St George’s Grammar School, 1 Queen Victoria Street, Cape Town

The double-storey building which, together with the adjacent St George's Cathedral, was designed by Herbert Baker, replaced the original school which was established in 1858. It was declared a National Monument under old NMC legislation on 27 June 1986. Huguenot Memorial Building, 48 Queen Victoria Street, Cape Town. This building, broadly described as having been designed in an Edwardian style, was erected by the Synod of the Dutch Reformed Church to commemorate the arrival of French Huguenot settlers in 1688. Its foundation stone was laid on 24 August 1899 and the building was officially opened on 15 October 1903. In December 1904, the mortal remains of President SJP Kruger lay here in state prior to their transport to Pretoria for burial. It was declared a National Monument under old NMC legislation on 11 April 1980.

St Georges Grammar School was founded on 11 April 1848, by Bishop Robert Gray on the premises of the present Cathedral at the top of Adderley Street in Cape Town. This makes the School the Oldest Independent School, in Southern Africa. St George's originally began as an all-White, all-Boys School. Significant changes occurred in the demographics of the Learner Population in 1978, when the School admitted the first Learners of Colour. In 1989 St George's also became a Co-Educational School.

From the Earliest days, the Scholars worshipped in the Cathedral and provided Boys, for its choir. In 1904, a magnificent new School Building, designed by Sir Herbert Baker, was opened adjacent to the Cathedral and in 1950 another Wing was added to the Building in Adderley Street.

The lack of Sport Fields prompted a move to Mowbray, too the Old Bloemendal Estate. From early in the 18th Century, the Bloemendal Estate was found alongside the Liesbeek River, in the Area where St George's and part of the Suburb of Mowbray are now situated. Gradually, the land was divided and the five large Houses on the Estate were absorbed into the Residential area that surrounds the School. In 1936, the School purchased the Main House, Bloemendal. For the first time, St George's possessed its own playing Fields and a Permanent Boarding Establishment.

The Preparatory School was located in a Prefabricated Building on the Mowbray Campus, until it moved into the present Building, in 1966.

In 1973, the School ceased to function at the Campus in the City. No longer were “Bloemendal boarders” required to travel to and from School by Bus and Train each day, instead they were taught in the Classrooms and Laboratories on the Bloemendal Estate. In 1984, the Graham Dods Audio-visual and Resource Centre was opened, together with the Squash Court.

The year 2000, brought further Development at St George's with the Building of the Jenny Mallett Hall, and a new foyer in the Prep School block, which also Houses the School Reception and the Mike Smuts Centre. In 2008, the School opened; the new Science Centre and Art Gallery.

References

http://www.sggs.co.za/About/History