Byron House School was an independent preparatory school in

Highgate, London 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 organisati ...

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 Sir Michael James Lighthill (23 January 1924 – 17 July 1998) was a British applied mathematician, known for his pioneering work in the field of aeroacoustics and for writing the Lighthill report on artificial intelligence. Biography J ...

was the

Lucasian Professor of Mathematics The Lucasian Chair of Mathematics () is a mathematics professorship in the University of Cambridge, England; its holder is known as the Lucasian Professor. The post was founded in 1663 by Henry Lucas, who was Cambridge University's Member of Pa ...

directly before Hawking. In 1939, pupils were evacuated to

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

and between 1940 and 1944, 24 children from Byron House were evacuated to

Ottawa, Canada Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core of ...

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, ...

was taught by T. S. Eliot at Byron House, before being sent to the

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 Goldsm ...

in Oxford.

Notable former pupils

Elizabeth Taylor Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor (February 27, 1932 – March 23, 2011) was a British-American actress. She began her career as a child actress in the early 1940s and was one of the most popular stars of classical Hollywood cinema in the 1950s. ...

, actress *

, writer and poet * Stephen Hawking, physicist * Maurice Hill, geophysicist attended briefly before Highgate School *

Anne Atkins Anne Atkins is an English novelist, writer and broadcaster. The author of four novels – ''The Lost Child'', ''On Our Own,'' ''A Fine and Private Place'', and ''An Elegant Solution'' – as well as three books of non-fiction, she is a regular c ...

, broadcaster * Henry Fairly, journalist *

, mathematician * Gregory Tesser, sports journalist *

Charles Gidley Wheeler Charles Gidley Wheeler (1938–2010), also known as Charles Gidley, was a television screenwriter and historical novelist whose work has been acclaimed in ''Publishers Weekly'', ''The Washington Post'', '' Kirkus Reviews'', and ''The New York T ...

, novelist

References

{{authority control Educational institutions established in 1897 Highgate Grade II* listed buildings in London Defunct schools in the London Borough of Haringey 1897 establishments in England