Our heritage

Thomas Sutton was the son of an official of the city of Lincoln, and was educated at Eton College and at St John’s College, Cambridge. For much of his life he held the prestigious role of Master of the Ordnance in the North, which meant that he was responsible for military supplies and fortification in the north of England. He also obtained the lease of the manors of Whickham and Gateshead, just south of Newcastle, in 1578, and so gained much of his early wealth from the coal mines in the area and from the sale of this lease five years later.

Sutton originally intended to leave his fortune to build a new alms house, chapel and free grammar school at Little Hallingbury in Essex; in 1610 he obtained an Act of Parliament to achieve this and he appointed as governors prominent figures in Church and State who would protect the interests of the new charity. However, Sutton then decided to purchase instead Howard House, the Earl of Suffolk’s London mansion on the site of the former Carthusian priory. In June 1611 Sutton was granted Letters Patent approving the change to the London site and honouring King James I by naming his foundation “The Hospital of King James, founded in Charterhouse within the county of Middlesex”. Sutton died on 12 December 1611, leaving his charity’s governors to implement his wishes.

The Charterhouse buildings were adapted to house 80 almsmen and 40 scholars, with a schoolroom and hall being converted from the Tudor indoor tennis court. The school opened in the autumn of 1614 with Nicholas Grey, an Oxford classical scholar, as the first Schoolmaster. Scholars had to be admitted between the ages of 10 and 14 and, although they were expected to be “well entred in learninge”, the main criteria for admission was a nomination by one of the governors, who included the King, Queen and the Prince of Wales.

The London Charterhouse, 1756. In the foreground is Charterhouse Square, with an boarding house used by Schoolmasters in the 18th century facing and, to the left, the Porter’s Lodge. The turquoise area beyond the buildings is the Green with the trees of Wilderness beyond it. To the left of the Green is the School building and, on the far left, the brothers’ quarters.

Statutes laid down in 1627 specified the teaching that should be provided in Greek and Latin and which took up most of the curriculum, together with enough basic mathematics for those pupils who were destined for trades rather than academia. In addition, the boys were taught to sing in Chapel, and a school play was produced annually. From the mid-eighteenth century boys could pay for art classes from the visiting drawing master.

Football was first played at the London Charterhouse as an unregulated mob game with any number of participants, playing in and out of the cloisters and around Under Green. Rules were gradually agreed so that Charterhouse could play against other teams. The first Football Association meeting in 1863 was attended by the football captains of Charterhouse and
Westminster, and it was the rules of these schools that formed the basis of FA football, in particular the offside rule.

Charterhouse produced many fine international players in the early days of amateur football, with the Old Carthusians team winning the FA Cup in 1881.

The Clarendon Commission reported to the Government in 1864 on the state of the nine great English public schools: it recommended that Charterhouse scholars should be chosen by competitive examination, and that the School should be moved to a healthier location outside London (the Charterhouse area was known as “a sink of filth and disease, of vice in all its deformity”). Initially, the Governors resisted this proposal, but Haig Brown, with the support of many Old Carthusians, won them over. Several sites were considered, including Hallingbury in Essex and Taplow in the Thames valley, but the final choice was the 68.5 acre Deanery Farm Estate near Godalming, purchased in 1867 for £9,450.

The picture is an impression of the new school by architect, Philip Hardwick. The final design was scaled down and simplified to reduce costs.

The school arrived at Godalming, on Waterloo Day 1872. 117 boys came from the London Charterhouse and they were joined by 33 new boys.

Preparations were not complete when pupils arrived in June 1872: gas lighting had yet to be installed, much of the furniture had not arrived, and the land had not been cleared and flattened for playing fields; consequently, the boys spent their free time exploring the countryside and swimming in the river. They were encouraged to keep pet ferrets to clear out an infestation of rats.

Nevertheless, the new School was popular and pupil numbers doubled within a year, leading to a need for extra boarding Houses; since no extra capital was available, Haig Brown encouraged staff to build their own boarding houses, which they ran as private commercial ventures. During the next two decades, the School further developed its facilities, purchasing adjacent land and constructing additional teaching facilities.

This bronze statue of Thomas Sutton was created by Sir William Goscombe John (1860-1952). The life-sized figure is raised up on a square stone plinth base, on the sides of which are four bronze panels in relief, one with the Royal crest, one with the Charterhouse crest, and two bearing inscriptions: Domus Carthusianae Fundator Thomas Sutton 1611 and In Piam Fundatoris Memoriam Carthusiani 1911. At the base of the figure it is signed, W.Goscombe John RA sc” and inscribed with the name of the foundry, A.B.Burton / Founder – the statue was cast at a foundry in Thames Ditton owned by Arthur Brian Burton; Goscombe John used this foundry for a number of his castings.

A charitable Tercentenary Fund was set up to pay for the anniversary celebrations and for good causes, including a £1,500 commission to Goscombe John for the Founder’s statue.

The completed statue was installed in Founder’s Court during Exeat of OQ1912. Very few people were around to witness Thomas Sutton being hoisted into place, but Verites Housemaster, Alexander Hay Tod, was on hand to capture the historic moment on camera.

The First World War had a profound and unrivalled effect on Charterhouse. 3,200 Old Carthusians enlisted for active service, of whom 687 paid the ultimate sacrifice. A new Memorial Chapel was built at Charterhouse to commemorate the School’s casualties, designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, a young architect renowned for his design for Liverpool’s Anglican cathedral. The foundation stone was laid on 17 June 1922 and the chapel was consecrated five years later by the Archbishop of Canterbury. Scott designed everything down to the finest detail, and he produced a serious building for a serious purpose, although, at Headmaster Frank Fletcher’s insistence, one that was also warm, light and airy.

The name of every Old Carthusian who died in the Great War was carved at the west end of the Memorial Chapel. Following World War II, a further 340 names were added, and those who have died in more recent conflicts are commemorated in the North West porch.

Although many Charterhouse traditions have continued to the present day, the School has also adapted to the modern world and there have been many improvements. Many of the Victorian Houses, situated on either side of the Charterhouse Road, had become dilapidated and in the early 1970s were replaced by modern Houses on the Northbrook side of the campus. Whilst some were nostalgic for the old-fashioned, austere architecture, most pupils and Housemasters revelled in the delights of single central-heated study bedrooms and hot showers.

Other major improvements included the building of a new Art Studio, a Technical Centre, an additional Music Centre, named in honour of OC composer, Ralph Vaughan Williams, a purpose built theatre, a golf course, and the Queen’s Sports Centre.

British composer and Old Carthusian, Rachel Portman, became the first female composer to win an Academy Award, which she received for the score of Emma. She was also the first female composer to win a Primetime Emmy Award, which she received for the film, Bessie. She has received two further Academy Nominations for The Cider House Rules and Chocolat, which also earned her a Golden Globe Nomination. Rachel was given an OBE in 2010 and is an honorary fellow of Worcester College, Oxford. She’s also a Fellow of the Royal College of Music. Rachel has written stage and concert commissions including a musical of Little House on the Prairie, and an opera of Saint Exupery’s, The Little Prince for Houston Grand Opera. For the BBC Proms, she wrote The Water Diviner, a dramatic choral symphony. She also wrote Endangered performed at the World Environment Day Concert, at the National Centre for the Performing Arts, Beijing. Other works include Earth Song for the BBC Singers, a solo piano album Ask The River and most recently for Joyce Di Donato, The First Morning of the World as part of her Eden programme.

In February 2021, Edgeborough and Charterhouse announced that Edgeborough will join the Charterhouse family in September 2021 as the two charities merged to create an exceptional independent, co-educational prep and senior school offer.

Coinciding with Charterhouse becoming fully co-educational from Year 9 in September 2021, it was a perfect strategic fit. Welcoming Edgeborough into the family, Dr Alex Peterken, Headmaster of Charterhouse said:

“These are two historic schools, linked by a common vision and approach. By becoming one family, we can provide, for children for whom it is most appropriate, an educational pathway from the age of three to University entry, and one that enables our pupils to thrive in all areas of their development.”