• Return to the area in front of St John-at-Hampstead and turn left down a wide pathway that leads into Frognal Way…

 

• As you reach the bottom of this pathway look to your left…. 

 

The Mediterranean-style villa you can see here was built by Gracie Fields - one of Britain’s foremost musical stars in the nineteen thirties and forties. There is a a Hampstead Society plaque marking the site.

 

• Continue walking around Frognal Way until you reach Frognal - then turn left…

 

On the right-hand side of this street are the typical red-brick villas of this area. On the other side is University College School. As you can see from the reproduced painting below the school was built on this rural site before Frognal was developed.   ///gallons.wakes.alert

 

UCS was founded in 1830 by the University of London, which had itself been inspired by the work of Jeremy Bentham and others to provide opportunities for higher education for men regardless of religious beliefs.

 

At the time, only members of the Established Church could study at Cambridge and Oxford while similar religious tests were imposed at the other universities dating from the medieval and renaissance periods with a narrow classical and divinity curriculum.

 

The School opened at 16 Gower Street but quickly outgrew these premises and moved away to new purpose-built buildings here in 1907, which were opened by HM King Edward VII.

 

The School was one of the first schools to teach modern languages and sciences, and one of the first to abolish corporal punishment. Originally, there were no compulsory subjects and no rigid form system. Most boys learnt Latin and French, and many learnt German (a highly unusual subject at that time). Mathematics, Chemistry, Classical Greek and English were also taught. There was no religious teaching.

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