George Heriot's School

George Heriot's School is a private primary and secondary school on Lauriston Place in Edinburgh, Scotland, with around 1500 pupils. It was established in 1624, by bequest of the goldsmith George Heriot, and opened in 1659.

Related Topics:
Private - Primary - Secondary - School - Edinburgh - Scotland - 1624 - George Heriot - 1659

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The main building of the school is notable for its architecture, which was the first of its kind in Scotland; it is a turreted building surrounding a large quadrangle, built out of sandstone. It was also the first large building to be contructed outside the city walls - it sits next to Greyfriars Kirk, built in 1620 - and as such stands in open grounds in a splendid position, overlooked by the Castle directly to the North. Parts of the sixteenth-century city wall are still to be found serving as the walls of the school grounds. The grounds contain a selection of other buildings of varying vintage; these include a swimming pool and a granite war memorial.

Related Topics:
Greyfriars Kirk - Swimming pool - War memorial

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On his death in 1624, George Heriot left around £25,000 - equivalent to several tens of millions today - to found a hospital and school to care for "puir, fatherless bairns" of Edinburgh. The construction of Heriot's Hospital (as it was then called) was begun in 1628, just outside the city walls of Edinburgh. It was completed just in time to be occupied by Cromwell's forces during the English Civil War; the building was used as a barracks, with horses stabled in the chapel. The hospital finally opened in 1659, with thirty pupils in residence; its finances grew, and it took in other pupils in addition to the orphans for whom it was intended. In the 1880s, it began to charge fees; however, to this day it serves its charitable object, providing free education to a sizable number of fatherless children, referred to as "foundationers". It became co-educational with the arrival of the first girls in 1979 and now has around 1500 pupils.

Related Topics:
Cromwell's - English Civil War - Barracks

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In 1837 the school founded ten "free schools" in Edinburgh, educating several thousand pupils across the city; these were closed in 1885. One of them, with a copy of several of the features of the original Lauriston Place building, is at the east end of the Cowgate. The school also provided funds for the establishment of an institution which later merged with the Watt Institution (named for James Watt) in the 1870s to form Heriot-Watt College, a technical college that became Heriot-Watt University in 1966.

Related Topics:
James Watt - Heriot-Watt University

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Pupils at the school belong to one of four 'houses' or chapters:

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• Lauriston (after the school's address)
• Greyfriars (after the adjoining church)
• Raeburn (after a famous former pupil)
• Castle (after the fortification to the north)
 
George Heriot's School: Alumni ►