The Royal Mathematical School, Christ’s Hospital
Teaching at Christ’s Hospital dates from 1552, writes N.M. Plumley, and its Royal Mathematical School from the reign of Charles II.
Three hundred years ago this August, Charles II founded the Royal Mathematical School in Christ’s Hospital. This first ‘modern’ foundation in England, where education, generally speaking, had been and was to continue to be centred around the classics for some time to come, was quickly established in the school which was already one hundred and twenty years old.
Christ’s Hospital itself is one of the many mid-sixteenth century educational foundations. It began its task of caring for and educating the children of London’s fatherless and poor in November 1552, when 320 children, girls and boys, were admitted to the buildings of the Greyfriars, situated near the Newgate and the Town Ditch.
In June of the following year it received its Royal Charter from King Edward VI, who took a particular interest, and Christ’s Hospital was established as one of the Royal Hospitals, together with St Thomas’ and Bridewell. Its institution caught the imagination of wealthy Londoners, who endowed the foundation generously.
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