1884 - The Fourth School - The Move Out West
The High Master’s House - 153 Hammersmith Road

Since its founding in 1509, St Paul's School has existed within five different buildings and on three different sites in London.

The building which houses Hammersmith & Fulham Mind was originally the "High Master’s House" and later converted into School House for boarders.
It was built as part of the "new school", which moved from near St Paul’s Cathedral to West London in 1884. A sixteen acre site, between what are now the Talgarth and the Hammersmith Roads was bought for £41,000.
It was called Deadman’s Fields, "somewhere in the Western District", as a conservative Old Boy of St Paul’s called it!
At this time Hammersmith was considered to be in the country-side.
Alfred Waterhouse, already famous as the architect of the Natural History Museum (1881), built on fields the handsome gothic edifice of red brick and terra cotta which was to house St Paul's School from 1884 to 1968.
During World War 11 much of the planning for the D Day invasion was done at St Paul's School, in Hammersmith by General Dwight D. Eisenhower, General Bernard Law Montgomery and Winston Churchill.
Montgomery, was educated at St Paul’s School as were many writers, artists, musicians and philosophers including Sri Aurobindo the Hindu sage and mystic philosopher, Isaiah Berlin, philosopher, G.K. Chesterton, author & playwright, Paul Nash the artist, Dennis Brain, horn player and musician and E H Shepard who was chosen by A A Milne to illustrate his books about Pooh and his friends Piglet, Eyeore and Tigger, who have become household characters to many thousands of children.

To find out more about the school, its history and those who would have passed through 153 Hammersmith Road go to www.stpaulsschool.org.uk