Westminster School: Encyclopedia II - Westminster School - Notable buildings

Westminster School - Notable buildings

The 14th century Abbot's state dining hall, now named 'College Hall', may be one of the oldest and finest examples of medieval refectory in existence. The School uses it for its original purpose every day in term-time, whilst during the holidays it reverts to the Dean, as the Abbot's successor. Elizabeth Woodville took sanctuary here in 1483 with 5 daughters and her son Richard, but failed to save him from his fate as one of the Princes in the Tower. In the 1560s Queen Elizabeth I several times came to see her scholars act their Latin Plays on a stage in front of the attractive Elizabethan gallery, which may have been first erected especially for the purpose.

'College' (now shared between the three Houses of College, Dryden's and Wren's) is a dressed stone building overlooking College Garden, the former monastery's Infirmary garden which is now the property of Westminster Abbey. It dates from 1729, and was designed by the Earl of Burlington based on earlier designs from Sir Christopher Wren (himself an Old Westminster).

'School', the School's main hall and former monks' Dormitory, is used for Latin Prayers (a weekly assembly with prayers spoken in the Westminster-dialect of Latin), exams, and large concerts, plays and the like. From 1599 onwards it was used to teach all the pupils, the Upper and Lower Schools being split by a curtain hung from a 16th century bar made of pig iron, which remains the largest piece of pig iron in the world. The stone steps and entranceway to School have been attributed as the work of Inigo Jones, and are engraved with the names of many pupils who used to hire a stonemason for the purpose. The panelling "up School" is similarly, but officially, painted with the coats of arms of many former pupils. The shell-shaped apse at the North end of School gave its name to the Shell forms taught there and the corresponding classes at many other public schools. The current shell displays a Latin epigram on the rebuilding of School, with the acrostic Semper Eadem, Queen Elizabeth's motto. The classroom door to the right, as you face the Shell, was recovered from the notorious Star Chamber at its demolition.

The roofs of both School and College were destroyed in The Blitz by an incendiary bomb in 1941, the buildings being re-opened by George VI in 1950.

Ashburnham House, which today houses the library and the Mathematics Department, was built by Inigo Jones or his pupil John Webb around the time of the Restoration, as a London seat for the family which became the Earls of Ashburnham. It incorporates remains of the mediaeval Prior's House, and its garden is the site of some of the earliest sittings of the House of Commons. In 1721 when Ashburnham housed the King's and Cottonian libraries, which form the basis of the British Library, there was a disastrous fire and many of the books and manuscripts still show the marks. After the Public Schools Act 1868 there was an outrageous parliamentary and legal battle between the Abbey and the School, until the School eventually obtained Ashburnham under the Act for £4000. In 1881 William Morris conducted a public campaign which succeeded in preventing its demolition along with the neighbouring ruinous mediaeval buildings. During the Second World War, the library was used as a communications station for the Royal Air Force, and the ground floor as an American officers' club. In 1969, it was used as one of the locations for the film The Magic Christian.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Notable buildings", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki