Clifton College is a public school in the city of Bristol in South West England, founded in 1862 and offering both boarding and day school for pupils aged 13–18. In its early years, unlike most contemporary public schools, it emphasised science rather than classics in the curriculum, and was less concerned with social elitism, for example by admitting day-boys on equal terms and providing a dedicated boarding house for Jewish boys, called Polack's House. Having linked its General Studies classes with Badminton School, it admitted girls to every year group (from pre-prep up to Upper 6th, excepting 5th form due to potential O-levels disruption) in 1987, and was the first of the traditional boys' public schools to become fully coeducational.The Best School of All: 150 Years of Clifton College, Polack's House closed in 2005 but a scholarship fund open to Jewish candidates still exists. Clifton College is one of the original 26 English public schools as defined by the Public Schools Yearbook of 1889.
The school was also the headquarters of the US army in Britain during part of the Second World War. General Omar Bradley used the school's buildings as a staff office from October to November 1944.
Clifton College has educated several Nobel laureates: Sir John Kendrew, who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1962; Sir John Hicks, winner of the 1972 Nobel Prize in Economics; Sir Nevill Francis Mott, who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1977; and Geoffrey Hinton who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2024.
Introduction
The school takes boys and girls aged between 13 and 18. It has its own preparatory school, Clifton College Preparatory School (known as the 'Pre'), for children from 8 to 13 which adjoins the school and shares many of the same facilities; there is also a pre-preparatory school for younger children aged 3 to 8 called Butcombe. To distinguish it from the junior schools, Clifton College proper is referred to as the 'Upper School'.
There are around 720 children in the Upper School of whom about a third are girls. At the start of the 2004 – 2005 school year, a new boarding/day house for girls (Hallward's House) was opened.
In 2005, the school was one of fifty of the country's leading independent schools which were found guilty of running an illegal price-fixing cartel, exposed by The Times, which had allowed them to drive up fees for thousands of parents. Each school was required to pay a penalty of £10,000 and all agreed to make ex-gratia payments totalling three million pounds into a trust designed to benefit pupils who attended the schools during the period in respect of which fee information was shared.The Office of Fair Trading: OFT names further trustees as part of the independent schools settlement
World War II
During World War II the heavy bombing of Bristol caused the students to be evacuated to Bude. In February 1941 the buildings were used by the Royal Army Service Corps as an Officer Cadet Training Unit. In 1942 they were replaced by the United States Army who established it as the headquarters of V Corps and then the First Army. Staff were involved in preparations for the Normandy landings under General Omar Bradley. After D-Day the college was taken over as headquarters of the Ninth Army under General William Hood Simpson.
To enable rapid travel and communications between the headquarters and dispersed units extensive use was made of light aircraft for travel. Some flights used Filton Airfield and others Whitchurch, however the majority were from the college's playing fields at Beggars Bush Field, between the college and Leigh Woods, which was turned into an airfield.
Houses
Before 1987, Clifton was a boys-only school with seven boarding houses (School House, Brown's, Watson's, Dakyns', Oakeley's, Wiseman's, Polack's) and three day-houses (East Town, North Town and The South Town). In each of the current seven boarding Houses (four for boys, three for girls) live the Housemaster or Housemistress and family, an Assistant and the Matron. In addition, each House has up to four non-residential Tutors. Also, pupils wear ties with different coloured stripes according to their house membership; which are also the colours of the jerseys the pupils wear to distinguish between houses in inter-house sporting events.
There are 12 houses currently in the Upper School of Clifton College, which have an order of precedence based on the date of their foundation.Moberly's House takes its precedence from its two antecedent houses, Dakyns' and Brown's, which were second and third most senior respectively before they were merged in 1993. There are also houses in Clifton College Preparatory School not listed below.
House Colours Motto Gender Boarding/Day School House Black/Red Hope is the anchor of life M Boarding Moberly's House Red-Purple/Blue/White May fortune attend those who dwell here M Boarding Oakeley's House Black/White It has flourished, it is flourishing, may it flourish F (M until 1986) Boarding Wiseman's House Black/Purple On no feeble wing shall I be borne M Boarding Watson's House Pale Blue/Black Brothers Together M Boarding North Town Dark Blue/Black/White Not one step back M Day The South Town Black/Green Together we are stronger M Day East Town Black/Yellow/Orange The sun always rises again M Day Worcester House Black/Green/White They can because they think they can F Boarding West Town Black/Pink From the possible to the actual F Day Hallward's House Black/Purple/Green Believe in yourself and the world is yours F Day with Sixth Form Boarding Holland's House White/Pink/Navy I am not led, I lead F Day
Holland's house, a girls' day house, was made in 2017 with colours white, pink and navy.
Several other houses have existed during the school's history. In WW2, while the school was evacuated to Bude, United House (UH) was created from pupils of houses placed in temporary abeyance. Dakyns' House and Brown's House were closed in 1993, and Polack's House, which took Jewish boys only, was closed in 2005. These are listed below:
House Colours Motto Gender Boarding/Day Closed Dakyns' House White-Pink-White (tie) Brown (sport) Strike Dakyns, The Devil's in the Hemp M Boarding 1993 Brown's House Black/Yellow Authority reveals the man M Boarding 1993 Polack's House Black/Red/White We gather strength as we go M Boarding (Jewish) 2004
In the decades after the school's foundation, with the exception of School House, the Houses were named after the Housemaster at the time, but in the late 19th century this pattern was abandoned, and all Houses reverted to the name of their first Housemaster. This nomenclature convention was not however used for Hallward's House (founded in 2004 and named after a former Headmaster, Bertrand Hallward, nor for Worcester House (the second girls' house, founded in 1989 and named after the road in which it is situated). When Dakyns' House and Brown's House were merged in September 1993, the original suggestion was to name the new establishment "Dakyns-Brown's House", but following a suggestion from a pupil, the name "Moberly's House" was chosen, commemorating William Moberly, the only teacher who had been involved in both of the antecedent establishments (as Housemaster of both Dakyns' and House Tutor of Brown's).
Buildings and grounds
The first school buildings
The college buildings were designed by the architect Charles Hansom (the brother of Joseph Hansom); his first design was for Big School and a proposed dining hall. Only the former was built and a small extra short wing was added in 1866 – this is what now contains the Marshal's office and the new staircase into Big School. It has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade II listed building.
Hansom was called back in the 1870s and asked to design what is now the Percival Library and the open-cloister classrooms. This project was largely completed by 1875 – although the Wilson Tower was not built until 1890 (Grade II listed). Other buildings were added as follows: By 1875, Brown's, Dakyns' and Oakley's had been opened along with what is now 32 College Road – originally this functioned as accommodation for bachelor masters Three fives courts (1864) The original sanitorium (1865) Gymnasium (1867) Two swimming pools (1869) An open rackets court (1872) The present workshop (1873) The chapel (1867); this was built to Charles Hansom's original design, but was moved from the intended site (which is now the gym). As built, the chapel was a narrow aisleless building, and just the width of its present west end. It was the gift of the widow of Canon Guthrie. Hansom was given permission "to quarry sufficient stone from the college grounds for the purposes of the Chapel building".
The Chapel building was licensed by the Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol in 1867. It is now Grade II* listed.
Later building
In early Percival years, the nucleus of the school buildings was laid down.
In 1880, the school's East Wing was completed as far as the staircase (this had yet to be linked to the library by the Wilson Tower) and added a science lecture-room (which is the reason for the curious 'stepped' windows), a laboratory and several classrooms.
In 1886, a porters' lodge and what is now the staff common room were added by enlarging what had been the original science school. On the ground floor was the school tuck-shop and above this (in what is now the Upper Common Room) was a drawing-school. The day boys were provided for in Town Rooms for both North and South Town. The East Wing was then completed by carrying it beyond the staircase and then creating an additional classroom at each end. The ground-floor classroom (then Room 12) is now known as the "Newbolt Room" and has been furnished by the Old Cliftonian Society, which still uses it for reunions. Between 1890 and the start of the First World War, the new Music School (1897) was added and the Chapel rebuilt (1910).
Dr John King, whose headmastership spanned the war years, had little scope for building after 1914, but he did oversee the development of the playing fields at Beggar's Bush, the building of the Memorial Arch, the neo-classical cricket pavilion and the opening of the new Sanitorium in Worcester Road.
On 3 December 1918, the former headmaster John Percival died and was buried in the vault of the school Chapel. In 1921, a memorial chapel was created and consecrated about his tomb. Norman Whatley was the headmaster between 1923 and 1938; his tenure saw the opening of the Preparatory School and the building of the Science School on the site of the previous Junior School. Designed by A. E. Munby, it was opened in 1926. "Munby, Alan Edward", arthistoryresearch.net, accessed 28 September 2023
Also at this time, the school acquired Hugh Ray Easton's new east windows. The windows also contain a curiosity: beneath the representation of the heavenly Jerusalem is depicted a game of cricket on the Close – with one of Whatley's sons taking part. In 1965–1967, the theatre was built by the architects Whicheloe and MacFarlane.
In 1982, on the site of the old swimming pools, the new Sports Hall, remedial gym and a new covered swimming pool were built; previously boys used the outdoor Victorian pool and its outdoor covered changing cubicles.
The 1980s also saw the building of the Coulson Centre which links together two previously separate classroom blocks, at Muir and Birdwood houses. As a result of the improvements in modern medicine, the Sanitorium in Worcester Road was unnecessarily large for the school's needs, and so the old pre-1921 Sanatorium on the Close has been refitted to serve this purpose, whilst the Worcester Road sanatorium has been refitted as the headmaster's house.
Memorial arch