A Brief History of Aldenham

Aldenham was founded in 1597 by Alderman Richard Platt, a prosperous London brewer. He made the Brewers Company trustees of his foundation which he endowed with lands he had inherited in Aldenham where the School still is and land on which part of St Pancras Station was built in the mid 19th century. During its first 250 years the School was very small and essentially a village elementary school. The original Tudor buildings were pulled down in 1824 and replaced by early Gothic revival buildings which are still the core of the present extensive developments.

After the welcome injection of railway cash and with in particular two outstanding Headmasters, John Kennedy and Dr A H Cooke, the School changed greatly. It became a much respected school for older boys, many of whom obtained places at Oxford and Cambridge and drawing from all over the country. The playing fields and buildings greatly increased and during the post-war years there were some three hundred boys 13-18, almost all boarders.

During the Sixties and Seventies the School gradually changed. It became less of a boarding school with a significant day contingent, as well as some part boarding combinations, although the most academic local boys were deflected to Haberdashers Aske's, at Aldenham House just over a mile away. The facilities were greatly expanded culminating in a magnificent Sport Hall, also a great asset to the locality community in the early Nineties. Aldenham concentrated on what it had always done well, enabling the development of boys' (and latterly girls') personalities and interests in a challenging but supportive community. The entry age has extended downwards: there is now an Aldenham nursery, pre-prep and prep schools on the site, with numbers at the secondary age also growing.

Aldenham has always been fortunate in the quality of its headmasters and its staff, many of the latter devoting the whole of their working lives to the School. It is this sense of community which has made the Old Aldenhamian Society such a worthwhile organisation. OAs have done well in their careers, some reaching the highest levels. The history of the School has been published by the OA Society and regularly updated and revised, the last being 1997 to mark four hundred years of the School's existence.

It is proposed to update the history in 2010 and we would be very grateful for material covering recent times as well as information about the School since 1945 to repair some of the inevitable omissions which can be sent to John Edwards c/o the OA Office. Copies of the 1997 History are still available from the OA office.

J.R. Edwards (OA)