Highgate School is a famous and prestigious British private day school in Highgate, North London. It is run by a charity, the Highgate Foundation, which also manages both a prep. and a pre-prep. school.
The school was originally founded by Elizabeth I with a Royal Charter in 1565 as a boarding school, making it one of the older schools in the United Kingdom. Due to the Foundation's significant ownership of land and properties around the school, it has been able to invest greatly in the school's facilities; the relatively recent conversion from boarding to day school has increased the space available for this to continue.
The Foundation's governing body consists of 12 members; 5 are nominated (one each by the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and London, by the Bishop of London, and by the Lord Chief Justice), and the rest are co-opted. The school is a member of the Eton Group of leading independent schools.
Former pupils are known as "Old Cholmeleians" after the school's founder, Sir Roger Cholmeley, and, as is common with famous British schools, has a diverse range of famous old boys, including Lords Mayor of London, Cabinet members past and present, such as Charles Clarke and Anthony Crosland, and also popular musicians, such as Johnny Borrell of Razorlight, John Hassall of The Libertines and Crispin Mills from Kula Shaker. It can also count as old boys Barry Norman, Murray Walker, Geoffrey Palmer, Gerald Hoffnung and Sir Clive Sinclair; composers Sir John Tavener and John Rutter; cricketer Phil Tuffnell; poets Sir John Betjeman and Gerard Manley Hopkins, while TS Eliot briefly taught in the Junior department.