THE PETERITE Vol. XLII
OCTOBER, 1950
EDITORIAL
No. 325
Strangers to the School, conscious of the claim of St. Peter's to be the oldest Public School in England, are apt to be surprised when they are informed that the facade of our buildings fronting on Clifton is 4 little more than a century old. That, of course, is the fact; and it is likely that six years ago, had it not been wartime, we should have marked, by some celebration, the centenary of the removal of the School, in the summer of 1844, to the present site. And at that time the building to which we transferred, erected originally for the Proprietary School, to the design of a Mr. Harper, was scarcely six years old. (In passing, it is interesting to recall that the Clifton site was a third choice. Others were explored in Trinity Gardens, the present Priory Street, and in Bearparks Garden, where the Exhibition Buildings now stand; and, but for the accident of their rejection, St. Peter's might possibly have been housed today within the City wall.) It was boasted by the Chairman of the new Proprietary School in 1838 that the building would be "the handsomest in York after the Minster", and, although the claim may be extravagant in a city so richly endowed with noble buildings, we can readily agree that our dignified front, with its impressive main door, has its place among the architectural features of York. It was, therefore, with something akin to dismay that we heard at Speech Day that the architects had reported that the familiar front elevation of the School was becoming unsafe and that some dismantling and consequent rebuilding seemed inevitable. Reconstruction in stone would cost, we were told, some £50,000 (in 1838 its building cost was £3,200, and in 1844 it was transferred to the Dean and Chapter for £4,100 !), and it is obvious that the use of more modest brick must be envisaged in any restoration. We hope sincerely that any such drastic step will be postponed as long as possible. For over a century the front of St. Peter's has been a familiar feature of York not unappreciated by its citizens, and we venture to think that its transformation into something less aesthetically satisfying would be regretted as much by the general public as by those intimately connected with the School. To all Peterites now living the original stone façade is the symbol of their School, and the image of its slender, graceful towers flanking the great door admitting to Big Hall is the recollection which most readily occurs to their minds. Extensions to the colleges of Oxford and Cambridge (for instance) have shown us that dignified and not unworthy buildings can be done in brick, but there can be no doubt that the loss of our stone front would be irreparable to Old Peterites. 1
