In March, the School Archive threw open its doors to celebrate School Archives Day, marked nationwide on 12 March. After last year’s success, we planned a three-day programme — but enthusiasm quickly outpaced expectations. The exhibition ended up running for two full weeks, welcoming more than 280 pupils, staff, OMTs, and members of the Worshipful Company of Merchant Taylors’. Recently unseen treasures were brought out of the boxes, sparking fascinating conversations, fresh ideas, and a real buzz of curiosity and engagement throughout the school community.
The exhibition opened with a striking display of early maps dating from before the Great Fire of London, each illustrating the School’s first home, the Manor of the Rose, which was destroyed on the fire’s first day. The building appears clearly on the Agas Map (1553–1559), the Copperplate Map of the 1550s, and in several pre-fire views of London by Visscher, Wyngaerde, and Hollar. Alongside these maps, a book on the parish of St Laurence Poultney was shown, listing many members of the School community buried there — including Silvanus and Katherine Mulcaster, children of the School’s first Head Master, Richard Mulcaster. Visitors were also able to see an image of the medieval crypt beneath the School; the only surviving remnant of the Manor of the Rose to outlast the Great Fire (though later demolished in 1894).
