Purcell's

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Although girls had attended Westminster as full members of the School since 1973, boarding provision only arrived in 1981, occupying two houses on Barton Street, with a third accommodating the housemaster. In 1995 the Barton Street girls’ boarding annex became an official school house, re-named after the composer Henry Purcell, who may have attended the school in the late 17th century but was undoubtedly the Abbey organist, to mark his tercentenary in 1995. In 2013, the house moved to St. Edward’s House, the former Anglican monastery on the corner of Tufton Street and Great College Street. Purcell’s is home to 21 Upper School (Years 12 and 13) boarders and 56 day boys across all year groups.

Facts and Figures

Housemaster:

Mr Jim Allchin (Art)

Founded	1981 as girls’ boarding accommodation in Barton Street; named Purcell’s in 1995
House Type	Boarding and Day
Total Pupils	73

The new Heads of House for 26/27 standing in front of a big dark wooden door with a P on a bright blue sign in the centre of it - the boy is holding another P sign on mustard card and the girl is pointing to the sign on the door

A boy talking to three girls on Purcell's roof terrace, surrounded by trellis' and plants

Two girls running towards the camera in their house t-shirts in a race in Hyde Park down a tree-strewn avenue

A boy in Purcell's historic study space smiling at his friend over his iPad at a desk

Purcell's Housemaster standing in his blue study, with artwork all over the walls from the floor to the ceiling, looking at a book

Four girls in a girls' dorm room chatting informally, two sat on the bed and two on the floor

Three boys standing at Purcell's Common Room pool table with a lit-up sign behind them

Looking through the door into Purcell's historic study space, with its arched windows and three boys sat at desks talking and working

"Purcell’s is nestled between Sutcliff’s and the MMC with its sibling boarding houses looking on adoringly from across Great College Street. We happen to be the only boarding house outside of Little Dean’s Yard. Perhaps the finest boarding house, architecturally, our monastic windows, our Lady Chapel, which we use as a quiet space (although it is kitted out with lights and a dancefloor come the weekend for boarders’ Karaoke nights), and our roof terrace, used for pupil and parent BBQs and open-air cinema evenings make it a great house to be part of. Those in the Lower School champion the fact that Latin Prayers happens in the adjoining space, so they save on their step count, and all those who study Art are encouraged to add their work to the ever-growing Purcell’s collection that line the corridor walls. It should also be noted that house lunches, consisting of only the finest pizza slices happen across the week in our basement. These smells ruminate throughout the house and whenever pizza is going spare, Purcellites are on hand to hoover it up. The house was freshly renovated in the Summer of 2024 with a hint of mid-century Wes Anderson giving it a unique art boutique feel. Come Christmas, a grotto is erected and we welcome Santa (twice!) and come Easter, the annual easter egg hunt gets the whole house hungry for chocolate. Known for sitting mid-table at most sports, our strength and legacy lies in house climbing, as current and back-to-back champions, if the walls could talk they’d whisper Purcell’s."

— Mr Jim Allchin, Purcell's Housemaster

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