In the late 1860s, land in
St Pancras, left by
Richard Platt as the endowment of
Aldenham School, was compulsorily purchased as the site of the new
St Pancras railway station, and the
Midland Railway had to pay compensation of £91,000, . The Endowed Schools Commissioners, acting under the Endowed Schools Act 1869, diverted more than half of this money to other schools. In their scheme approved in 1875, £20,000 went to the
North London Collegiate School and
Camden School for Girls, £13,333 to
Watford Grammar School for Boys, £10,000 to
Russell Lane School,
Southgate, and £8,000 to two elementary schools, Medburn School,
Radlett, and Delrow School, Aldenham. The Aldenham headmaster of the time, Alfred Leeman, called this "a violent act of confiscation". ==See also==