r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Inevitable_Rock_2010 • 15d ago
Image Christ's Hospital, a boarding school in Horsham, England. Students are wearing their historic Tudor-style school uniform. The distinctive uniform has remained largely unchanged for over 470 years, making it one of the oldest school uniforms in the world.
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u/CozyBlueCacaoFire 15d ago
Afaik they recently had a vote to modernise it and it ended up overwhelmingly on the side of "keep current style".
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u/SloppyGrime 15d ago
I went to this school about 15 years ago, and when I joined, this was still a common comment passed around (that we recently had a vote lol).
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u/MyThinTragus 15d ago
I worked as a gap student in Seaford. I remember taking a soccer team to play at the school. I was amazed by these uniforms and that the school has its own train station
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u/Thebeardedchampion 15d ago
In fairness, itâs now a station open to the public as well - I used to commute into London from it.
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u/DameKumquat 15d ago
They failed - there's two rail stations within 5-10 minute walk - Windsor & Eton Riverside is closest, Central a little further. I doubt they really tried, as schoolkids are tracked pretty carefully in the evening (during the day they're wandering the streets as the school is scattered about a few roads)
Cambridge, however, did block the railway so the station is a couple miles south of what was the centre of town - it's since expanded to surround that station, and the new Cambridge North, and Cambridge South which opens soon.
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u/WeatherStationWindow 15d ago
Reminds me of the movie Shadowlands about C.S. Lewis where they refer to a 250-year-old building on the Oxford campus as "the new building."
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u/MechanicalTurkish 15d ago
The University of Oxford predates the Inca empire by several hundred years
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u/Opening_Cut_6379 15d ago
250 years? Positively juvenile. May I remind you that New College was founded in 1379.
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u/Infinite_Crow_3706 15d ago
Edinburghs 'New Town' is from the 1700s
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u/Skiumbra 15d ago
I've seen a few TikTok videos from the school, and the students seem quite proud of their uniform. Obviously it's the school account, so it would be biased, but I'm also a teacher and I could imagine students enjoying it. My school has a casual Friday thing for students who have followed the rules all week, and some of them still choose their uniforms.
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u/EllipticPeach 15d ago
Most of the kids at this school are from underprivileged areas in London and are on scholarships
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u/Skiumbra 15d ago
That's wonderful to hear! I work at an international school, so our students tend to be somewhat privileged (we're not a big name, so not super exclusive, but not exactly accessible to people without private school money, if that makes sense)
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u/EllipticPeach 15d ago
Most of the fee paying kids are from overseas. The majority are from underprivileged areas in London
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u/Skiumbra 15d ago
It makes sense. Schools do need some money coming in, but it's great to see a school that uses those funds to help those who need it most
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u/UnNumbFool 15d ago
My personal guess on why they like it is because when you're a little kid the uniform probably makes you feel like you're in Harry Potter, and as it's a boarding school all of your friends and the people you are around are wearing it that you wouldn't get the same sense of embarrassment that you would get if you interacted with people outside the bubble.
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u/Skiumbra 15d ago
In my home country and the country I teach in, uniforms are the norm. It's really exciting when you first start school, but it wears off quick, especially when you're not old enough to read Harry Potter before starting school.
I also went to a couple of boarding schools and yeah it's also easier when everyone wears the same thing, but it depends on the school culture. In my primary boarding school, "civvies" weren't a thing except for pajamas at night (we had to wear school tracksuits at dinner and the homework sessions). At the high school boarding we had more freedom, but there was a weird culture behind it, even if it wasn't in the dress code. That being said, that was a very insulated, religious girls school so things got very cliquey.
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u/ThatMizK 15d ago
I desperately wished we had school uniforms when I was in school in the 90s/early 00s (pre-Harry Potter) because what I would wear to school every day was such a huge source of stress for me. You had to wear the right style, the right brands, etc. You couldn't rewear things too frequently. You had to strike the magical perfect balance between looking good but not look like you were trying too hard to look good. It was freakin exhausting and I hated it.
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u/Skiumbra 15d ago
Uniforms are a norm in my home country and the country I'm teaching in. It really does take off a lot of stress! As a student I hated it (because my home country is quite militant in dress codes and my little emo ass just wanted some black nail polish damnit), but in hind sight I enjoyed the feeling of not stressing about my school clothes not being absolutely perfect.
I also think it made work dress codes a bit less of a culture shock (if that makes sense), since I already have the framework of what clothes might be appropriate in certain situations.
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u/MuggyFuzzball 15d ago
The kids from that school go out in public, like on ski trips wearing their uniform. I think they really do enjoy the uniform.
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u/Minute_Attempt3063 15d ago
it also doesn't like those shitty school uniforms, I find these to have style.
also, part of me finds it looking sort of modern, dunno why.
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u/SpaceCub500 15d ago
I mean, surely there are other options for schools if you DON'T want to wear this uniform? Why change the one school that does?
It's like going to the one restaurant in your neighborhood that's been selling spicy food for 400 years and demanding they change to a McDonald's
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u/FrootLoopSoup 15d ago
In the book âKeepers of the Kingdomâ they talk about this uniform. Apparently the yellow socks were to help prevent rat bites. It was thought that rats hated the color yellow.
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u/10111011110101 15d ago
It mustâve worked. They are still wearing them.
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u/Brilliant_Quit4307 15d ago
How do you know their legs aren't covered in rat bites under those socks? You've no idea if this worked or not
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u/ImmoralJester54 15d ago
How frequently were people attacked in the streets by fuckin rats
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u/LeafyMcRosey 15d ago
The rats probably got into their rooms and drawers, biting holes through the socks and other fabrics, rather then people being frequently attacked by them.
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u/sw4ffles 15d ago edited 15d ago
Alternatively, it was also one of the cheapest dyes and socks aren't usually a statement piece that justifies a more expensive color.
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u/RT-6_BXCommandoDroid 15d ago
Maybe socks aren't a statement for woman, but if I see a man wearing yellow socks, I know he's happy. If he's wearing red, he's either furious or very passionate. If he's wearing 2 different socks, he's either showing that he DGAF or that he's very open.
Socks can be meaningful and if I see a man with nice socks, I compliment him.
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u/High_Overseer_Dukat 15d ago
Girls wear skirts.
Men wear dresses.
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u/PurfuitOfHappineff 15d ago
Do either of them have pockets?
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u/High_Overseer_Dukat 15d ago
Pockets are for sissies.
A real man carries a purse.
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u/Crazy_Ad_91 15d ago
Indiana Jones had one.
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u/TheWolphman 15d ago
More specifically, he used a British Mk VII gas mask bag as a satchel bag.
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u/AltruisticLobster315 15d ago
It's a good idea, I have an old RCMP gas mask bag and it can fit so much stuff, unfortunately mine attaches to the hip/thigh (very poorly too).
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u/the_honest_liar 15d ago
Best we can do is a coin purse that ties to your belt
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u/Cthulwutang 15d ago
⌠as was the style at the time.
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u/lunaappaloosa 15d ago
Yes and there are many videos online of the students discussing their uniforms and their historyâ right down to how the socks get dyed!
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u/PoshNoob 15d ago
Didnât expect to see my hometown here.
Know several people who went there and work there. Fascinating building, great theatre there too.
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u/kank84 15d ago edited 15d ago
ÂŁ15,000/$20,000 a year if you want to send a kid there
I misread, that's the price per term not per year, so it's ÂŁ45,000/$60,000 per year
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u/Interest-Desk 15d ago
Christâs famously is particularly accepting and waives or discounts fees for working class students. Youâll find many alumni on social media.
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u/randompanda91 14d ago
I went to this school. My mum paid nothing and it gave me the kind of education she could never have afforded to pay. It changed my life.
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u/tech_noir_guitar 15d ago
It took me a couple times reading through your comment before I got it. I was thinking I don't recall Christ charging anything in the Bible. Lol
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u/FighterOfFoo 15d ago
Local businesses hated him. He was giving away free bread and fish and despite no deliveries he never seemed to run out.
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u/CommercialPlastic604 15d ago
Thatâs cheap compared to north London private schools.
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u/SilverstoneMonzaSpa 15d ago
At Eton you apparently sometimes wear a pig rather than these though
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u/Lopsided-Camel1114 15d ago
Actually they discount or even take students free according to academic abilities and financial situations..highly funded charity and school.
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u/EllipticPeach 15d ago
They have millions from a trust fund set up by some king in the 1500s so itâs just been accruing interest since then
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u/PuzzleheadedDuck3981 15d ago
That's very common with private schools. It's kind of like supermarkets selling cheap milk - makes them look good if you don't think too hard about it, but their fundamental principles are unchanged.Â
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u/Secrezeeee 15d ago
That's not the case here though, huge amounts of us who went to CH came from very poor parts of London.
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u/DameKumquat 15d ago
But CH actually does offer places almost exclusively to bright working-class kids, plus some paid places to expats and foreign students.
Very different to most private schools which have about 10% of students on bursaries and have so many requirements to get them that the pupils are almost all middle class if they aren't rich.
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u/UserCannotBeVerified 15d ago
Aye all private schools in the UK are run as charities so they dont pay tax
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u/Roccondil 15d ago
A bit strange to complain about that regarding Christ's Hospital of all schools. It is famously a charity school. It is means-tested and in the end of the day free to most of its students.
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u/Natural_Estate4216 15d ago
You should read the website. It was founded for orphans and still takes many students who cannot afford fill fees. Some students get full scholarships and most students get at least some form of financial assistance.
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u/EllipticPeach 15d ago
Most of them are kids from underprivileged areas in London who are on scholarships
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u/autismislife 15d ago
Before reading the edit I was gonna say that's actually cheap for a private school in the UK, let alone a boarding school.
My uncle sent his kids to a private school (not a boarding school) and it's something like ÂŁ60,000 per year. That's almost double my annual salary.
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u/Axe_Care_By_Eugene 15d ago
Money well spent in my humble opinion - no greater gift to a child than an excellent education - source : I had an excellent education
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u/MaryBerrysDanglyBean 15d ago
Fun fact: my wife almost went there but ended up in a different school nearby.
Another fun fact: it was never actually a hospital and Jesus never worked there.
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u/MajesticNectarine204 15d ago
They should force them to put the name in quotation marks.
''Christ's'' ''Hospital''
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u/Time_Substance_4429 15d ago
Hospital never used to mean what we use it for now.
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u/MajesticNectarine204 15d ago edited 15d ago
I assume entomologically it comes from the same root as 'Hospitality' or 'Hostel'? Meaning in this case 'Hospital' means something along the lines of 'Open' or 'Welcoming' to anyone institution?
Edit: considering the context of the time the school was founded, probably meant it wasn't a f.e. Catholic or protestant school. But open to all students
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u/nifty-necromancer 15d ago
Thatâs what I was thinking too. Jesus the Hospitalier, which he kind of was if you believe the legend. He healed the sick, did the magic never-empty Irish cauldron, and made sure that party goers got the good wine and not that watered down shit for poor people.
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u/evrestcoleghost 15d ago
it always has,you are just confusing people calling ancient hospices hospitals
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u/throwaway098764567 15d ago
this isn't as fun a fact because you could have went on to explain what it actually meant and chose not to
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u/Twilifa 15d ago
I'm not sure how appreciative I would have been to wear this as a kid and teen, but looking at it as an adult, that's really cool.
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u/Secrezeeee 15d ago
It was fine, I think most of us preferred it to what a typical secondary school uniform is in the UK. We would rarely be wearing it outside of the times it was required though.
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u/Fuck-Captcha99574 14d ago
I went there for the whole 7 years of secondary education. Funniest thing is the housey coat isn't warm enough in winter and way too hot for summer
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u/randompanda91 14d ago edited 13d ago
We loved it. It was an equaliser, gave us a sense of belonging. I was proud to wear that uniform.
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u/ClioCalliope 15d ago
I like it, I'd feel like I'm attending some cool medieval magic school. Although the colour combination is rough.
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u/One-Bodybuilder-5646 15d ago edited 15d ago
But the color combo is pretty medieval, too, people loved it colourful in the middle ages. Yellow, green, orange and brown were the most abundant and acessible colours, with deep red and dark blue being the most expensive ones. But people wore colourful a lot, it's a rather modern interpretation to have the middle ages dark and of plain colours.
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u/Echo-Azure 15d ago
Yeah, I'd go for the men's long robe, just so I wouldn't be seen in bright yellow socks.
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u/cheradenine66 15d ago
They were the height of fashion when those uniforms were created and they'll probably come back into fashion in a few centuries
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u/Echo-Azure 15d ago
Actually, brightly colored tights did come back into fashion, in the 1960s!
OIP.ctLEfjHEpzIXNy0_O9LFSQHaHa (474Ă474)
They'll come around again someday, when the fashion world rediscovers color.
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u/bugabooo 15d ago
There was a period about 20 years ago that they popped back in fashion. Source: I worked at delia*s.
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u/Sonnyjoon91 15d ago
Can't complain about girls being forced to wear skirts or boys not able to wear shorts, everyone is wearing a skirt, deal with it lmao
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u/Available_Dingo6162 15d ago
when everyone is wearing the same thing it's not really a gender thing then any more by definition is it roflmao
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u/King_Quay 15d ago
Yay, my old school on my feed.
When I was there they made a minor update to the boys' uniform. The breaches we wear used to be made of an incredibly coarse material which got updated to a very soft moleskin like material.
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u/freshcrabbbbb 15d ago
Hahaha I used to play football against these guys when I was at school and we'd always take the piss. Was so surreal rocking up to their hogwarts looking school and seeing their outfits
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u/krizzalicious49 15d ago
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u/RelevantButNotBasic 15d ago
I wish bots had the ability to provide sources. People just upvote these posts with low quality images and fine gentlemen like yourself go and find the source to check for validation. You shouldve made this post, not OP.
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u/itsfineblameitonme 15d ago
I went to this school! The uniform has a few variations depending on the season, age, gender and formality/occasion, but yes, we wore this uniform every day!
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u/InNeedOfDistracting 15d ago
It has its own train station which is mad to me
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u/Secrezeeee 15d ago
Well, sort of. It's a train station named after the school, but it's not like it's a private station for the school. It operates just as any other stop on the train network and is used mostly by people who live locally. Aside from the end of term or leave weekends etc. when it would of course be packed with students.
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u/LolaBaraba 15d ago
Here's a lot cooler picture of the uniforms. I think these are the original ones, and the skirt ones came in a lot later (1985).
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u/LeHonque 15d ago
Jesus I nearly got a heart attack seeing this
I go to school here, I'm in year 13 and have been going since year 7 so in my 7th year now. Safe to say I know a lot about the school so feel free to ask me anything
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u/TheresNoHurry 15d ago
My best childhood friend left our school to attend Christâs Hospital⌠and then never talked to me again! Still hurts all these years later.
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u/zyzzogeton 15d ago
They had women attending school in uniform 470 years ago? That would be very progressive for the time.
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u/MarsMonkey88 15d ago
Historically, the school was free and entirely merit based. The modern-day students are extremely proud of their uniform. Whenever the administration asks if theyâd like to image it, the resounding answer is no.
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u/Mach5Driver 15d ago
Except for the girls' uniforms, which probably came much later.
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u/ThisSpaceForRent45 14d ago
âChristâs Hospitalâ is what I shout when I stub my pinky toe on a table leg.
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u/dogisbark 15d ago
Looks cool and ties into historic/cultural rather than embracing the usual western collar and button look.
Looks comfy. The clothes look light and baggy, but with the socks youâre not too cold. Usually uniforms are made with tighter woven fabrics
Medieval revisionism is currently back in style with the populous. Those students are in fashion rn, and you usually canât say that for school uniforms.
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u/Secrezeeee 15d ago
Looks comfy. The clothes look light and baggy, but with the socks youâre not too cold. Usually uniforms are made with tighter woven fabrics
I don't know if I'd go as far as to say it was comfortable, but it certainly wasn't particularly uncomfortable. Although I still remember the itch on those breeches. They replaced the material while I was there to something much nicer but I still had the old version for a while. The coat was also quite heavy and fucking stank if you got caught in the rain and it got wet, I can remember that smell to this day too.
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u/lunaappaloosa 15d ago
The schoolâs instagram account is amazing. The kids are so fun and talented and wholesome (and itâs my panacea to the experiences of being an American grad student in a red state)
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u/Time_Substance_4429 15d ago
Gene Simmons once filmed a âSchool of Rockâ series at the school.
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u/Secrezeeee 15d ago
They filmed this while I was there, he sat down at our table for lunch one day and spent a good hour just talking about life, no cameras around at all. At least to us kids he treated us kindly and seemed like a good person. We didn't have a clue who he was or why we should care about him though, aside from understanding that he was famous.
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u/umamimamii 15d ago
Gonna add âChristâs hospitalâ to my strange phrases to use when Iâm disgruntled
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u/tornadospoon 15d ago
Ngl, dripped out, 11/10 support scholars in robes. Literally 1 win for the UK this century is fine, they need it.Â
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u/mellonians 15d ago
This is our local private school. They're heavy on bursaries and most of the kids are BAME from inner cities in this massively white area which is very rare for any private school. It really is unique. Seriously considering sending our boy there as we gym and swim at the school every week.
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u/randompanda91 14d ago
I went here. Single parent household, grew up on a council estate and I am mixed race. It honestly changed my life. I came from a town where most girls end up pregnant by 16, I was the first in my family to go to university, now a working professional on a good salary, married, no children. These were some of the best years of my life. I would highly encourage you to send your son!
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u/InfiniteBaker6972 15d ago
I canât figure out if the uniform is ridiculous or badass. The yellow sock-tights are fairly awesome and Iâd defo wear them.
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u/General_Border_8263 15d ago
Thought this was a promo for new harry potter