The Old Palace of John Whitgift School is a selective

independent school An independent school is independent in its finances and governance. Also known as private schools, non-governmental, privately funded, or non-state schools, they are not administered by local, state or national governments. In British Eng ...

for girls in Croydon, London. It was founded in 1889, and is scheduled to close in 2025. It is based in the Old Palace in

Old Town In a city or town, the old town is its historic or original core. Although the city is usually larger in its present form, many cities have redesignated this part of the city to commemorate its origins after thorough renovations. There are ma ...

, a Grade I listed building. It consists of a pre-school for pupils aged 3–4, a preparatory department for pupils aged 4–11, and a senior school for pupils aged 11–18. The school is operated by the Whitgift Foundation, along with Whitgift School and Trinity School of John Whitgift, and is consistently ranked as one of the top performing independent girls' schools in London.

History

The school was founded in 1889 by the

Sisters of the Church The Community of the Sisters of the Church is a religious order of women in various Anglican provinces who live the vowed life of poverty, chastity and obedience. In 2012 the order had 105 sisters living in community, together with an extensive n ...

. The " Old Palace" itself was for 500 years the summer residence of the

Archbishops of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Justi ...

. In the 19th century the Archbishops ended their residence at Croydon Palace and used

Addington Palace Addington Palace is an 18th-century mansion in Addington located within the London Borough of Croydon. It was built on the site of a 16th-century manor house. It is particularly known for having been, between 1807 and 1897, the summer resid ...

, also in Croydon, instead. The Palace was sold and subsequently used as a bleaching factory, amongst other things. The building was rescued by the Duke of Newcastle in 1887 and given to the Sisters of the Church who used it for educational purposes. In 1945, the school became a

Direct Grant Grammar School A direct grant grammar school was a type of selective secondary school in the United Kingdom that existed between 1945 and 1976. One quarter of the places in these schools were directly funded by central government, while the remainder attracted ...

and in 1975, became a fully independent day school for girls. The school joined the Whitgift Foundation in 1993. The school merged with

Croham Hurst School (The End Crowns The Work) , established = 1899 , closed = 2008 , type = Independent school(now closed) , religious_affiliation = , president = , head_label = Headmistress , head = , r_head_label = , r_ ...

, a former private girls' school, in 2008. In September 2023, Whitgift Foundation announced the decision to close the school permanently in August 2025 owing to financial difficulties.

Grounds

The senior school building was for centuries the summer palace of the

. It began life as the manor house, part wooden from at least the 12th century, and stone from the 14th century. The core of today's palace was built in the 15th century. The guardroom – once a reception room, now a library – dates from the time of Archbishop Thomas Arundel (1396–1414), and is one of the earliest uses of brick in Britain. Archbishop John Stafford (died 1452) built what is now one of the finest medieval great halls left in southern England. A number of monarchs from Henry VI to Elizabeth I banqueted under its high arched-brace roof, each sitting on Stafford's stone throne, part of which survives against the west wall. Elizabeth made numerous visits, and her bed, always travelling with her, was set down in what is now known as Queen Elizabeth's room, a large 15th-century first-floor space, with moulded ceiling joists. The chapel dates from the 15th century, and includes a gallery pew in dark oak often referred to as "Queen Elizabeth's Pew", built by Archbishop William Laud. Beneath this is a

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

font gifted in Victorian times from St George's Church, Southwark, the same font where Charles Dickens had Little Dorrit christened. The senior school also houses modern, purpose-built facilities including seven laboratories, a heated indoor swimming pool, and an Art and Technology building. In 2001 a building for the Junior Department and one housing the Sixth Form and P.E. area were opened. The school also benefits from access to Whitgift Foundation grounds and facilities. The pre-school and preparatory school now occupy a separate site to the senior school, in the former Croham Hurst School buildings on Melville Avenue in South Croydon.

Notable former pupils

* Jane Featherstone – television producer * Sarah Jones – Labour MP for Croydon Central from 2017 *

Violet Piercy Violet Stewart Louisa Piercy (24 December 1889 – April 1972) was an English long-distance runner who is recognized by the International Association of Athletics Federations as having set the first women's world best in the marathon on 3 Octobe ...

– runner *

Jane Steen Jane Elizabeth Steen (born 1964) is a British Church of England bishop. Since June 2021, she has served as the Bishop of Lynn, a suffragan bishop in the Diocese of Norwich. Previously, from 2013 to 2021, she served as Archdeacon of Southwark; an ...

– Church of England

Bishop of Lynn The Bishop of Lynn is an episcopal title used by a suffragan bishop of the Church of England Diocese of Norwich, in the Province of Canterbury, England. The title takes its name after the town of King's Lynn in Norfolk; the See was erected un ...

in Norfolk *

Helen Young Helen Young (born 10 June 1969) is an English weather forecaster and television presenter. Born in Crawley, West Sussex, Young attended the Old Palace School in Croydon, where she is now a governor. She then studied geography at University of Bri ...

– weather forecaster and television presenter * Afua Kyei − Chief Financial Officer and Executive Director of the Bank of England

Houses

All students are assigned to one of four houses named after notable people associated with the Palace. The houses, and their colours, are Anselm (yellow), Hatton (green), Laud (purple), and

Stafford Stafford () is a market town and the county town of Staffordshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It lies about north of Wolverhampton, south of Stoke-on-Trent and northwest of Birmingham. The town had a population of 70,145 in t ...

(blue).

References

External links

Old Palace School website

Old Palace Old Girls' Association website
{{authority control Private schools in the London Borough of Croydon Educational institutions established in 1889 Private girls' schools in London 1889 establishments in England Church of England private schools in the Diocese of Southwark