King Edward’s School is situated on a beautiful 50-acre site next to the University of Birmingham, which it shares with its sister school, King Edward VI High School for Girls. Few, if any, day schools in this country enjoy such space and quality of buildings, and yet we are less than three miles from the city centre.
The School’s original 1930s buildings provide outstanding spaces: a hammer-beamed assembly hall called Big School, an extensive library and large laboratories. These buildings have proved to be of lasting value, but there have also been substantial developments over the years in provision for PE, design & technology, art, science, IT and the library.
The £11m Sir Paul and Lady Ruddock Performing Arts Centre, which opened in 2012, provides a 400-seater concert hall, 120-seater studio theatre, a dance studio and further provision for the teaching, rehearsal and practice of music, dance and drama.
The Andrew Brode Wing, which opened in 2013, has provided new laboratories for Physics and Chemistry, a new Modern Languages Department and a bright and spacious Sixth Form Centre.
The School has extensive grounds which provide outstanding facilities for sporting pursuits. In total there are eight rugby pitches, four cricket pitches, three astro hockey pitches, five tennis courts, a rifle range, an athletics track and seven artificial surfaced cricket nets.
In front of the School’s main buildings there are five rugby pitches in the winter and three cricket grounds in the summer plus a small astro pitch for hockey and football. In addition, the School owns extensive land across the Bristol Road where it has the 1st XI cricket pitch and pavilion, the 1st XV rugby pitch, the Southall Pavilion and floodlit astro hockey pitch, which opened in 2015, and tennis courts.
For indoor sport, The Andrew Brode Sports Centre, which officially opened in May 2019, provides a large sports hall, cardiovascular fitness room, multipurpose space, classroom and changing rooms. There is also a 25-metre indoor swimming pool and the School’s original sports hall is being redeveloped.
The School’s Memorial Chapel was originally the upper corridor of the school building designed by Charles Barry in 1838, the architect of the Houses of Parliament. When the School moved from New Street to its present location in 1936, a section of the upper corridor of Barry’s building was moved stone by stone to the current site to become the Memorial Chapel. This beautiful building is currently home to the ‘King Edward’s School and the Great War’ exhibition, which marks the service and sacrifice of Old Edwardians in the First World War.
King Edward’s School regularly lets out facilities to businesses and members of the public. For enquiries about our sports facilities, email: sportslettings@kes.org.uk for all other letting enquiries contact Cathy Moss, Arts & Events Manager, on tel: 0121 472 9585 or email: cm@kes.org.uk
