The school was founded in 1863 by Thomas Chamberlain, student of
Christ Church, Oxford, and vicar of
St Thomas the Martyr's Church, Oxford. The school carries the name of
St Edward the Martyr, King of England from 975 to 978.
Early history The original school building was Mackworth Hall, which at that time stood on New Inn Hall Street in central Oxford. In 1873, after a storm damaged the school buildings and in anticipation of growing numbers, A. B. Simeon, the first Warden, moved the school to
Summertown. At the time, the site was on the boundary of Oxford and surrounded by farmland, and Simeon bought a large plot for the school. The school remains on that site today, with the
Quadrangle and playing fields on opposite sides of
Woodstock Road. Simeon created an
independent school with monastic-style buildings around a quadrangle. The original buildings were designed by
William Wilkinson. The north range was built in 1873 and 1886, the
gatehouse in 1879, and the east range, including Big School and the library, in 1881. Wilkinson's most significant building at St Edward's is the chapel, built in 1876.
Henry Ewing Kendall The Rev. Henry Ewing Kendall (1888–1963) was Warden from 1925 to 1954.
George Mallaby taught at the school in the period 1924 to 1935, and gave his views of Kendall in
Each In His Office (1972). At the beginning of the book he listed Kendall with
Norman Brook,
H. W. Garrod and
Jack Adams as "four remarkable men". Kendall succeeded the Rev. William Harold Ferguson, who had moved to
Radley College to take over as Warden there from
Adam Fox.
St Michael's College, Tenbury and the choir school at
All Saints, Margaret Street were feeder
prep schools, which had kept up musical standards; and there was an
Anglo-Catholic tradition. The fees were low. Yet the retention of staff and the teaching were not good. Kendall's attitude was that "if the right standards were established and the right facilities offered, more boys could certainly be attracted from professional families." July 2007 marked the official opening of
The North Wall Arts Centre. The centre was built on the site of the old school swimming pool, which was the oldest swimming pool in the country. The North Wall Arts Centre is run by Ria Parry and is a producing theatre. The North Wall Arts Centre won several major architectural awards for its design, The Martyrs Pavilion, designed by architect John Pawson, was opened in 2009 and won the 2010 Oxford Preservation Trust award in the New Buildings category. ==Sport==