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Clapham College School for Boys, Lambeth Inner London Roman Catholic boys grammar till 1977 then RC boys comprehensive. Clapham College has developed from a small beginning made in the early sixties, to St Francis Xavier (SFX) a leading sixth form college in an influential position among English Catholic colleges. It is a centre for the Oxford local examinations. Adjoining Clapham Common, London. Grammar schools are, or were, selective state schools (often, but not always, single-sex) for the more academically inclined student following an exam or an IQ test at the age of 11 (the "11-plus"). However, some former grammar schools which have "gone comprehensive" still retain their old name.

Past History:

Charles Bradley's fourth son was George Granville Bradley, afterwards Dean of Westminster, who was educated at a school kept by a Mr. Elwell on Clapham Common and was afterwards under Pritchard (see below) at Stockwell School and Clapham Grammar School. In 1834 Charles Pritchard, the astronomer, became head master of the Clapham Grammar School, which was founded to give him a free hand in his educational experiments when difficulties with the governing body at Stockwell had caused him to resign his headship of that school. He carried on the Clapham school with a success which is marked by the fact that Sir John Frederick William Herschel, Sir George Biddell Airy, Sir William Hamilton and Charles Darwin, among others, sent their sons to be educated there. While head master he used to lend his schoolroom for the once celebrated meetings of the Clapham Athenaeum.

Old Xaverians:

• The Most Revd Peter Smith - The current Archbishop of Cardiff^[1][2]
• Lawrence Upton - Poet and graphic artist
• Sir Arthur Rücker - Member of the Editorial Committee of Volume 1 of Science Abstracts 1898
• Sir Nicholas Paul Scott PC, JP
• His Eminence Mario Francesco, Cardinal Pompedda
• Bernard Gentry - Leader of the Conservative Group on Lambeth Council. Raised concerns over the renaming of Christams Lights to Winter Lights in 2005^[3]
• Sir George Grove - Writer on music
• George Jackson Mivart - Biologist
• C. P. Scott - Journalist, publisher and politician
• Walter Balls-Headley - Gynaecologist
• Jim Sweeney - actor and comedian^[4]

Pupils Memories:

I went to Clapham College Grammar School, a bit of a dump with the appearance of quality, where I learned a great deal but very little that helps one pass exams. I did quite well in the first two years, ok in the next 2, passing English and Maths in the 4th year, and terribly thereafter, once I discovered that the main thing was to be registered in the morning and afternoon and then one was largely free... but then, to invert a line, which I believe comes from Ursula Le Guin, the teachers didn't know what I was studying. - Lawrence Upton

References

• Parishes: Clapham - A History of the County of Surrey: Volume 4 (1912), pp. 36-41. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=43028. Date accessed: 30 October 2006

External Links

• claphamhighstreet.co.uk
• Catholic Encyclopedia-Xaverian Brothers
• SFX Sixth Form
• Clapham Old Xaverians football team