4 / 32
4
ST EDWARD’S CHRONICLE
The Quad of the Future
By the mid-1880s, after an energetic period
of development, a number of significant school
buildings had been constructed; Simeon began
to look to the future with confidence. Working
with Wilkinson, he drew up a bold and detailed
scheme for his School (below). With a roll
of only 80 pupils at the time, his vision might
‘This is a game-changer...
At a stroke, it will
transform the academic
life of St Edward’s.’
The Warden
have been dismissed as grandiose or wildly
ambitious, but it is remarkable how closely
today’s reality resembles the early plans.
When Simeon completed his drawing, school
buildings existing or under construction on
the Quad consisted of the Warden’s House,
Main Buildings (Apsley and the Dining Hall),
Simeon’s vision
In 1872, things were not looking good in
New Inn Hall Street, the School’s original
home. ‘The bannisters fell off the staircase
and the floor of the dining room collapsed
into the cellar below … a great chunk of
the external wall crumbled.’ Unsurprisingly,
an architect called in to review the building
declared it ‘beyond repair and unsafe.’ The
Headmaster (and later first Warden) of
St Edward’s, Reverend Algernon Simeon,
with characteristic drive and determination,
rose to the challenge. Casting about for
another site, he eventually settled on land
in the ‘miserable, dirty little village’ of
Summertown and paid £7,000 of his own
money for five acres of turnip fields. Building
works immediately commenced under the
noted local architect William Wilkinson
(who also designed the Randolph Hotel) and
the School took up residence in the partially
built premises in 1873.