King Edward's School, Birmingham came into being in 1552 in the former guild building on New Street in the center of Birmingham, UK. A new, purpose built building, completed in 1734 in the Georgian style, was built on the same site. In 1835, the Headmaster, Francis Jeune, had another new building erected, again on the same site, that was completed in 1838. This was designed by Charles Barry in the Gothic style. Augustus Pugin contributed to the design of the interior, and the two of them went on to build the Palace of Westminster in London. In the 1880s, five additional feeder grammar schools and a girls school were set up by the Foundation of the Schools of King Edward VI. The school continued to use the Barry building until 1936, when the Governors decided to move the school, together with the Girls school, to new buildings on a fifty acre site off Edgbaston Park Road, in Edgbaston. The site is across the road from the University of Birmingham campus. They had temporary buildings erected, but these burned down so the school had to function using parts of Birmingham University. In addition, pupils evacuated to Repton School for a while during the second world war. The school started to move into the new buildings in 1940, and they were finished in 1948. Since then there has been a continuing expansion of facilities.
During deconstruction of the Barry school, part of the upper corridor was conserved, and subsequently re-built on the Edgbaston site as a chapel. Bruce Hurn, who taught art from 1947 to 1973, painted a crucifixion as the altarpiece. I should mention that Mr Hurn had the dubious pleasure of attempting to teach me art during my tenure at the school; though I did get a good grade at "O" level GCE! The altarpiece has, recently, been restored. The school has had a number of famous pupils in its time including: Edward Burne-Jones, J. R. R. Tolkien, Sir John Vane, Maurice Wilkins, Richard Ewen Borcherds, Kenneth Tynan, Bill Oddie, Enoch Powell, David Willetts, Tony Miles, Jonathan Coe, Lee Child and Field Marshal The Right Honourable The Viscount Slim. Here are some pictures I found depicting the various school buildings. Use the arrows to see the pictures. The pictures of the current school & chapel are attributed to Oosoom under Creative Commons 3.0.
During deconstruction of the Barry school, part of the upper corridor was conserved, and subsequently re-built on the Edgbaston site as a chapel. Bruce Hurn, who taught art from 1947 to 1973, painted a crucifixion as the altarpiece. I should mention that Mr Hurn had the dubious pleasure of attempting to teach me art during my tenure at the school; though I did get a good grade at "O" level GCE! The altarpiece has, recently, been restored. The school has had a number of famous pupils in its time including: Edward Burne-Jones, J. R. R. Tolkien, Sir John Vane, Maurice Wilkins, Richard Ewen Borcherds, Kenneth Tynan, Bill Oddie, Enoch Powell, David Willetts, Tony Miles, Jonathan Coe, Lee Child and Field Marshal The Right Honourable The Viscount Slim. Here are some pictures I found depicting the various school buildings. Use the arrows to see the pictures. The pictures of the current school & chapel are attributed to Oosoom under Creative Commons 3.0.
King Edward's School, Birmingham
The school as built in 1734
