Byron House was founded in 1897 as a progressive prep school "favoured by London's intelligentsia and famous for its advanced teaching methods".
Stephen Hawking, while attending the school, complained to his parents that he "wasn't learning anything", and later blamed its teaching methods for his failure to learn to read "until the fairly late age of eight". Another former pupil, Sir
James Lighthill was the
Lucasian Professor of Mathematics directly before Hawking. In 1939, pupils were evacuated to
Cambridge and between 1940 and 1944, 24 children from Byron House were evacuated to
Ottawa, Canada.
John Betjeman was taught by T. S. Eliot at Byron House, before being sent to the
Dragon School in Oxford. == Notable former pupils ==