Wimbledon College

Wimbledon School was founded in 1860 by Revd. John Brackenbury (1816-95) as an Anglican Preparatory Military Academy and built on the crest of the hill, at that time surrounded by fields. In 1859 Brackenbury had purchased Tree and Boggy Fields from the owner, Mr Phillips, and commissioned Samuel Teulon (1812-1873), architect of nearby Christ Church (q.v.) on the Ridgeway, to design Wimbledon School. Brackenbury had previously headed Nelson House Military School in Wimbledon Village, now Eagle House (q.v.). The entrance was up a drive from the Ridgeway alongside the cricket field, now built over by Ridgeway Gardens. Near the south front of the 3-storey school were formal gardens, with exotic trees and shrubs planted in the grounds. The grounds may have been laid out by David Thompson whose nursery was at the bottom of Wimbledon Hill. Below the school was a field, with a fish pond in one corner. Boggy Field became a kitchen garden with greenhouses erected and fruit trees planted. Revd Brackenbury retired in 1882 and under his successor and former deputy, Charles Wynne, the school declined and was forced to close in 1884.

In 1892 Revd Brackenbury sold the school and all its land for redevelopment but the Jesuit Fathers, who had started a school in Wimbledon in January 1892, raised the necessary money to purchase part of the site, comprising the old buildings and land below them and in 1893 opened Wimbledon College as a Jesuit boys' school . Adjacent to the school is the Church of the Sacred Heart (q.v.), which the Jesuits administered until 2014. By 1900 the school had over 100 pupils. The former cricket field to the north was not included in the sale and had already been sold. A field off site was rented initially for summer cricket until the front field was levelled and the first cricket match is recorded here in 1902. Other sports played here were football and later rugby. An Army class was established in 1898, echoing the earlier Anglican Military Academy, and took boarders who provided an important source of income to the College. The Army Department was run primarily by the Jesuit Fathers who also taught pupils at the main school. During WWI the school took in 50 Belgian Catholic refugees and in 1916/17 201 boys were recorded. 129 former pupils lost their lives in the war, recorded on the War Memorial unveiled in the college chapel on 18 February 1922; two former students were awarded the Victoria Cross.

Wimbledon College retains its strong tradition as a Jesuit School. In the interwar years much change took place, with a House system introduced in 1921, and the expansion of extra-curricular activities and inter-house competitions; popular annual Shrovetide Plays were performed in the College Hall on a removable stage paid for through ticket sales. In 1933 the new preparatory school was set up in Donhead Lodge bringing 72 pupils. In 1929 an 8-acre field off Coombe Lane was purchased for sports, with a perimeter of lime trees planted. Throughout WWII the life of the school was much disrupted although the school remained here; during heavy bombing in 1940 classes transferred to the school cellars. The school was used as an emergency feeding post and first aid centre, its swimming pool used as a water source for the fire brigade although on 18 February 1944 a nearby bomb damaged the ceiling of the swimming pool, as well as shattering and breaking College windows and doors.  

Throughout the war, headmaster Father Sinnott sought to secure the long term future of the school and, concluding that it was not sustainable as an independent institution, applied to Surrey County Council for Deficiency Aided School status, which was granted in 1942, giving the College financial support without losing its religious status. The process to become a Voluntary Aided Grammar School began in 1945, and it was formally recognised as such in July 1948. 58 former members of Wimbledon College were killed fighting in WWII, who are commemorated on the College Chapel memorial. In 1969 the school became a comprehensive.

All these phases led to new buildings and facilities on the site but the original buildings of 1860 by Samuel Teulon included the school house, gothic brick mansion to the right of the hall and a 3-storeyed gabled range with wings housing dormitories. These latter were extended to the north west by Teulon in 1865/7 and to the north east in 1896/8. A chapel by Roman Catholic architect Frederick A Walters was built in 1910; the courtyard behind had classrooms and laboratories added in 1951 and 1965. A technical and arts facility was built to the south in 1968-72. The old gymnasium of 1883 in the north-east corner of the courtyard became a library in 1980.