7881-6811-3.
  • Watson, Nigel (1995). Latymer Upper School: A History of the School and its Foundation. James & James. ISBN 978-0-907383-62-8.

External links

  • Latymer Upper's official website
  • Latymer Prep School's official website
  • Official Old Latymerian website
  • Latymer Upper at the UK Schools Guide
  • A summary of Latymer Upper's academic performance
  • A detailed history of the Latymer schools at British History Online

Text submitted to CC-BY-SA license. Source: Latymer Upper School by Wikipedia (Historical)


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