The following is an extract from the school history "The Clacken and the Slate" written by former pupil Magnus Magnusson, on the opening of the Academy:

"Came the great day, Friday October 1, 1824. The Directors and masters met at 10 am in the Master's Lodge, and from eleven o'clock onwards carriages and pony-traps clattered down from the New Town terraces as the 372 enrolled boys arrived and were shown to the classrooms to have their names taken down by their respective masters, while parents went to take their seats in the narrow, hanging gallery that went all the way around the handsome oval-shaped Hall with its tiers of benches rising from a central well. The Hall was originally an amphitheatre, and there was no Rectorial dais as there is today - that is a remnant of a false floor that was laid when the hall was used as a dining hall for a few years at the turn of the century."

The Scotsman newspaper reported, "It was pleasant to see the boys ranging themselves in their order, all neat and clean, with looks full of vivacity." Plus ça change?

The original staff included four masters in addition to the Rector. The three wings leading off the hall used to provide six big classrooms. For much of 19th century a master kept boys for 6 years and then passed them to the Rector for their Seventh Year.

Since the masters personally collected the fees of their pupils, they had a vested interest in large classes, affording an interesting contrast with the modern state of affairs, where The Edinburgh Academy specialises in small class sizes and personally tailored teaching. A classmaster might have had anything from 40 to 80 pupils in his class, according to his popularity. In those early days a Dux (a Scottish term for a school's most distinguished pupil,) would leave to go to University at age 14.

With a year's break as Professor of Latin at London University, Williams held the Rectorship until 1847. "He taught as none but a man of great intellectual power could teach," wrote his pupil Archbishop Tait, "And he fascinated his pupils as none but a man of feeling could."

Williams' successor as Rector, the Rev. John Hannah (1847-54), is credited with developing the athletic side of the curriculum, whilst Dr. Thomas Harvey (1869-1888) instituted a Preparatory Department for boys under ten, which is now known as the Junior School. The boys themselves no doubt considered Harvey's more notable contribution to be the provision of a mid-day meal. Rector Jamieson Mackenzie (1888-1901) made cricket and football compulsory, fixed the maximum class size at 30, revived the library and encouraged the study of music. During his time the school's boarding houses were constructed.

In 1905, the school was divided into four houses or Divisions, Cockburn, named after the founder Henry Cockburn, Carmichael, named after a former teacher, James Carmichael, Kinross, named after a former pupil John Balfour, 1st Baron Kinross, and Houses, representing the boys who lived in the boarding houses. The divisions are the basis of internal competitions ranging from sports to music and drama and a prize is presented each year to the most successful division all round.

With modern-day teaching groups - usually 12 to 20 with a maximum of 24 in earlier years and quite frequently single figure A Level sets, all the original classrooms have been divided into smaller rooms. The West Wing is now given over computing and business studies, whilst another room provides a base for "ephors", (named after ancient Spartan public officials,) a group of senior pupils who share organisation and disciplinary functions in the school. The East Wing is devoted to History and Design Technology, whilst the North now houses the new Performing Arts Centre.

In 1892 new classrooms were built along the western wall of the site, and in 1900 the School Library was opened, followed by a Science Block in 1909, both along the eastern wall. At the back of the school the Dining Hall, and the Rifle Range beneath it, opened in 1912. After the Great War, the Gymnasium was built. This was dedicated as a War Memorial to Edinburgh Academicals (former pupils) who had fallen during the hostilities.

Buidling expansion in the late 20th Century

Latest Facilities

In 1960 The Academy constructed a new Junior School about a mile to the north of the original site. 

In 1977 the Henderson Row site acquired the next door Donaldson Building, which had also been built in 1824.  A Nursery was opened in at Denham Green in 1945 and moved to a new building on the Junior School Campus in 1987.

The most recent building developments included a purpose built music school at Henderson Row (1991), and a  Sports Hall (1998) at the Junior school, funded by money from The Lottery and Sports Council. This is for the use not only of pupils in both parts of the school, but also of the community in the area.

A new computing and music building was completed at the Junior School in 2005 and a new nursery and after school facility in 2008, whilst behind the classical facade the original Henderson Row site has been extensively remodelled, and the whole site cabled for a local area computer network.

In 2005-6 the 1909 science labs at Henderson Row were replaced by the new James Clerk Maxwell Centre. At a cost of £4.3 million The Edinburgh Academy constructed this new science centre to ensure that the future pupils of the school had the best possible chance to emulate and even perhaps aspire to surpass the achievements of the past. The James Clerk Maxwell Centre brings all three sciences: biology, chemistry and physics, together under one roof. It consists of 9 laboratories, with associated preparation areas and a 172 seat lecture theatre.