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John Betjeman
Sir John Betjeman (; 28 August 190619 May 1984) was an English poet, writer, and broadcaster. He was Poet Laureate from 1972 until his death. He was a founding member of The Victorian Society and a passionate defender of Victorian architecture, helping to save St Pancras railway station from demolition. He began his career as a journalist and ended it as one of the most popular British Poets Laureate and a much-loved figure on British television. Life Early life and education Betjeman was born John Betjemann. He was the son of a prosperous silverware maker of Dutch descent. His parents, Mabel (''née'' Dawson) and Ernest Betjemann, had a family firm at 34–42 Pentonville Road which manufactured the kind of ornamental household furniture and gadgets distinctive to Victorians. During the First World War the family name was changed to the less German-looking Betjeman. His father's forebears had actually come from the present day Netherlands more than a century earlier, setting ...
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Poet Laureate Of The United Kingdom
The British Poet Laureate is an honorary position appointed by the monarch of the United Kingdom, currently on the advice of the prime minister. The role does not entail any specific duties, but there is an expectation that the holder will write verse for significant national occasions. The origins of the laureateship date back to 1616 when a pension was provided to Ben Jonson, but the first official holder of the position was John Dryden, appointed in 1668 by Charles II. On the death of Alfred, Lord Tennyson, who held the post between November 1850 and October 1892, there was a break of four years as a mark of respect; Tennyson's laureate poems "Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington" and "The Charge of the Light Brigade" were particularly cherished by the Victorian public. Three poets, Thomas Gray, Samuel Rogers and Walter Scott, turned down the laureateship. The holder of the position as at October 2022 is Simon Armitage who succeeded Carol Ann Duffy in May 2019. Backgr ...
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Islington
Islington () is a district in the north of Greater London, England, and part of the London Borough of Islington. It is a mainly residential district of Inner London, extending from Islington's High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the area around the busy High Street, Upper Street, Essex Road (former "Lower Street"), and Southgate Road to the east. Modern definition Islington grew as a sprawling Middlesex village along the line of the Great North Road, and has provided the name of the modern borough. This gave rise to some confusion, as neighbouring districts may also be said to be in Islington. This district is bounded by Liverpool Road to the west and City Road and Southgate Road to the south-east. Its northernmost point is in the area of Canonbury. The main north–south high street, Upper Street splits at Highbury Corner to Holloway Road to the west and St. Paul's Road to the east. The Angel business improvement district (BID), an area centered around the Angel t ...
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Louis MacNeice
Frederick Louis MacNeice (12 September 1907 – 3 September 1963) was an Irish poet and playwright, and a member of the Auden Group, which also included W. H. Auden, Stephen Spender and Cecil Day-Lewis. MacNeice's body of work was widely appreciated by the public during his lifetime, due in part to his relaxed but socially and emotionally aware style. Never as overtly or simplistically political as some of his contemporaries, he expressed a humane opposition to totalitarianism as well as an acute awareness of his roots. Life Ireland, 1907–1917 Louis MacNeice (known as Freddie until his teens, when he adopted his middle name) was born in Belfast, the youngest son of Rev. John Frederick and Elizabeth Margaret ("Lily") MacNeice.Poetry Foundation profile
Both were originally from the West of Ireland. MacNeice's fa ...
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Independent School (UK)
In the United Kingdom, independent schools () are fee-charging schools, some endowed and governed by a board of governors and some in private ownership. They are independent of many of the regulations and conditions that apply to state-funded schools. For example, pupils do not have to follow the National Curriculum, although, some schools do. They are commonly described as 'private schools' although historically the term referred to a school in private ownership, in contrast to an endowed school subject to a trust or of charitable status. Many of the older independent schools catering for the 12–18 age range in England and Wales are known as public schools, seven of which were the subject of the Public Schools Act 1868. The term "public school" derived from the fact that they were then open to pupils regardless of where they lived or their religion (while in the United States and most other English-speaking countries "public school" refers to a publicly-funded state school). ...
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Preparatory School (England)
A preparatory school (or, shortened: prep school) in the United Kingdom is a fee-charging independent primary school that caters for children up to approximately the age of 13. The term "preparatory school" is used as it ''prepares'' the children for the Common Entrance Examination in order to secure a place at an independent secondary school, typically one of the English public schools. They are also preferred by some parents in the hope of getting their child into a state selective grammar school. Most prep schools are inspected by the Independent Schools Inspectorate, which is overseen by Ofsted on behalf of the Department for Education. Overview Boys' prep schools are generally for 8-13 year-olds, who are prepared for the Common Entrance Examination, the key to entry into many secondary independent schools. Before the age of 7 or 8, the term "pre-prep school" is used. Girls' independent schools in England tend to follow the age ranges of state schools more closely than th ...
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Dragon School
("Reach for the Sun") , established = 1877 , closed = , type = Preparatory day and boarding school and Pre-Prep school , religion = Church of England , president = , head_label = Head , head = Emma Goldsmith (Prep); Annie McNeile (Pre-Prep) , r_head_label = , r_head = , chair_label = , chair = , founder = A. E. Clarke , specialist = , address = Bardwell Road , city = Oxford , county = Oxfordshire , country = UK , postcode = OX2 6SS , local_authority = , urn = 123288 , ofsted = , dfeno = 931/6062 , staff = , enrollment = 800+ , gender = Coeducational , lower_age = 4 , upper_age = 13 , houses = 9 , colours = Navy and yellow , publication = The Draconian , free_label_1 = Former pupils , free_1 = Old Dragons , free_label_2 = , free_2 = , free_label_3 = , free_3 = , websi ...
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Highgate School
Highgate School, formally Sir Roger Cholmeley's School at Highgate, is an English co-educational, fee-charging, independent day school, founded in 1565 in Highgate, London, England. It educates over 1,400 pupils in three sections – Highgate Pre-Preparatory School (ages 4–7), Highgate junior school (ages 7–11) and the senior school (11+) – which together comprise the Highgate Foundation. As part of its wider work the charity was from 2010 a founding partner of the London Academy of Excellence and it is now also the principal education sponsor of an associated Academy, the London Academy of Excellence Tottenham, which opened in September 2017. The principal business sponsor is Tottenham Hotspur FC. The charity also funds the Chrysalis Partnership, a scheme supporting 26 state schools in six London boroughs. Administration The foundation is governed in accordance with a Charity Commission Scheme dated 1 September 2005 (and amended in 2014). Its governing body consists ...
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Byron House School
Byron House School was an independent preparatory school in Highgate, London. History Byron House was founded in 1897 as a progressive prep school "favoured by London's intelligentsia and famous for its advanced teaching methods". Stephen Hawking, while attending the school, complained to his parents that he "wasn't learning anything", and later blamed its teaching methods for his failure to learn to read "until the fairly late age of eight". Another former pupil, Sir James Lighthill was the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics directly before Hawking. In 1939, pupils were evacuated to Cambridge and between 1940 and 1944, 24 children from Byron House were evacuated to Ottawa, Canada. John Betjeman was taught by T. S. Eliot at Byron House, before being sent to the Dragon School in Oxford. Notable former pupils * Elizabeth Taylor, actress * John Betjeman, writer and poet * Stephen Hawking, physicist * Maurice Hill, geophysicist attended briefly before Highgate School *Anne ...
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North London Railway
The North London Railway (NLR) company had lines connecting the northern suburbs of London with the East and West India Docks further east. The main east to west route is now part of London Overground's North London Line. Other NLR lines fell into disuse but were later revived as part of the Docklands Light Railway, and London Overground's East London Line. The company was originally called the East & West India Docks & Birmingham Junction Railway (E&WID&BJR) from its start in 1850, until 1853. in 1909 it entered into an agreement with the London and North Western Railway which introduced common management, and the NLR was taken over completely by the LNWR in 1922. The LNWR itself became part of the LMS from the start of 1923. The railways were nationalised in 1948 and most LMS lines, including the North London route, then came under the control of the London Midland Region of British Railways. History The East & West India Docks & Birmingham Junction Railway was incorporated ...
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Holly Lodge Estate
The Holly Lodge Estate is a housing estate in Highgate, north London. Early history Holly Lodge Estate is located on the site and grounds of a house built in 1798 by Sir Henry Tempest on the south-facing slopes of Highgate, London adjacent to Highgate Rise, now known as Highgate West Hill. The estate lands included Traitor's Hill, reputedly where members of the Gunpowder Plot had met to watch the Palace of Westminster blow up, although the rumour is now known to be false. This "villa", a term then used for a compact country house easily accessible to London, was later to be known as The Holly Lodge and in 1809 a young actress, Harriot Mellon, took over the lease on the property. She married the banker Thomas Coutts in 1815 and enlarged the house and grounds by buying adjacent properties. The grounds were landscaped by John Buonarotti Papworth in 1825. When Harriot Mellon died in 1837 she left the house and her fortune to her step-granddaughter. Angela Georgina Burdett-Cout ...
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Highgate
Highgate ( ) is a suburban area of north London at the northeastern corner of Hampstead Heath, north-northwest of Charing Cross. Highgate is one of the most expensive London suburbs in which to live. It has two active conservation organisations, the ''Highgate Society'' and the ''Highgate Neighbourhood Forum'' to protect and enhance its character and amenities. Until late Victorian times it was a distinct village outside London, sitting astride the main road to the north. The area retains many green expanses including the eastern part of Hampstead Heath, three ancient woods, Waterlow Park and the eastern-facing slopes known as Highgate bowl. At its centre is Highgate village, largely a collection of Georgian shops, pubs, restaurants, residential streets, and the Sacred Spirits Distillery interspersed with diverse landmarks such as St Michael's Church and steeple, St. Joseph's Church and its green copper dome, Highgate School (1565), Jacksons Lane arts centre housed in a Gra ...
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Gospel Oak
Gospel Oak is an inner urban area of north west London in the London Borough of Camden at the very south of Hampstead Heath. The neighbourhood is positioned between Hampstead to the north-west, Dartmouth Park to the north-east, Kentish Town to the south-east, and Belsize Park to the south-west. Gospel Oak lies across the NW5 and NW3 postcodes and is served by Gospel Oak station on the London Overground. The North London Suburb, Gospel Oak, has many schools around it. History The name Gospel Oak derives from a local oak tree, under which parishioners gathered to hear regular gospel readings when the area was still rural. The oak of Gospel Oak marked the boundary between the parishes of Hampstead and St Pancras, and was said to be situated on the corner of Mansfield Road and Southampton Road. The oak vanished sometime in the 1800s and was last recorded on a map of the area in 1801. There are reports that the founder of Methodism John Wesley preached from the oak, with the 18th cen ...
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