Eltham College


Eltham College is an independent school situated in Mottingham, southeast London. Eltham and Mottingham once formed part of the same parish, hence its name.

Early history

The school dates back to the early Victorian era, when it was founded as the London Missionary Society's School for the Sons and Orphans of Missionaries. Within a short time the Baptist Missionary Society joined as co-founders. A girls' school had been established in Walthamstow in 1838 and a boys' school was opened in the same place at the beginning of 1842. The boys' school later relocated to Mornington Crescent in 1852 and then to a purpose-built location in the centre of Blackheath in 1857. Missionary David Livingstone sent his son Robert to the school during the 1850s.

Current site

The school moved to its present site - centred on an 18th-century mansion in Mottingham - in 1912. The building had previously been used by the Royal Naval School from 1889 to the end of the summer term in 1910.
Eltham College began life as a small boarding school catering for children of missionaries serving overseas, mainly in India, China and Africa. From 1945 to 1976 Eltham was a Direct Grant school; thus, for example, the 1952 intake was roughly 20 pupils from London County Council schools and 20 from Kent schools, and 20 fee-payers. When the Direct Grant system was abolished in 1976, the school chose to go fully independent. Since the 1950s, the college has become primarily a day school for boys. The sixth form has been co-educational since 1978. Reflecting the origins of the school, each of the four houses is named after a prominent LMS or BMS missionary, namely Carey, Livingstone, Chalmers and Moffat; coloured blue, green, red and yellow respectively.

21st century developments

Headmaster Paul Henderson continued a programme of building and development started by Christopher Waller, including major refurbishments to the junior school and music school, and a car park in front of the college. The Gerald Moore Art Gallery opened in 2012, displaying works by Moore, students and other artists.
Also in 2012, to mark the centenary of the move to Mottingham, the college launched a campaign to raise the funds to replace the Sixth Form Centre and Jubilee Block. Construction began in July 2017 and ended in February 2019. The new Turberville building is located on the west side of the Old Quad with a new colonnade linking it to existing buildings. A triple-height, glazed atrium forms a link between the quad and the playing fields to the east and gives access to the David Robins Sixth Form Centre.

Headmasters

Blackheath

The school's headmasters at Blackheath were: