Blackheath High School

Updated on Jan 29, 2024

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Established 1880 DfE number 203/6295 Phone +44 20 8853 2929 Founder Louise, Princess Royal		Type Independent day school DfE URN 100756 Tables Founded 1880

Headmistress Mrs Carol Chandler-Thompson Location Vanbrugh Park Blackheath London SE3 7AG England, United Kingdom Address Vanbrugh Park, London SE3 7AG, UK Motto "Blackheath High School - a place to grow, a place to excel" Local authority Royal Borough of Greenwich Profiles Facebook Twitter

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Blackheath High School is an independent day school for girls in Blackheath Village in southeast London, England. It was founded in 1880 as part of the Girls' Day School Trust; the Senior School occupied a purpose built site in Wemyss Road for over 110 years.

Location and history

The Senior Department is located in the former Church Army Wilson Carlile Training College (opened in 1965) in Vanbrugh Park after moving from the Wemyss Road site in Blackheath in 1993/4. The school building in Blackheath village then became the Junior department. The Vanburgh Park site includes the Church Army Chapel, a locally listed building (designed by architect Ernest Trevor Spashett) now used as a music room and dance studio. It was a state-funded direct grant grammar school (also known simply as direct grant schools) from the late 1940s until 1976.

School motto

The school's motto is "Blackheath High School - a place to grow, a place to excel". Previously it had been "Knowledge no more a fountain sealed": a reference to the days when girls had poor access to schooling, as was the case in the early years of the school.

Notable former pupils

Sophie Aldred, actress

Isabel Appio, assistant music editor from 1986-91 of Time Out

Zeng Baosun, Chinese feminist, writer, and educator

Prof Wendy Barclay, Professor of Influenza Virology since 2007 at Imperial College London

Phyllis Barclay-Smith CBE, ornithologist

Lucy Boynton, actress

The Reverend Prof Sarah Coakley (née Furber), theologian, Norris–Hulse Professor of Divinity since 2007 at the University of Cambridge

Jean Cooke, artist

Saffron Coomber, actress

Evelyn Denington, Baroness Denington (née Bursill), Chairman from 1966-80 of Stevenage Development Corporation

Prof Alison Finch, Professor of French from 2000-03 at the University of Oxford, and acting Master of Churchill College, Cambridge in 2012

Jessica Fellowes, author and journalist

Margaret Jay, Baroness Jay of Paddington

Prof Elizabeth Jeffreys, Bywater and Sotheby Professor of Byzantine and Modern Greek Language and Literature from 1996-2006 at the University of Oxford

Helene Kvale, actress

Deborah Lawrenson, novelist

Helen Lederer, comedian

Fiona Maddocks, wife of Tom Phillips (artist), Chief Music Critic from 1997-2002 and since 2008 of The Observer, and Founding Editor from 1992-97 of BBC Music Magazine

Margaret Popham CBE, Principal from 1937-53 of Cheltenham Ladies' College

Mary Quant, fashion designer

Prof Anne Stevens, Professor of European Studies from 1998-2008 at Aston University, and from 1991-98 at the University of Kent

Dora Turnbull (née Elles), wrote under the pen-name Patricia Wentworth

Lesley Vickerage, actress

Charlene White, journalist

Beth Willis (producer)

Diane Yeo, wife of Tim Yeo, and UK Director from 2001-03 of UNHCR, and Director from 2003-05 of the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign

Published Histories

Malim, Mary Charlotte; Escreet, Henrietta Caroline (1927), The Book of Blackheath High School, Blackheath: Blackheath Press .

Watts, K M (1980), A History of Blackheath High School, Impart .

Allen, Dr Hillary (2005), A Brief History of Blackheath High School GDST 1880–2005. Retrieved on 21/05/2008.

References

Blackheath High School Wikipedia

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