Recognising Architect Alfred Waterhouse

Did you know that the Architect of the glorious Natural History Museum in London and Reading’s red-brick Town Hall also designed Leighton Park’s Grove House and “The Annexe” to the original School House? Feted as one of the most celebrated architects in Victorian England, he worked on projects all over the country.  It seems fitting to acknowledge the fine architectural heritage at Leighton Park by now re-naming the Annexe, the Waterhouse Building.

Waterhouse was born into a Quaker family and a former student of the Quaker school in Tottenham, called Grove House School. Following its closure, efforts began to found a new Quaker school, leading to the opening of Leighton Park in 1890. The new school needed new facilities quickly and Waterhouse was the man for the job;  the new study spaces, dormitory and science lab, joined to the original building by the arch, were known as The Annexe.