3-008-980 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Merchant Taylors' School, Suffolk-lane, Cannon-street, City [of London], 1862. 'Merchant Taylors' School has no endowment but what it owes to the public spirit of the Company with which it is so intimately associated. It has no claim...to be considered a "free school" in the popular acceptation of that term; but whatever it may require beyond the payment made by scholars is supplied from the Company's "general funds." To a great extent, therefore, it is a gratuitous school, for the instruction which it provides is of a class much superior to what could be afforded for the charges exacted of those who enjoy its privileges...The ancient pile, like so many other public and private edifices of London, was destroyed by the Great Fire. In its stead the present building and the house adjoining (which till 1856 was used as a residence for the Head Master) were erected, in 1675. In this case, as in that of the original purchase, the expense was defrayed by members of the Merchant Taylors' Company, without trenching upon funds assigned to corporate purposes'. From "Illustrated London News", 1862.