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Filling a need
In the first quarter of the nineteenth century, two friends walked together in the Pentland Hills and looked down on the city below. The building of the New Town of Edinburgh was well under way, and its spreading neo-classical terraces housed a growing number of families with children, for whom the old High School in Infirmary Street was both inconveniently situated and excessively crowded. Perhaps the clear air also cleared the heads of the two men, who conceived the idea of a new school to be created in the New Town itself, which would raise the standard of classical education, especially Greek.
The founders
The two men were Henry, Lord Cockburn (below) , the distinguished Judge who in 1832 was to draft the great Reform Bill for Scotland, and Leonard Horner, the social reformer who was one of the original Factory Inspectors. They introduced the idea to their friends, amongst whom were Sir Walter Scott (left), the eminent novelist, and James Skene. The Academy was founded in 1824, in a new building constructed in Henderson Row. In that same year that the Royal Botanic Gardens was moved to nearby Inverleith Row as the pressures of New Town expansion made its Leith Walk site too cramped and expensive. The first Rector of The Academy was the Reverend John Williams, who was recommended for the post by Scott. The novelist also presided at the opening ceremony.
Always Excel ...
The first day
"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." |
Early years
Each boy studied under one master for four years, and then continued a further two years in the Rector's class. 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. 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." |
19th Century
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Divisions |
Buildings
The West Wing 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. |
Expansion
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 At the back of the school the Dining Hall, and the Rifle Range beneath it, opened in 1912. |
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.jpg) 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. |
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Later 20th century
In 1977 the Henderson Row site acquired the next door Donaldson Building, which had also been built in 1824. Until its acquisition in 1977 it had been, under various titles, the Junior Residency Department of Donaldson's School for the Deaf. A Nursery was opened in at Denham Green in 1945 and moved to a new building on the Junior School Campus in 1987. |
Most recently ....
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James Clerk Maxwell Centre
The Henderson Row chemistry laboratories were demolished and a new two storey building completed in 2006. It was designed to harmonise with the surrounding listed school buildings whilst yet housing the finest modern educational devices. 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. |
Coeducation
The original decision has proved a thoroughly successful experiment; so successful that we decided that the whole school should be co-educational. The Edinburgh Academy Junior School led the way with 53 girls enrolled in 2007-8, and the transition to full coeducation takes place in 2008. At the same time boarding comes to and end in order to permit expansion of nursery and after school facilities. |
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: .jpg)
The architect of The Academy was William Burn, and the original staff included four masters in addition to the Rector.
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. .jpg)
The three wings leading off the hall used to provide six big classrooms. A classmaster might have had anything from 40 to 80 pupils in his class, according to his popularity. For much of 19th century a master kept boys for 6 years and then passed them to the Rector for their Seventh Year. 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 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. .jpg)
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. .jpg)
In 1960 The Academy constructed a new Junior School about a mile to the north of the original site. .jpg)
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 began construction 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. .jpg)
In 2005-6 the 1909 science labs at Henderson Row were replaced by the new .jpg)
The first senior girl attended The Academy in 1966. Subsequently girls were admitted to the sixth and seventh years,
particularly where The Academy was able to offer courses that might not
have been available in their original schools. We had girls as dux and
as ephors, and all our girls took an active part in the school's
extra-curricular life, such as drama and music, as well as helping to
keep up the tradition of academic success. This page is: Edinburgh Academy / seniorprospectus / eahistory.htm
