Eton College

Eton College stands beside the Thames in Berkshire, a 16th-century foundation begun by Henry VI in 1440. The school was planned as a feeder for King’s College, Cambridge, and still shows its original charity purpose in the quire of its chapel. The cloisters and College Hall date from the 1440s, while the north range and wall paintings belong to the 1480s. Roger Lupton’s gatehouse, built around 1517, frames the School Yard and leads to Election Hall. Later additions include the 1694 west range and the 1729 College Library with its rare books. Eton is recognised as the largest boarding school in England and has produced many of the nation’s statesmen. The college’s alumni include the Duke of Wellington, whose remark about ‘the stuff that won Waterloo’ is often quoted. In the 19th century the Clarendon Commission examined Eton’s finances and teaching, and Provost Francis Hodgson added New Buildings in the 1840s. The Eton Mission in Hackney Wick brought boys into contact with London’s poor, raising funds for a church and a rowing club that survives today. Visitors enter through Lupton’s gatehouse into the School Yard, where Election Hall holds 18th-century leaving portraits. The chapel’s quire and ante-chapel contain medieval wall paintings and later stained glass by Evie Hone and John Piper. The College Library holds important manuscripts, and the cloisters carry tablets to the First World War dead. Across the road, the 1906 School Hall and Library serve as a memorial to those lost in the Boer War. The Thames-side setting and the ordered stone ranges give the college a quiet dignity that reflects its long history.